Gissou Nia

Top British human rights lawyers could be hit by Trump sanctions Some were part of an International Criminal Court panel backing arrest warrants relating to alleged war crimes in Gaza

An upside down world

observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

Proud to be a part of this lawsuit against President Trump’s Executive Order targeting the International Criminal Court, which has broad and sweeping implications, including on free speech, for all of us who work with the Court. 1/4

Key points 🧵:

“Ms. Öztürk is a third-year doctoral student in good academic and administrative standing”

Tufts “has no information to support the allegations that she was engaged in activities at Tufts that warrant her arrest and detention.”

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The IFRC condemns the killing of eight Palestine Red Crescent Society medics in Gaza.

We are heartbroken. These dedicated humanitarians, killed while responding to the wounded, should have been protected. We mourn their loss and stand with the Palestine Red Crescent.

Full statement: bit.ly/427LXxp

New from Rumeysa Ozturk's lawyer:

Rumeysa hasn't been accused of any crime & "DHS has not produced any evidence" that she did anything unlawful.

Rumeysa wasn't able to speak to her lawyer for 24+ hours & not until after she was in Louisiana — despite a court order that she not be moved from Mass.

Only 25 countries w/ #women leaders. Proportion of women heading ministries has decreased. Only 9 countries, mostly in Europe, have #gender-equal cabinets, 50% or more women holding minister positions... 9 countries, mostly in Asia-Pac, have no women serving as Ministers (up from 7 countries 2024)

Read Rumeysa Ozturk's op-ed for yourself.

Arresting anyone for their speech is unconstitutional and authoritarian.

But arresting her for *this* speech is just psychotic.

www.tuftsdaily.com/article/2024...

JUST IN: American Oversight is suing Hegseth, Gabbard, Ratcliffe et al, saying their messaging via Signal is a violation of the Federal Records Act.

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Thousands protest in Budapest against law banning Pride Thousands of people protested in Budapest on Tuesday against a new law that aims to ban the annual Pride march by LGBTQ+ communities and allows the use of facial recognition software to identify organizers and attendees.

“Thousands of people protested in Budapest on Tuesday against a new law that aims to ban the annual Pride march by LGBTQ+ communities and allows the use of facial recognition software to identify organizers and attendees.”

Solidarity with people in Hungary who challenge anti-LGBT authoritarianism.

Top intel officials shift responsibility on to Hegseth for sending potentially classified info to Yemen strike group chat | CNN Politics Several of President Donald Trump’s top national security officials, at times with assistance from a top Senate Republican, shifted responsibility to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth for sending pote...

“I think the most accountable, or the most guilty person is the secretary of defense because he put in all the highly classified information,” Republican Rep. Don Bacon, a member of the House Armed Services Committee and former Air Force Brigadier General, told CNN.

www.cnn.com/2025/03/25/p...

The USA’s two leading scholars of authoritarianism and fascism moved to Canada (one permanently, one on leave).

“Stanley writes he has been “very happy at Yale, with the department and the university,” but he wants “to raise my kids in a country that is not tilting towards a fascist dictatorship.”

I could have detailed what makes a civilian object lose its protected status but tbh we're now in an age where attackers think they don't have the burden of proof. Instead they think it's up to the attacked to demonstrate they are NOT a military target. So I focused on this unacceptable reversal.

YouTube video by Channel 4 News Russia strikes Ukraine as ceasefire talks starts in Saudi Arabia

Went on @channel4news.bsky.social w/ @krishgm.bsky.social to discuss attacks on hospitals & schools in Ukraine & Gaza.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=pD7r...

Ukraine and the promise and peril of lawfare The Ukraine government’s legal mobilization at multiple international fora reveals both the promise and peril of lawfare.

🪖 Ukraine has made gains and suffered losses in the war with Russia—including in the courtroom. For @brookings.edu, I examine Kyiv's legal action at the Int’l Court of Justice, Int’l Criminal Court, and other int’l bodies to show the promise and peril of “lawfare.” www.brookings.edu/articles/ukr...

At the #UNSC, @azadah.bsky.social calls on the #UNSC to take immediate and decisive action to ensure the full protection of women’s human rights in #Afghanistan.

