March 19, 2024

Where is the ICC Prosecutor?

The silence emanating from the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan, is growing louder by the hour. Three full days after Hamas perpetrated atrocities inside Israel and took civilian hostages into Gaza, Khan has made no public statement. This is not the norm for a situation over which the ICC has jurisdiction. Compare, for […]

Facebook Beware

In its public-facing quarterly financial reports, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, labels all countries in Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East as the “Rest of World.” Although one-third of Facebook’s daily active users, 638 million people, live in the “Rest of World,” they do not receive even close to their […]

Prosecuting Putin for Going to War

With Ryan Goodman Russian President Vladimir Putin bears responsibility for many international crimes committed by his forces in Ukraine. But one of these crimes preceded all the others: the crime of aggression. Aggression is the resort to war in violation of the United Nations Charter. And it is a crime that can be committed only […]

The Int’l Criminal Court’s Ukraine Investigation: A Test Case for User-Generated Evidence

The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim A.A. Khan QC, announced Monday that he is opening an investigation into the situation in Ukraine. This will present a test case for the ICC’s ability to absorb and analyze massive amounts of user-generated evidence – evidence recorded on a smartphone by an ordinary citizen – […]

Sudanese Democracy is Hanging in the Balance

On Oct. 25, the head of the Sudanese Armed Forces, Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, seized power from Sudan’s transitional government, established after mass protests in 2019 ousted longtime dictator Omar Hassan al-Bashir. The Sudanese people and the international community promptly condemned Burhan’s coup. Now, an agreement between Burhan and the prime minister of the transitional government, Abdalla […]

Sudan’s Coup is a Gamble That Nobody Will Care

The Sudanese military seized power expecting not to face resistance at home or abroad. That’s wishful thinking. On Monday, the Sudanese military seized power from Sudan’s transitional government. Announcing the coup on state television, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, Sudan’s commander in chief, dissolved the civilian-military power-sharing arrangement in place since the Sudanese people overthrew Omar al-Bashir’s 30-year dictatorship […]

After the Coup in Sudan: Key (Short-Term) Indicators

On Monday morning, the Sudanese military seized power from the transitional government led by Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok, which had been in place since the Sudanese people overthrew long-time dictator Omar al Bashir in 2019. Speaking on state television, military leader Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, declared a state of emergency. He announced the dissolution of the […]

Facebook’s Unconscionable Action in Australia – and What It Means for the Rest of the World

The proposed law that the tech giant is fighting has problems, but Facebook’s removal of news is inexcusable. This week, Facebook hit the kill switch on news for the 17 million Australian users of its platform. Its action was in response to a proposed law advancing through the Australian Parliament that aims to level the […]

De-Platforming Following Capitol Insurrection Highlights Global Inequities in Content Moderation

The de-platforming of President Donald Trump and the associated purge of white supremacist social media accounts has spurred news coverage heralding the “unprecedented” nature of the bans that companies, including Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook, have put in place. Such claims stem from a United States-centric perspective. On a global scale such de-platforming is commonplace. Still, […]

Sudan has made amends. Let’s take it off the terrorism list.

The U.S. government is poised to remove Sudan from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, based on an agreement that requires Khartoum to pay $335 million to American victims of terrorist attacks. The deal recognizes that Sudan has met the delisting requirement of a “fundamental change” in leadership following courageous work by the Sudanese […]