Following on the heels of last week’s chemical weapon attack in Syria, Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Bob Corker (R-TN), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), and Todd Young (R-IN) have introduced the Syria War Crimes Accountability Act of 2017, which authorizes the United States to provide technical and other forms of assistance to investigations and other credible transitional justice efforts, including a potential hybrid tribunal.  …   continue »

I have been honored to serve on a bipartisan Experts Committee on Preventing Mass Violence—convened by a coalition of human rights, religious, humanitarian, and peace organizations—for the purpose of generating a set of concrete recommendations around the atrocities prevention imperative for the next administration.…   continue »

Burundi, South Africa, and the Gambia are not violating international law merely by announcing their withdrawal from the Rome Statute that created the International Criminal Court. In accordance with Article 127 of the Rome Statute, they have every right to go.…   continue »

Slowly but surely, over the past two years, the UN and national governments have acknowledged that what the Islamic State is doing to the Yazidi religious minority in Northern Iraq and Syria is genocide. But for all the gravity of that word, genocide continues, daily, hourly, every moment.…   continue »

This is Part III of an international criminal justice round-up covering ten of the top developments in the field this spring and summer. Part I is here and covers the Habré case, the travel of President Al-Bashir of Sudan, and the Open Society Justice Initiative’s report on crimes against humanity in Mexico. …   continue »

The field of international criminal justice has witnessed a number of important developments this spring and summer—enough to merit a proverbial top-ten list. In honor of International Justice Day on July 17^th (whose official tag is #JusticeMatters), this three-part series provides background and analysis of some key judgments, jurisprudential developments, and events.  …   continue »

In a groundbreaking move on March 17, Secretary of State Kerry accused Daesh — another name for the Islamic State — of committing acts of genocide against ethnic and religious groups in areas under its control, including Yezidis, Christians, and Shia Muslims.…   continue »

Last week, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) convicted Radovan Karadžić, the former President of the Republika Srpska and Supreme Commander of the Bosnian Serb army. Specifically, he was found guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes for atrocities committed during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1991 to 1995.…   continue »

Secretary of State John Kerry announced on March 17 that, in his judgment, ISIL is committing genocide against a number of minority groups in Syria and Iraq, including Christians:

Daesh is responsible for genocide against groups in areas under its control, including Yezidis, Christians, and Shia Muslims. 

The US Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) has issued an important and distressing report characterizing violence against the Yezidi people in 2014 in Iraq as amounting to genocide. This is not the first time ISIL’s campaign against this minority group has been deemed a genocide, as I have recounted before.…   continue »