Crimes Against Humanity

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New universal jurisdiction case filed in Germany for crimes committed in Myanmar before and after the coup: On complementarity, effectiveness, and new hopes for old crimes

A few days before the second anniversary of the ‘failed coup’ in Myanmar, a case was filed in Germany against senior Myanmar military generals and ‘other actors’ identified in the complaint for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. It was filed under universal jurisdiction enshrined in the German Code of Crimes against International Law (Völkerstrafgesetzbuch - VStGB) by the Thailand-based NGO Fortify Rights and 16 victims, including ten Rohingya ‘genocide survivors’ and six civilians belonging to other ethnic groups. The complaint requests the German Federal Prosecutor to open a structural investigation on allegations of crimes committed against the Rohingya people between 2016 and 2017, and against other civilians since the coup of February 1, 2021, and is the first-ever to address the full range of allegations to date. This post discusses how this latest initiative contributes to effective justice and accountability.

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Nicaragua: Expatriation as an Aggravated Form of Political Persecution

In an unprecedented move in the modern history of international law, Nicaragua has stripped more than 300 dissident citizens of their nationality in the last two weeks. 222 of these citizens were deported to the United States on 9 February (see here), with the Managua Appeals Court (Tribunal de Apelaciones) removing their nationality the day…

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The Law of Immunity and the Prosecution of the Head of State of the Russian Federation for International Crimes in the War against Ukraine

The debate on how to prosecute the international crimes linked to the aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine is ongoing (for example, here, here and here). One of the most prominent aspects of the debate concerns the question of how to prosecute the persons who are allegedly most responsible for such crimes, particularly, the…

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One Year On – Remembering the Al-Khatib Syrian Torture Case and Reflecting on the Documentation of International Crimes Cases in German Courts

One year ago, on 13 January 2022, the Higher Regional Court of Koblenz, Germany, convicted Anwar R, a senior member of the Syrian General Intelligence Service, of at least 4,000 cases of torture, the murder of 27 people and multiple cases of sexual violence as a crime against humanity in the context of the infamous Al-Khatib prison…

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ICC Investigation in Georgia: A Success Story?

The conclusion of the investigation phase in the Situation in Georgia by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has once again brought into the spotlight the often overlooked conflict between Georgia and Russia that took place in August 2008 over the occupied territory of South Ossetia. After months of internal escalation in the breakaway…

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