On 23 January 2025, the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) before the International Criminal Court (ICC) filed two arrest warrants before the Pre-Trial Chamber II (PTC II), one for the Supreme Leader of the Taliban, Haibatullah Akhundzada, and the other for the Chief Justice of the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan”, Abdul Hakim Haqqani. The OTP filed the warrants of arrest due to their criminal responsibility for the crime against humanity of gender persecution, under Article 7(1)(h) of the Rome Statute.
International Criminal Court
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“No safe haven” is not enough – universal jurisdiction and Russia’s war of aggression
Three years after Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the widespread activation of universal and other forms of extraterritorial jurisdiction to prosecute international crimes committed in the war calls for an evaluation. What has been achieved so far and what could be done better? Despite the stated commitment of Ukraine’s allies to complement the justice efforts in…
Punishing Sanctions: A Call to Arms Against Fortress America
Being an international lawyer can sometimes feel like being a librarian in the middle of a riot. You are deeply invested in the idea that there are rules – impeccable legal rules – that, if followed, would make the world a better, more orderly, place. You clutch well-thumbed and thoroughly annotated copies of the Nicaragua case,…
The failure to arrest and surrender Osama Elmasry Njeem: “That Awful Mess” in Rome
On 21 January 2025, the Court of Appeals of Rome, at the request of the concerned person and with the favorable opinion of the Prosecutor General, issued an order of immediate release in favor of Mr Osama Elmasry Njeem, who had been arrested by the Italian police in Turin the day before,…
The ICC Prosecutor’s Slavery Crimes Policy and Practice Between Conviction and Convenience
In December 2024, the International Criminal Court’s Office of the Prosecutor (‘OTP’ or ‘Prosecutor’) adopted a Slavery Crimes Policy (‘Policy’). The Policy communicates the Prosecutor’s commitment to prioritizing investigations concerning contemporary slavery. It envisions a role for the Prosecutor in curbing slavery crimes through the pursuit of criminal accountability for the crimes within the Court’s…