JusticeInfo Comment and Debate

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Justice Info is more than just an information site on international justice; it is also a forum for debate, in a variety of forms. Interviews, opinion articles, podcasts... Experts give us their analyses, comments and perspectives.

No way but forward for transitional justice in South Sudan

6 May 2025 by David K. Deng

South Sudan is feared to be on the brink of civil war. And yet it has recently adopted two ambitious laws for a truth commission and a reparations program. David Deng explains why transitional justice could help the country.

The Carter Camp Memorial that commemorates a massacre during the civil war in the early 1990s.

Liberia’s War and Economic Crimes Court is losing steam

2 May 2025 by Aaron Weah

On 30 April, Liberian President Joseph Boakai renewed his decree establishing the Office of the Tribunal for War Crimes and Economic Crimes. But obstacles have been mounting.

Searching for the missing in Syria. Photo: portrait of Karla Quintana wearing the official IIMP waistcoat in the field.

Looking for the missing in Syria: “It’s titanic, but we are moving”

24 April 2025 by Julia Crawford

Mexican human rights lawyer Karla Quintana was appointed in December to head the UN’s Institution on Missing Persons in Syria. In an exclusive interview, she talked with Justice about how this body had to reshape its priorities after the fall of Bashar al-Assad.

British soldiers from the Royal Air Force conduct a patrol outside Kandahar Air Field, Afghanistan.

Afghanistan: investigations, a bit of truth but no justice

17 April 2025 by Asymmetrical Haircuts

Investigations on war crimes in Afghanistan initiated in the UK, Australia, Netherlands, are producing limited results. To try and find out why, our partners at Asymmetrical Haircuts have invited in this new podcast Iain Overton, Thijs Bouwknegt, Ben Saul, and Rachel Reid.

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In Guinea, Head of State Mamadi Doumbouya has promised reparations for the victims of the 28 September 2009 massacre, but he has also pardoned the main defendant in the trial: Moussa Dadis Camara. Why did he do this? Photo: Assembly of portraits of Doumbouya and Camara in military garb.

14 April 2025 by Abdourahmane Bah

‘We must not drain a historic trial of all its sap’ What political factors explain the Guinean State's decision to compensate the victims of the 2009 Conakry stadium massacre and to pardon Captain Moussa Dadis Camara? Political scientist Kabinet Fofana explains.

Women and children in Sudan

3 April 2025 by Asymmetrical Haircuts

Sexual Violence in Sudan Sudan’s civil has devastated the country. An estimated 10,000 people were killed and more than six million displaced. There has also been widespread sexual violence. “It’s beyond dire situations,” says Hala Al-Karib.

Sexual violence in the Catholic Church in Africa. Photo: Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo celebrates mass in a church in Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of Congo).

31 March 2025 by Clémentine Méténier

Sexual violence in the Church: the African taboo How can the taboo on sexual violence in the Catholic Church in Africa be broken? French priest and psychotherapist Stéphane Joulain, a member of the White Fathers, spoke to Justice Info about the “African silence”.

Representatives and dignitaries of Syrian communities attend a two-day national dialogue conference in Damascus (Syria)

27 March 2025 by Asymmetrical Haircuts

Seeking justice in Syria: the advantages of the Assad regime Trying to figure out the landscape of mass crimes justice initiatives on Syria, after the fall of former president Bashar el-Assad, can only be an uncertain prediction game. In this podcast, Uğur Üngör talks about what we know.

The former President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, appears before the International Criminal Court (ICC) by videoconference. Photo: in the foreground, Duterte's lawyer, in the background, Duterte himself projected onto a video screen.

25 March 2025 by Lucy Gaynor

Duterte’s arrest: the ICC Prosecutor’s performative paradox Now that former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is in the box before the International Criminal Court, academic Lucy Gaynor explains the paradox of this apparent performance for a Court in trouble.

Colombia, victim of the USAID funding freeze due to the policies of Donald Trump and Elon Musk. Photo: Musk, dressed all in black, proudly displays a T-shirt bearing the words ‘DOGE’ (acronym for the US Department of Government Efficiency).

14 March 2025 by Braeden Garrett + Tomasina Pearman + Clara Whitney

Can USAID’s funding freeze put Colombia’s peace process at risk? Colombia’s fragile peace process faces one of its greatest challenges since the 2016 Peace Accord between the Government of Colombia and the FARC guerrilla: for years, USAID has been the single largest provider of humanitarian fun [...]

