News updates
(For older news updates, please visit our news archive.)
22 March 2023: The United Nations office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has reported that systematic, widespread and gross human rights violations have been committed in Belarus in relation to the 2020 presidential election, some of which may amount to crimes against humanity.
21 March 2023: A Croatian court has sentenced in absentia the former head of the Yugoslav intelligence unit, Aleksandar Vasiljevic, to 20 years imprisonment for war crimes committed against civilians and prisoners of war in the 1991 Croatian war.
20 March 2023: A former soldier in the Australian military has been arrested for allegedly committing a war crime by killing an Afghan man while being deployed, following an investigation into war crimes committed by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan.
17 March 2023: The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants against Russian President Vladimir Putin and children’s commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova, over allegations of criminal responsibility for the war crimes of deportation and unlawful transfer of Ukranian children to Russia.
16 March 2023: A United Nations investigative commission has determined that Russia has committed war crimes on a massive scale in Ukraine, including the forced transfer and deportation of Ukrainian children, and may also have committed acts of crimes against humanity.
14 March 2023: The International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals has suspended the trial of Félicien Kabuga, who stands accused of being a financier of the Rwandan genocide, on the grounds of health issues.
13 March 2023: The United Nations Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture has called for South Africa to urgently establish a national preventive mechanism to examine places of detention and enact legislative measures to comply with its international obligations to prevent torture, following its first visit to the country.
10 March 2023: Experts from the United Nations have expressed alarm at reports that the Wagner Group has recruited prisoners serving sentences in Russian correctional facilities to participate in the war in Ukraine, by offering criminal pardons, payments, as well as through threats and intimidation.
New cases, briefs and videos
(For older announcements, please visit our announcements archive.)
NEW BRIEF: A new ICD brief is available on the International Crimes Database, titled: "Ëcocide: The Environment as Victim at the International Criminal Court", authored by Dr. Giovanna Frisso. This brief is part of the ICD Ecocide Brief Series.
NEW CASE: Case analysis of the appeals judgment in the Eshetu Alemu case (The Hague Court of Appeal, June 2022) is now online. It can be accessed here.
NEW VIDEO: A new video is available online. On 14 December 2022, the T.M.C. Asser Instituut organised this Supranational Criminal Law (SCL) lecture, titled “Environmental harm and international criminal law” featuring Matthew Gillett, Rosario Salvatore Aitala, Larissa van den Herik, Daniëlla Dam-de Jong and Stavros Evdokimos Pantazopoulos. The video is available here.
NEW BRIEF: A new ICD Brief is available on the International Crimes Database entitled: "Prosecution of Ecocide as a Weapon in Armed Conflict: Reflections on Crimea", by Prof. Borys Babin and Dr. Oleksii Plotnikov. This Brief is part of the ICD Ecocide Brief Series.
NEW BRIEF: A new ICD Brief is available on the International Crimes Database entitled "Ecocide and the End of the Anthropocene: An Ecocentric Critique of the (Failed) Developments of an International Crime of Ecocide", by Clémentine Dècle-Classen. This Brief is part of the ICD Ecocide Brief Series. NEW BRIEF: A new ICD Brief is available on the International Crimes Database entitled "The Crime of Ecocide Through Human Rights: A New Tool for Climate Justice", by Lisa Oldring and Kate Mackintosh. This Brief is part of the ICD Ecocide Brief Series.
NEW VIDEO: A new video is available online. On 19 May 2022, Leiden University organised this Supranational Criminal Law (SCL) lecture, titled “Is Universal Jurisdiction Becoming more Universal? Taking Stock of Contemporary Practices” featuring Ms. Natalie von Wistinghausen, Dr. Priya Pillai and Dr. Thijs Bouwknegt. The video is available here.
NEW CASES: Case analysis of the summary of the judgment in the Husayn (Abu Zubaydah) v. Poland case (July, 2014) is now online. It can be accessed here.
NEW CASES: Case analysis of the summary of the judgment in the Abu Zubaydah v. Lithuania case (May, 2018) is now online. It can be accessed here.