Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz was charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity before the ICC in 2018 for his alleged role in mass torture, rape, sexual slavery, and other atrocities, while the leader of Ansar Eddine and its short-lived Sharia state in Mali in 2012. After four years of trial proceedings, the prosecution, …
Al Hassan blog symposium – Complicity in Torture and the ICC Read More »
In March 2023, ISIS (also known at ISIL and daesh) was listed as the world’s most deadly terror group for an eighth consecutive year. This is something we all should be concerned about; but equally worrying — and perhaps even the larger threat — is how quickly and completely the group has fallen off the …
Threats Unseen: Why violent extremism must not be forgotten in the New Agenda for Peace Read More »
“Hasta la vista, baby” Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) The Terminator was maybe the true visionary of our time, as the fear of ‘killer robots’, a recurring theme in fictional pop culture, actually came to life. Known as autonomous weapons systems (AWS) in the legal sphere, their rapid development and spread, especially with the recent increasing popularity …
A Match Made in Hell? The Rise of Autonomous Weapons Use in Non-State Armed Groups Read More »
The respect of international humanitarian law (IHL) by non-state armed groups (NSAGs) is a recurrent concern of the international community. In some cases, NSAGs may not deem themselves bound by IHL since they have not taken part in the creation of these same rules. This is why other means or strategies must be taken into …
Non-State armed groups (NSAGs) are commonly viewed in a negative light due to the legal ambiguities they bring in various areas. Particularly in non-international armed conflicts, these groups are often depicted as obstructive forces capable of impeding humanitarian operations. Nevertheless, it has been shown that States, too, have utilised the blockage of humanitarian assistance intended for territories …
In two recent blog posts regarding humanitarian assistance in the aftermath of the earthquake in Türkiye and northwest Syria, the expectations between law and reality has set two different positions on the matter. On the one hand, Jelena Pejichas argued that under International Humanitarian Law (‘IHL’), humanitarian aid, besides the facts that it needs to be impartial, …
In Spring 2023, I taught a short four-session (1 hr 45 mins each) course entitled Armed Groups and International Law in which the assessment type was legal blogging. The course fits into our capita selecta period of teaching on the public international law LLM at Utrecht. During this period, students are able to choose five …
The case of Prosecutor v Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mahomed Ag Mahmoud at the International Criminal Court (ICC) is precedent-setting for the ICC’s Office of the Prosecutor: it is the first case in which the crime against humanity of persecution on gender grounds has been litigated by the ICC, and the ICC is the first …
Gendered Crime as a Central Focus in the ICC’s Al-Hassan Case Read More »
1. Introduction The Al Hassan case is the first-ever case before an international (or hybrid) criminal tribunal dealing with the war crime of sentencing or execution without due process. Mr Al Hassan is charged with the crime as an accomplice under Article 25(3)(2)(d) and/or (c) of the Statute for his alleged involvement, as an important member of the Islamic Police, …
On 25 May, the Defence finished their closing statements in the Al Hassan case at the International Criminal Court (ICC). The case relates to acts committed during the nine months of 2012 and 2013 that Ansar Dine and Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AD/AQMI) controlled Timbuktu. The case stems from a self-referral by Mali in July 2012 …
Petite Sardine or Big Fish? Rebel Governance and the ICC Al Hassan Trial Read More »