UN Security Council Briefing on Afghanistan by Azadah Raz Mohammad - NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security Excellencies, Thank you for the opportunity to brief you on the human rights crisis in Afghanistan. My name is Azadah Raz Mohammad. I am a lawyer from Afghanistan and the co-founder of the Ham Diley C...

Powerful last words to the #UNSC from @azadah.bsky.social: "As a woman from #Afghanistan, I have witnessed how unaddressed legacies of past crimes have trapped my country in a cycle of violence.

If impunity is the disease, accountability is the antidote."

Read her statement: wps.ngo/razmohammad

A short piece for Opinio Juris, based on today's news of the arrest of Rodrigo Duterte for the #Philippines "war on drugs".
#ICC #accountability

opiniojuris.org/2025/03/11/a...

The arrest warrant, and surprisingly speedy removal of the former President of the Philippines to the Hague. Speaks to the willingness of domestic courts to accept that widespread and systematic international crimes were committed. Arrest Warrant here.

www.icc-cpi.int/sites/defaul...

Briefing the UN Security Council, Azadah Raz Mohammad argues that there is no term that better describes the situation of women and girls in Afghanistan than #genderapartheid.

Watch her briefing ➡️ webtv.un.org/en/asset/k10...

🚨BREAKING: ICC Office of the Prosecutor pursues arrest warrants for gender-based crimes in Afghanistan.

Read our statement👇

🚨BREAKING: ICC Office of the Prosecutor pursues arrest warrants for gender-based crimes in Afghanistan.

Learn from our advisors on the importance of this action and steps forward to hold the Taliban accountable for international crimes👇

#EndGenderApartheid

The Syrian revolution is not over, unless one believes its sole aim was to topple the Assad regime.

For it to truly succeed, it must not be distorted or undermined, with its 14 years, along with all that came before, nurtured and shared as a story for future generations.

War crimes and legal routes: How Assad could be brought to justice for Syria atrocities Experts say the various ways of punishing Assad include the ICC following the Bangladesh-Myanmar model or cases in national courts under universal jurisdiction - Anadolu Ajansı

Thanks to Rabia Ali for covering the available jurisdictional pathway for the #ICC to consider crimes causing Syrians to flee to Jordan. I spoke about the Art 15 my co-counsel @gissounia.bsky.social and I submitted in Sept 2022 & how the ICC could provide justice today. www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-ea...

Episode 118 – Dealing with Secondary Trauma, part 1 In the first episode of our mini-series on secondary trauma for documenters of atrocity crimes, we talk to journalists, lawyers and trainers on how traumatic material can impact them and how they c…

🚨 NEW PODCAST: Listen to @alexakoenig.bsky.social for @asymmetricalh.bsky.social on the realities of secondary trauma when investigating in the digital realm, and how to create meaning in our online lives:
www.asymmetricalhaircuts.com/episodes/epi...

Important update on the search for hidden prisoners in Bashar’s massive underground torture city.

Syrian Military Officials Charged With War Crimes as Government Falls The officials, Jamil Hassan and Abdul Salam Mahmoud, ran an infamous prison in Damascus and “sought to terrify, intimidate and repress any opposition, or perceived opposition, to the regime,” accordin...

www.nytimes.com/2024/12/09/u...

Last week at #ASP23 in The Hague, the SLP co-sponsored an event ft. fellow @dijkstal.bsky.social, urging member states to refer the situation in #Syria to the ICC as requested in an Article 15 submission made by @gissounia.bsky.social and Dijkstal.

Learn more: www.theguardian.com/world/2022/f...

The state of media for Americans is so completely broken

He is now free… Syria’s longest-serving detainee, “Ragheed Al-Tatri,” has been released after 43 years of imprisonment. He was moved through several prisons, ending up in Tartous Central Prison, and was freed with the last group of detainees following the fall of the tyrant Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

There are over 130,000 Syrians who are forcibly disappeared or missing--the vast majority by the Assad regime.

The videos of detainees being let free when a new city has been taken over by rebel groups or freed from Assad control are not subplots...they're central to the story.