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: war crimes
Dr. Asaf Lubin, an Associate Professor of Law at Indiana University Maurer School of Law, brings extensive expertise in international law, cybersecurity, and information warfare. With affiliations at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, Yale Law School’s Information Society Project, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Federmann Cyber Security Research Center, he [...]
DR Congo reinstates death penalty after 21 years amid escalating violence and militant attacks
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on Friday revealed it was lifting a 21-year-moratorium on executions in response to escalating violence and militant attacks, to stop its citizens, as well as active duty military and police, from cooperating with M23 rebels in the country’s eastern regions. The decision to lift the moratorium and reinstate [...]
ECCHR assessment claims Russia attack on Mariupol Theater was a war crime
The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) published Saturday a new legal assessment of the Russian attack on the Mariupol Theater in Ukraine, claiming that the attack was a “war crime” and deliberately done by the Russian Air Force to target Ukrainian civilians who sought refuge in the theater. The Center for Spatial [...]
Russia detains Russian national on suspicion of pro-Ukraine terrorism
The Kaluga Regional Court said Friday that it kept a Russian national suspected of being a member of the “Freedom of Russia” Legion, a paramilitary group of former Russian soldiers who now fight on behalf of Ukraine, in custody for two months on suspicion of terrorism. Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) arrested the unnamed individual. [...]
CIVICUS 2024 Report Highlights Civil Society and Global Rule of Law in Crisis
Civil society is facing unprecedented challenges globally due to escalating conflicts and crises. In 2023, groups that were pivotal in advocating for human rights, offering humanitarian aid and giving a voice to the marginalized encountered increasing difficulties. Their work has become more challenging due to growing repression and conflict, yet they remain beacons of hope [...]
Kyrgyzstan adopts bill modeled after Russia 'foreign agents' law
The Parliament of Kyrgyzstan passed a bill modeled after Russia’s “foreign agents” law on Thursday, increasing the government’s oversight of non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The law will require anyone receiving foreign donations to label themselves a “foreign representative” and follow tighter guidelines when documenting their activities. The bill specifically targets NGOs receiving foreign funding, and it requires [...]
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen announced Wednesday that Denmark plans to draft women into the country’s armed forces for the first time. Under current law, only men are required to register for the draft. Frederiksen cited a desire to achieve “full equality between the sexes” as one of the drivers behind the proposed reform. According [...]
Peru Congress commission advances bill protecting alleged perpetrators of crimes against humanity
The Constitutional Commission of the Peruvian Congress approved Tuesday the report of Bill No. 6951/2023-CR, which establishes that no one can be prosecuted, sentenced or punished for crimes against humanity or war crimes committed before July 1, 2002. As a result, emblematic cases from the period of internal violence in Peru between 1980 and 2000, [...]
DC dispatch: Kurds make pitch for support and recognition at Georgetown panel
Marissa Zupancic is JURIST’s Washington DC Correspondent, a JURIST Senior Editor and a 3L at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. She’s stationed in Washington during her Semester in DC. This week I attended a talk hosted by Georgetown University entitled “Kurds in Iraq, Iran, Syria and Türkiye: At the Epicenter of Conflict in the [...]