War Crimes

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In this pool photograph distributed by Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin (R) greets US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff (L) prior to their talks in Moscow on April 25, 2025. (Photo by KRISTINA KORMILITSYNA/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Why a Ukraine-Russia Amnesty Would Violate Geneva Convention Obligations

An amnesty in any future peace plan would be unlawful and a moral abdication of the pursuit of accountability for victims in Russia's war in Ukraine.
A member of the Ukrainian army and a policeman stand near body bags exhumed from a mass grave where civilians where buried in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, on April 13, 2022, amid Russia's military invasion launched on Ukraine. - A visit by the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor to Bucha -- the Kyiv suburb now synonymous with scores of atrocities against civilians discovered in areas abandoned by Russian forces -- came as the new front of the war shifts eastward, with new allegations of crimes inflicted on locals. (Photo by FADEL SENNA/AFP via Getty Images)

History and International Law Proscribe Amnesties for Russian War Crimes

Compromising on prosecutions for Russian atrocities would erode the system of international justice built since Nuremberg and undermine the rule of law itself.

Unlawful Orders and Killing Shipwrecked Boat Strike Survivors: An Expert Backgrounder

An expert backgrounder on the reported Hegseth "no quarter" order to kill everyone aboard a suspected drug boat in the Caribbean on Sept. 2.
A collage of images featuring scenes from the Russia - Ukraine War.

Just Security’s Russia–Ukraine War Archive

A catalog of over 100 articles (many with Ukrainian translations) on the Russia Ukraine War -- law, diplomacy, policy options, and more.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko (L) shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) during the Great Heritage - Common Future Forum, a Russian-Belarusian meeting, dedicated to the anniversary of the Battle of Stalingrad on April 29, 2025 in Volgograd, Russia. Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko are having a joint visit to Volgograd, former Stalingrad, marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. (Photo by Contributor/Getty Images)

Memorandum for Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression Committed Against Ukraine

James Goldston and Esti Tambay present their organization's work, a Memorandum supporting efforts to hold officials accountable for the crime of aggression against Ukraine.
People react as they gather close to a mass grave in the town of Bucha, just northwest of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on April 3, 2022.

Russia’s Eliminationist Rhetoric Against Ukraine: A Collection

Updated with new analysis of how key words, phrases, and themes appear to express intent to eliminate Ukraine or Ukrainians as a nation-state, people, or culture.
The US Navy warship USS Sampson (DDG 102) docks at the Amador International Cruise Terminal in Panama City on September 02, 2025. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on September 1, 2025, that eight US military vessels with 1,200 missiles were targeting his country, which he declared to be in a state of "maximum readiness to defend" itself. (Photo by MARTIN BERNETTI/AFP via Getty Images)

Asserting a License to Kill: Why the Caribbean Strike is a Dangerous Departure from the “War on Terror”

An absence of credible legal basis for the Caribbean strike suggests the Trump admin is asserting a prerogative to kill outside the law.
A wounded resident of a damaged apartment building is treated by medics

Protecting Health Care in Conflict: Lessons from Ukraine for a Global Roadmap

The international community can learn from the Russia-Ukraine War to curb attacks against health care and ensure justice for victims.

Manifestly Illegal: Israeli International Law Scholars on the Stated Plan to “Concentrate” the Palestinian Population in South Gaza

Israeli international law scholars send urgent letter to Israel’s Minister of Defense, the IDF Chief of Staff, the Attorney General.
Families and local residents pay their respects, offer prayers, and attach flowers to a truck carrying the coffins of seven newly identified victims of the Srebrenica genocide, as it departs for the Srebrenica-Potocari Memorial Center on July 9, 2025 in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. 2025 marks the 30th anniversary of the end of the Bosnian War, and July 11th is the anniversary of the Srebrenica Massacre. On that day in 1995, Bosnian Serb forces captured the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica, then a U.N.-protected enclave. They began killing over 8,000 Muslim men and boys (Bosniaks) in what became known as the Srebrenica Massacre. The bodies were found in mass graves after the war had ended, and in 2004, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) defined the killings as genocide. (Photo by Pierre Crom/Getty Images)

Thirty Years After the Srebrenica Genocide: Remembrance and the Global Fight Against Denial

The 30th anniversary of the Srebrenica Genocide is not only a historical point, but also a marker in an ongoing war against denial -- of that and so many other atrocities.

The Lost Archive: France’s Highest Court Should Follow WWII-Era Rejection of Head of State Immunity

Newly revealed records of European States' criminal indictments of Hitler should shape how courts and tribunals think of the international law on "head of state immunity" for international…

Our Duty to Explain Israel’s Operation to “Concentrate and Move Population” in Gaza is a Manifest War Crime

We wrote this essay to fulfill our human, conscientious, and civic duty, as Israelis – and as Zionists – who have expertise in areas related to the IDF’s order.
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