Under President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s leadership, the Sri Lankan civil war reached a brutal conclusion on May 18, 2009, ending a 25-year-long conflict between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a separatist rebel group. Rooted in longstanding grievances, including discriminatory policies against Sri Lanka’s Tamil minority, the conflict saw the [...]
Search Results for: 2009-01-30
Explainer: The Israel-Hamas War and the International Criminal Court
The current conflict engulfing Israel and Palestine raises significant issues of international law and policy. This is part one in an anticipated two-part series that will discuss some of the relevant legal questions before the International Criminal Court (ICC; Part I) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ; Part II). With both courts located in [...]
Peru constitutional court affirms ex-president pardon despite international court ruling
The Peru constitutional court moved Wednesday to affirm a 2017 pardon granting the release of ex-President Alberto Fujimori despite an Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) ruling that required the release be blocked. Fujimori was convicted in 2009 and sentenced to the maximum term of 25 years for various war crimes and corruption during his [...]
Gabon soldiers announce coup after release of disputed election results
A group of Gabonese soldiers announced on public television Wednesday that they had seized control of the country and canceled the results of its 2023 presidential election, just after incumbent President Ali Bongo was declared the winner amid claims of electoral fraud. The soldiers, part of the newly formed Committee for the Transition and Restoration [...]
It is a dangerous time to be a judge in America. Retired Wisconsin judge John Roemer was killed at his home in June 2022. That same month, US Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh narrowly avoided a kidnapping and possible assassination attempt. These incidents follow in the wake of an assassination attempt on U.S. District Court [...]
Searching For Answers Amid Enforced Disappearances of Pakistan's Balochi People
In late August, Pakistani publisher and human rights activist Faheem Baloch was detained by unidentified plain-clothes law enforcement officers in his Karachi bookshop and ushered away. A native of the Balochistan region of Pakistan, the publisher is known to be a dedicated cultural advocate, heading up a publishing house specializing in Balochi literature, and serving [...]
Introduction: “Climate Change Crisis as a Child Crisis” On October 11, the UN Child Rights Committee (the Committee) ruled on a historic communications procedure brought forward by 16 children (plaintiffs) against Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany and Turkey for failing to prevent and mitigate the consequences of climate change (Nos. 104-108/2019). Although the State parties have [...]
Virginia's new governor rescinds mask and vaccine mandates for schools, state employees on first day
Glenn Youngkin, Virigina’s first Republican governor to win statewide office since 2009, signed 11 executive orders on his first day that include banning “critical race theory” and rescinding vaccine mandates for state employees. In his inauguration speech Saturday, Youngkin mentioned education as his policy priority. He promised to raise standards of education and teacher pay, and stated [...]
US President Donald Trump granted Tuesday full pardons to 15 individuals and commuted part or entire sentences of another five individuals. Among those pardoned are George Papadopoulos and Alex van der Zwaan, both convicted of making false statements to the FBI as part of the Mueller investigation. The White House emphasized that these were “process-related crimes” and [...]
Extrajudicial Killings in India: Rule of Law v. Police Impunity
Extrajudicial killings are acts of violence carried out by law enforcement agencies without any judicial authorization. This is usually done by the state to enforce what may be called ‘instant justice’ by circumventing the elaborate procedure established through the criminal justice system. Even though it must be seen as an aberration to the well-entrenched principle [...]