Articles

Since 15 August 2021, the Taliban Government continues to suppress the progression of women’s basic human rights in Afghanistan, resulting in their systematic oppression as a result of state sponsored crimes against humanity which has also encompassed gender apartheid. Gender apartheid has been defined as the economic and social sexual discrimination against individuals because of their gender or sex. This manifests itself as a system enforced by using either physical or lega

Vladimir Osechkin is a Russian-born human rights activist and founder of Gulagu.net, an NGO that documents and exposes crimes committed by Russian officials and the FSB. In November 2021, Osechkin was placed on a wanted list by the Russian state after leaking a large archive of documents, photos, and videos with hundreds of cases of rape and torture of inmates in Russian prisons directed by prison officials. Since August 2022, Osechkin has urged former Russian soldiers and di

This article explores an uncomfortable reality that locates international humanitarian and development organisations as sometimes unwitting, sometimes witting facilitators of the state crime of genocide and in doing so reveals the stark and sometimes lethal contradictions inherent in the overarching organisational goals and principles to which these organisations adhere. Our focus is on the Burmese/Myanmar Rohingya genocide, and the immediate pressures, moral dilemmas, and in

1. Historical Overview of Wartime Collaboration   In situations of armed conflict, it is almost inevitable that there will be instances of civilians or combatants cooperating with the opposing side. The parties involved in the conflict often attempt to gain an advantage by turning their opponent's people against them. At the same time, individuals may collaborate with the enemy for various reasons, including personal conviction, desperation, or coercion.[1] As historian Gerha

Téa Braun is the Chief Executive of the Human Dignity Trust. She oversees all of the core legal work of the Trust and has been involved in supporting court cases globally that seek to decriminalise LGBT people and challenge other discriminatory actions against them. She also spearheaded the Trust’s successful expansion into providing technical legal assistance to governments to reform discriminatory sexual offence laws and enact protective legislation.

Anabela Alves is a Portuguese lawyer having served as Legal Advisor to Chambers at the ICTY and later as Legal Advisor to the Presidency and Chambers at the ICC. She has also worked extensively on advising, training, and capacity building for various national judiciaries. CJLPA :   Thank you for taking the time to interview with the Cambridge Journal of Law, Politics, and Art  to discuss your incredibly influential law career, ranging from work at the International Criminal C

І. Sexual violence as Russia’s weapon in the war against Ukraine: History and the present   On 24 February 2022, Russia launched an open military attack on Ukraine. The Russian troops invaded Ukraine near Kharkiv, Kherson, Chernihiv, and Sumy. As early as the beginning of March 2022, Russian troops occupied several population centres in the Kyiv region, including the town of Bucha. The world became acutely aware of the horrifying atrocities and war crimes committed in Bucha f

Raji Sourani is a Palestinian human rights lawyer and Founder and Director of the Palestinian Centre of Human Rights. He was an Amnesty...

Professor Mark P Denbeaux is an American attorney, professor, and author. He holds the position of Law Professor at Seton Hall University...

An Avenue to Justice for Afghan Women: Bringing a CEDAW Case Before the International Court of Justice[1]   In a tumultuous Afghanistan,...

Anna Gallina is a Legal Consultant at eyeWitness to Atrocities. Julianne Romy formerly worked as a Legal Advisor at eyeWitness to...

Francisco B González Centeno is an officer for the International Criminal Court (ICC) from Buenos Aries, Argentina. He holds an MSc in...

Introduction Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, especially its full-scale unfolding since 2022, has highlighted many important issues...

Johann Soufi is a Franco-Algerian international lawyer and prosecutor, and a former Senior Legal Officer at the United Nations. He has...

Ronald W Meister is a distinguished legal professional serving as Senior Counsel at Cowan, Liebowitz & Latman in New York City. Holding...

Clive Stafford Smith is a British human rights lawyer who has spent his career working against the death penalty in the United States,...

Andrew Clapham is Professor of International Law at the Geneva Graduate Institute, which he joined in 1997. He was the first Director of...

A case for the enhanced pre-sentence report in England and Wales, exploring how the Canadian approach to racially disproportionate...

Thomas B Wilner is the managing partner of Shearman & Sterling's International Trade and Global Relations Practice. In addition to this,...

Introduction An international crime is ‘an act universally recognised as criminal, which is considered a grave matter of international concern and for some valid reason cannot be left within the exclusive jurisdiction of the State that would have control over it under ordinary circumstances’.[1] This essay will firstly examine whether proposed definitions of terrorism as a crime under customary international law should be accepted, and then discuss whether terrorism should fa

Does the law take its own course or is it made to take a certain course? Property cases are notorious for taking forever, but when the crime is murder, i.e., when the state is the prosecutor, and the facts of the case have been ascertained by the most reliable authorities, can justice elude the victim’s families for as long as two or three decades? Or is it made to do so? These questions arise from the way two cases—which should have been front page news but have simply disa

In the 1967 gangster road movie Bonnie and Clyde , the often-horrific events of the real-life story are cut with ingenuous humour and...

Motive is traditionally considered to be an unwelcome guest in criminal trials, a bête noire that should only appear at a sentencing....

1. Introduction The criminal law continues to grapple with the concept of ‘deceptive sex’ and struggles to draw the appropriate parameters around the provisions on consent contained within the Sexual Offences Act 2003 (henceforth, ‘the SOA’). Particularly notable in this regard have been cases involving ‘gender fraud’, wherein the defendant (D) is alleged to have deceived the complainant (V) as to their gender in order to procure sexual relations. This was found to be the cas