Statement of the ICC Office of the Prosecutor on the conviction of Mr Abd-Al-Rahman
The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court welcomes today’s historic conviction of Mr Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman (also known as Ali Kushayb), a senior leader of the pro-government Janjaweed militia, for war crimes and crimes against humanity. This is the first conviction in the Situation in Darfur, Sudan, and the first in a situation that the UN Security Council referred to the Court. The case also represents the first conviction for gender-based persecution at the Court.
UN Rights Council Creates Afghanistan Accountability Body
The United Nations Human Rights Council on October 6, 2025, adopted a landmark resolution creating an independent mechanism to investigate past and ongoing rights abuses in Afghanistan, Human Rights Watch said today. The resolution puts the Taliban and all others responsible for serious crimes in Afghanistan on notice that evidence is being collected and prepared so they may someday face justice
Wendy Isaack says UN treaty’s definition of apartheid is outdated
A senior South African gender justice and international law fellow, Wendy Isaack, said that while Namibia and other African governments support the inclusion of apartheid in the UN Draft Treaty on Crimes Against Humanity, its current legal definition is outdated.
South Africa’s role in the draft UN Treaty on Crimes Against Humanity
It was August 2023, and I felt I was being transported back to the 1980s, to my childhood in South Africa. Before me lay a sprawling village of tightly packed, squat concrete structures with corrugated metal roofs wending along slender dirt roads. It was my 13th trip to document human rights conditions in and around Israeli-occupied Palestinian Territory in 11 years. On this visit, as I stopped in Palestinian Bedouin communities in al-Naqab, I felt I could have been visiting apartheid-era black townships.
Germany sees sharp rise in Afghan women asylum seekers amid Taliban repression
Germany has reported a sharp increase in asylum applications from Afghan women, driven by worsening conditions under Taliban rule and recent European Union rulings recognizing gender-based persecution, Khaama Press reported.
Under Trump, U.S. returns to treating violence against women as a ‘private matter’
The U.S. has been waffling for decades over whether women have a right to refugee protection when fleeing gender-based violence. Under different administrations, the Department of Justice has established and reversed precedents, issued and repealed rulings. But the latest flip-flop by the Trump administration is not just another toggle between rules.
Bennett Backs People’s Tribunal Seeking Accountability for Taliban’s Gender Persecution
The UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, has welcomed the launch of the People’s Tribunal centering testimony of victims and survivors of gender-based persecution by the Taliban as a key step toward accountability.
Judge Bars Trump Administration From Punishing 2 Law Professors for I.C.C. Work
A federal judge on Wednesday permanently barred the Trump administration from imposing penalties on two law professors over their involvement with the International Criminal Court, finding that the threat violated their First Amendment rights.
ICC issues warrant for Taliban’s supreme leader for persecution of women
The international criminal court has issued arrest warrants for two senior Taliban leaders, accusing them of crimes against humanity for the persecution of women and girls.
Open-Source Information Provides Powerful Evidence of Gender Crimes in Iran and Beyond
A smartphone focuses on people clustered on a dark road, backlit by streetlights and sheltered by skinny trees. The group is protesting as part of the Woman, Life, Freedom movement in Iran, which began in 2022 after Mahsa Amini, a young Iranian woman, died in police custody. The protesters are demanding fundamental political change, greater recognition of women’s rights, and an end to the violent enforcement of hijab laws by the Islamic Republic of Iran.