A woman wrapped in the Ukrainian flag shouts through a megaphone during a demonstration in front of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, in March 2022.
(AP Photo/Phil Nijhuis)
The International Criminal Court’s charges against Vladimir Putin are likely to have a minimal impact on him, but it does signal that wartime atrocities have consequences — and the world is watching.
The Genocide Convention says the forced transfer of children could constitute genocide if the intent was to destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.
Dangerous war games, such as the Russian interception of a US drone over the Black Sea, have the potential to trigger real conflict. But there is no international law governing such behaviour.
Thousands of teddy bears with candles on display at a protest in Brussels in February 2023 represented abducted Ukrainian children.
Nicolas Maeterlinck/Belga MAG/AFP via Getty Images
The International Criminal Court issued its first arrest warrants for Russians allegedly responsible for war crimes in Ukraine.
A U.S. surveillance drone flies over the USS Coronado in the Pacific Ocean during an April 2021 drill.
U.S. Navy/Chief Mass Communication Specialist Shannon Renfroe
International law states that states have to operate ‘due regard’ for the right of nations to fly drones above international waters. Washington claims Russia violated this standard in incident.
Many genocide classes review the Holocaust or Cambodia’s Killing Fields. A scholar wanted to show that genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing still happen today.
New weapons and technologies have been used on both sides of the conflict. Donors need to be responsible for testing these weapons first to ensure they are in compliance with the laws of war.
Increasingly, the mood in the UK is leaning towards repatriating the Parthenon Marbles.
Justin Norris/Creative Commons
New data from 2000 through 2019 shows that Ukraine’s human rights record is better than Russia’s – but worse than that of its Western European neighbors.
Adriaan Vlok, the late South African apartheid-era police minister.
Paballo Thekiso/ AFP via Getty Images
At least 115 of Indonesia’s islands will be underwater due to a combination of sea level rise and land subsidence. What do these estimates mean to Indonesia’s future as an archipelagic state?
An Orthodox Jewish man looks at photographs of Jews murdered during the Holocaust at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Israel.
David Silverman/Getty Images
Kerry Whigham, Binghamton University, State University of New York
There isn’t one, clear-cut way to prevent genocide. But there are effective methods of prevention that governments can take.
Local residents help exhume the body of a 16-year-old Ukrainian girl, killed by Russian forces, in Kherson, Ukraine in November 2022.
Chris McGrath/Getty Images
Prosecuting a leader like Vladimir Putin accused of war crimes is difficult. But the trial of Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic in the early 2000s offers a potential playbook.
Environmental activists protest against Energy Charter Treaty while its reform is negotiated.
OLIVIER HOSLET/EPA
A new publication clarifies how existing legal frameworks apply to space exploration and development. The McGill Manual also highlights the catastrophic implications of conflict in space.
The re-introduction of an immigration detention bill could bring Australia into compliance with international human rights law.
A Ukrainian war crimes investigator photographs the aftermath of a Russian missile attack in Zatoka, Ukraine, on July 26, 2022.
Nina Liashonok/Ukrinform/Future Publishing via Getty Images
Other recent conflicts that resulted in war crimes allegations help explain how complex it will be to gather evidence of war crimes in Ukraine – and provide answers for families of victims of the war.