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.

Destruction at Evin prison’s after Israeli air strikes, in Tehran (Iran).

The right to self-defence: a growing phenomenon?

4 July 2025 by Asymmetrical Haircuts

“Our time, unlike during the Cold War, have seen a big broadening of the right to self-defence,” argues Samuel Moyn, professor of law and history at Yale University in this new Assymmetrical Haircuts podcast on how states grant themselves the right to break the law.

Bombing hospitals and International Humanitarian Law (IHL) - Photo : Hospital staff walk in the corridor of a hospital destroyed by an Israeli missile shell, in the Gaza Strip (Palestine).

Bombing hospitals: an increasing violation of IHL

27 June 2025 by Asymmetrical Haircuts

Never before have hospitals and healthcare workers been so targeted in conflicts. In this new podcast, our partners at Asymmetrical Haircuts asked Cordula Droege, Chief Legal Officer at the ICRC, to explain why and how IHL provides hospitals with the highest level of protection.

Truth tents in Syria - Photo: in Eastern Ghouta (south-east of Damascus), a tent houses portraits of the disappeared while Syrians (often mothers accompanied by their children) speak out and seek the truth about the enforced disappearance and torture suffered by their loved ones.

Truth tents: “Talking about what Syrians need right now”

27 June 2025 by Hannah El-Hitami

In post-Assad Syria, the “truth tents” offer a space for victims’ families to discuss truth and justice. Jad al-Hamada, one of the truth tents’ initiators, speaks to Justice Info about the demand for transitional justice in Syria.

Aggression by Israel and the United States in Iran - Photo: portrait of a victim of an Israeli attack in a street in Tehran (Iranian flag and veiled woman walking while looking at her smartphone).

How the aggression against Iran has been normalised

26 June 2025 by Alannah Travers

To understand the justifications given for Israeli and American strikes against Iran, one must look at Iraq and Syria, where a permissive environment for the crime of aggression we are witnessing today was modeled, explains Alannah Travers.

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Enforced disappearances in Syria: a commission is set up - Photo: a man and a child in front of a billboard displaying portraits of missing persons.

24 June 2025 by Mustafa Haid

Syria’s Missing Persons Commission and the Risk of Marginalization (Part 2) The new Syrian authorities have established two commissions tasked with addressing past violence. What are the challenges faced by the Missing Persons Commission?

Transitional justice in Syria - Photo: Abdul Basit Abdul Latif, Head of the Syrian National Commission for Transitional Justice

23 June 2025 by Mustafa Haid

Syria's Transitional Justice Commission and the Peril of Partiality (Part 1) The new Syrian authorities have established two commissions tasked with addressing past violence. What are the challenges facing the transitional justice commission?

Russian aggression in Ukraine. Photo: Russian servicemen patrol the destroyed part of the Ilyich Iron and Steel Works in Ukraine's port city of Mariupol on May 18, 2022, amid the ongoing Russian military action in Ukraine.

19 June 2025 by Asymmetrical Haircuts

Talking about aggression This podcast discusses two topics: a special tribunal created to address Russia’s aggression war against Ukraine; and a coming session in New York to review the scope of the crime of aggression at the International Criminal Court.

Why Hungary quits the International Criminal Court (ICC) Photo: The Shoes by the Danube is a memorial dedicated to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust in Budapest on the banks of the Danube in Hungary.

12 June 2025 by Alannah Travers

Why Hungary quits the ICC On May 20, Hungary officially announced its withdrawal from the International Criminal Court. But the Israel/Palestine issue is only part of the picture. The European Union is also a target, warns Alannah Travers.

Ocean and marine law. Photo: A whale jumps in the open sea.

6 June 2025 by Marine Calmet

What if the ocean had rights? The ocean, which covers 70% of the Earth's surface, remains a legal ‘no man's land’ where marine creatures have no rights of their own. The United Nations Ocean Conference, which opens on 9 June, could help change the law.

In Gaza, Darfur and elsewhere, the international definition of genocide, as set out in the 1948 Genocide Convention (which is particularly restrictive), has rarely met the victims' expectations of justice in recent conflicts. Photo: Displaced Palestinians returning to the war-torn Jabalia refugee camp in the north of the Gaza Strip, 19 January 2025.

27 May 2025 by Alannah Travers

Gaza, Darfur: What’s the point of the Genocide Convention? From Sudan to Palestine, Bosnia, Myanmar and Iraq, the restrictive international definition of genocide has allowed little more than another form of selectively deployed lawfare.

Karim Khan, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), is accused of sexual misconduct. Photo : Khan manipulates an earpiece in his ear.

20 May 2025 by Asymmetrical Haircuts

How Khan dramatic decision questions the ICC as an institution Prosecutor Karim Khan dramatic decision to step aside, was announced on Friday, May 16, by the International Criminal Court (ICC). This new podcast from Asymmetrical Haircuts covers the many questions faced by the institution.

Litograph showing 3 judges in period costumes (1845-1858) arguing.

13 May 2025 by Lucy Gaynor

A UN Judge convicted for slavery: power, politics and privilege That the feeling of power and impunity leads to abuse is a recognised dynamic. It can also affect the staff of judicial institutions responsible for judging the worst crimes, as shown by the case of Ugandan judge Lydia Mugambe, who has just been convicted of slavery.

Rohingya women from Myanmar, in Bangladesh.

9 May 2025 by Asymmetrical Haircuts

How Argentina deals with sexual crimes against the Rohingya An Argentine court ordered arrest warrants against Myanmar’s military leadership for genocide against the Rohingya community. But why do we need Argentina when several international institutions are already involved?

6 May 2025 by David K. Deng

No way but forward for transitional justice in South Sudan 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.

2 May 2025 by Aaron Weah

Liberia’s War and Economic Crimes Court is losing steam 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.

24 April 2025 by Julia Crawford

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

17 April 2025 by Asymmetrical Haircuts

Afghanistan: investigations, a bit of truth but no justice 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.

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.