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Towards a Fit-for-Purpose International Drug Control System

The Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) is the United Nations commission with primary responsibility for the application of the three drug conventions. At its 68th session in 2025, it adopted Resolution 68/6 on the establishment of an independent expert panel to review the implementation of those three conventions, along with other international drug policy commitments. The aim: to provide governments with a set of recommendations on enhancing the effectiveness of the international drug policy regime. This panel was put forward by a resolution tabled by Colombia, approved by 30 countries, with 18 abstentions and 3 against (out of 53 CND members in total). It brings forward extensive expectations of governments, other UN entities, and civil society, all concerned with the shortcomings of the international drug control regime to date. According to the latest 2024 reported data, 331 million people worldwide used drugs, an increase of 34% in a decade. People with problematic drug use reached 63 million people.

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A Third Category of Enforced Disappearance? The Committee on Enforced Disappearances’ Article 34 Resolution on Mexico

In April 2026, the Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED) adopted a resolution under Article 34 of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (hereinafter “the Convention”) and urgently brought the matter before the UN General Assembly.  Article 34 empowers the CED to bring a situation to the attention of…

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Red lines in a grey zone: the validity of a Russia-Ukraine peace treaty under international law

While peace still appears remote, the prospect of a negotiated end to the war in Ukraine raises difficult questions concerning the international law governing inter-state peace treaties. The unlawfulness of Russia’s use of force and the peace plans proposed to date point to issues of validity, particularly under Articles 46, 52 and 53 of the Vienna Convention…

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A Framework for the Weight of Treaty Body Output: The ICJ’s Right to Strike Advisory Opinion

On 21 May 2026, the International Court of Justice delivered its advisory opinion on the right to strike under ILO Convention No. 87, holding by ten votes to four that the right is protected by that instrument. The Opinion clarifies a long-running issue between workers’ and employers’ groups. But it is also significant as a methodological…

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We Need A Global War Powers Resolution

The times has come to do something about the scourge of war. It is shocking that, in the twenty-first century, the interacting of the minds of two men could cause a world war affecting all human beings everywhere. Despite the notoriously impulsive nature of their personalities, much analysed by commentators, these two men could have known…

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