Former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte was arrested in Manila following an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC). Photo: Duterte is sworn in during a Senate enquiry into the war on drugs waged under his administration, in Manila, on 28 October 2024.

13 March 2025 by Tom Smith

The ICC has got Duterte, what will the Philippines get? On March 12, former Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte was handed over to the International Criminal Court. His arrest comes in the context of a pro-West seduction campaign, from which Manila expects protection from China, expl [...]

US President Donald Trump speaks during an address to a joint session of Congress in the House Chamber of the US Capitol in Washington

7 March 2025 by Asymmetrical Haircuts

The US against the world order Our partners at Asymmetrical Haircuts were in a post-punk witty mood when they released this new and timely podcast. They played with Joy Division’s cult song and called this program: “Law Will Tear U.S. Apart Again.” That was a g [...]

Is the International Criminal Court sufficiently involved to try those responsible for the violent police crackdowns on opposition demonstrators in 2024? Photo: Members of the security forces (on motorbikes) arrest a demonstrator in a street in Caracas.

4 March 2025 by Tamara Taraciuk Broner

The ICC has a chance in Venezuela, it must take it The option of “positive complementarity” between the International Criminal Court and Venezuelan authorities has shown its limits, argues human rights lawyer Tamara Taraciuk Broner. Now is the time for the ICC prosecutor to take a [...]

Parents and peers of killed or missing students during a press conference on October 6, 2014 in Ayotzinapa, Mexico. Authorities discovered over the weekend six adjoining pits containing 28 bodies, some badly burned and in pieces, on a hill outside the Guerrero state city of Iguala, where the students were last seen.

27 February 2025 by Asymmetrical Haircuts

Enforced disappearances in Mexico On the night of September 26, 2014, 43 students disappeared from the Ayotzinapa Rural Normal School in the state of Guerrero, approximately 300 km south of Mexico City. Initially, the state authorities said they were abducted and [...]

The deposed former Gambian dictator Yahya Jammeh found refuge in Equatorial Guinea in 2017. Could he return to Gambia to face trial? Photo: Teodoro Obiang, President of Equatorial Guinea.

27 February 2025 by Lucas Olo Fernandes

Equatorial Guinea and Jammeh’s equation The prospect of trying former Gambian dictator Yahya Jammeh has grown bigger with the plan of a tribunal supported by the regional political organization ECOWAS. But there’s a snag: how to get him out of his protected exile in Equ [...]

Justice in Syria. Portrait (drawing) of Nadim Houry, international lawyer.

25 February 2025 by Franck Petit

Justice in Syria should be “a new social contract” Two months after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s ouster, director of the Arab Reform Initiative Nadim Houry explores the possibilities for transitional justice. In his view, “civil peace without justice is inconceivable today” [...]

International law as seen from Israel. Photo: Members of the family of Naor Hassisim (murdered by Hamas on 7 October 2023) at his funeral in Israel.

21 February 2025 by Pierre Hazan

“A just war does not justify all means” Yaël Vias Gvirsman is a lawyer specializing in international humanitarian law and is founder of October 7 Justice Without Borders. She represents over 350 victims of Hamas, including 44 mainly Israeli hostages or former hostages, [...]

Raji Sourani, a Palestinian human rights lawyer, talks to Justice Info about the situation in the Gaza Strip (Palestine) and international law, following Donald Trump's statements. Photo: Sourani looks out of his office window.

14 February 2025 by Pierre Hazan

“I hope Gaza won’t be the graveyard of international law” On February 12, 2025, leading Palestinian human rights lawyer Raji Sourani [read bio below] talked to Justice Info, reacting to President Donald Trump’s declarations on Gaza and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s thr [...]

Antoine Garapon, French magistrate and head of the Commission for Recognition and Reparation for sexual crimes committed in the Church, advocates restorative justice. illustration: portrait of Garapon.

11 February 2025 by Clémentine Méténier

“Restorative justice is the very soul of justice” Are restorative processes, like those in France dealing with Church abuse, the future in dealing with crimes that courts cannot judge? This is the plea made by French magistrate Antoine Garapon, who heads the Recognition and Repar [...]