Few provisions in African international law have attracted as much critical attention, or as blunt a nickname, as Article 46A bis of the Malabo Protocol. This post takes that nickname seriously. It asks whether the label “impunity clause” is legally earned, politically inevitable, or simply unavoidable given the way African states have approached the ICC. Drawing on the contrast with Article 27 of the Rome Statute and the 2019 Al-Bashir Appeals Chamber judgment, it argues that Africa’s recent trajectory, from Malabo’s immunity clause to the Sahel’s exit from the ICC, is less about rejecting accountability than about a deeply contested struggle over who gets to define it.
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Synthetic Abuse, Real Harm: Closing the International Law Gap on AI-Generated Child Sexual Abuse Material
By Mariefaye (Efthimia) Bechrakis, Esq.
Introduction
Generative AI is often praised for its many transformative benefits across various fields, including that of law and human rights. The dual -use nature of the technology, however, has produced urgent harms, most notably the rapid rise of AI-generated synthetic child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Reports of AI generated images sexualizing children skyrocketed from roughly 4,700 in 2023 to 440,000 in the first half of 2025, while confirmed illegal AI-generated videos jumped from just two to over 1,200 in the same period. According to UNICEF, at least 1.2 million children across 11 countries disclosed having their images manipulated into sexually explicit deepfakes in the past year.
Continue readingBeyond Military Responsibility: Corporate and Digital Complicity in the Rohingya Crisis
Introduction: The Multi-Layered Architecture of Atrocity
The persecution of the Rohingya in Myanmar has been widely recognised by the international community as one of the most severe human rights crises of the twenty-first century. Investigations conducted by the United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar (FFM) documented mass killings, forced displacement, widespread sexual violence, and the systematic destruction of Rohingya villages, concluding that there were reasonable grounds to believe that acts amounting to genocide had been committed [1].
Continue readingFrom Power Transition to Humanitarian Catastrophe: The SAF–RSF Conflict and Its Human Rights Implications
Introduction
In April 2023, Sudan’s Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) engaged in a war.[1] The war has devasted communities, displaced millions, and exacerbated an already dire humanitarian crisis.[2] Coupled with severe droughts and deadly floods, the effects of conflict and environmental instability are pushing communities to the brink.[3] In some parts of the country famine has already been declared, putting millions of lives at immediate risk.[4] This post explores the root of the armed conflict, the relationship between the ongoing armed conflict in Sudan and human rights violations, and the international community’s response.
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The Aban Tribunal: Targeting Impunity and Supporting Victim-Survivors
When the Aban atrocity took place, nobody ever thought that a Tribunal would be held after two years to bring to justice those responsible. You are putting [them] on trial. While they are not accountable, and we have to cover our faces to testify here, I’m sure that one day, they will have to cover their faces, and our positions will change.
Witness before the Aban Tribunal
From the 10th to the 14th of November 2021, the Iran Atrocities Tribunal, also known as “Aban Tribunal,” in reference to the month in which the nationwide protests erupted, convened in London. “Aban” is the month in the Persian calendar, in which the nationwide protests erupted and partially corresponds to November and is the term widely used by victim-survivors to refer to the bloody protests that left thousands of Iranians dead, severely injured, arrested and detained, with a significant number facing torture, inhumane and/ or degrading treatment in prison. The Tribunal is the latest offspring amongst a continuous trend of International People’s Tribunals emerging over the last few years alone. Other notable People’s Tribunals focusing on gross human rights abuses include The Iran Tribunal (2012), The Uyghur Tribunal (2020-2022), The China Tribunal (2018-2020) and the ongoing People’s Tribunal on the Murder of Journalists (2021-2022).
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A Contrario ICL 