Genocide

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A litmus test for international justice: If not for the Yazidis, then for whom?

March 17, 2023

Yazidi tradition recounts that, before the Daesh attack in 2014, the Yazidis had suffered seventy-two large-scale persecutions in their history. To a large extent, in the past, they faced these attacks alone, with little hope of external support. But given that the 2014 genocide took place in the age of international justice – the age of the Rome Statute – will things be any different this time round? The word “genocide” has different legal and sociological meanings. It carries a moral and social stigma and is often deployed by various advocacy groups to draw attention to their plight. However, in the case of the Yazidis, the characterisation “genocide” – in its narrow, legal sense – is correct. In January 2023, the German Federal Court of Justice confirmed the first-ever conviction of a Daesh fighter for genocide against the Yazidis. And in his final briefing to the United Nations Security Council, Karim Khan KC, the former Special Adviser of the UN Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da’esh/Islamic State…

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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

March 7, 2023

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…

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Prosecuting Atrocity Crimes Committed in Northern Ethiopia: The Need for Special National Prosecution Mechanism

April 4, 2022

Over the last four years, serious human rights violations and abuses, have been committed in Ethiopia in and outside of the context of an armed conflict. These violations may constitute international crimes, such as crimes against humanity, war crimes and torture. The situation particularly worsened and garnered international attention after an armed conflict broke out in Tigray on…

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The War of Aggression Against Ukraine, Cultural Property and Genocide: Why it is Imperative to Take a Close Look at Cultural Property

March 21, 2022

For too long, a great deal of energy has been invested in trying to decipher obscure statements made by Vladimir Putin (a true “masterclass of disinformation”: Åslund 2021; cf. Kappeler 2021). Now that Putin has started a war of aggression against Ukraine, it is high time that we take his denials of Ukrainian statehood and…

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ICJ Indicates Provisional Measures Against Russia, in a Near Total Win for Ukraine; Russia Expelled from the Council of Europe

March 16, 2022

This afternoon the International Court of Justice, by 13 votes to 2, issued its order on provisional measures in the case brought by Ukraine against Russia under the Genocide Convention. The Court essentially accepted all of the arguments made by Ukraine for the purposes of the provisional measures stage of the proceeding, and rejected those…

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