Sexual violence can be used as a weapon of war. Hamas’ use of sexual violence was likely meant to show its power over Israeli women and girls and to humiliate Israeli men and Israel’s military.
While the Genocide Convention has helped raise awareness and prevent ethnic violence from escalating, it has not stopped many accusations of genocides, including violence in Darfur and in Ukraine.
Who will pay to rebuild Ukraine? Canada is the first to pass a law allowing Russian state assets to be seized to rebuild Ukraine, but will it discourage Russia from ending the war?
Nearly 3,800 educational facilities have been damaged from bombing and shelling thus far in the war. Documenting these attacks requires extensive interviewing with reluctant, traumatised witnesses.
War crimes investigations are long, complex and involve international sensitivities. Nonetheless, there is growing inevitability that there will be prosecutions from the Israel-Gaza war.
After nearly two years of bloody battle, there are signs that both sides are nearing exhaustion and might be prepared, for now, to accept a stalemate and an end to the fighting.
This would send the message the West’s much-vaunted values and respect for rules are little more than rhetoric. It will also legitimise conquest as an option that goes unpunished.
In my analysis of 12,000 Telegram comments posted after the October 7 Hamas attack, I found commenters talking about the two wars as part of the same antisemitic plots.