In 2023, UpRights and The Hague Academy for Local Governance developed a Training of Trainers on transitional justice, as well as an interactive online training, for Ukrainian civil servants. In recognition of the International Day of Peace on September 21st, UpRights’ co-director, Asa Solway, discussed with the Hague Academy the importance of transitional justice processes in Ukraine including in light of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Asa observed that the training is intended to serve as a toolkit designed to help societies confront the aftermath of large-scale past conflicts, repressions, violations, or abuses. In this regard, transitional justice is composed of different processes designed to address challenges that arise during and following conflict and periods of serious human rights abuses to ensure justice and accountability, strengthen the rule of law and promote reconciliation through a victim-centered approach.

Asa observed that the situation in Ukraine faces a plurality of conflict-related challenges that, viewed through these lenses, can be addressed through transitional justice processes including by giving voice to those most affected. He further noted that although peace requires long-term commitment, communities will have the best chance to begin to rebuild while focusing on those most vulnerable if an organised approach is taken that rooted in the rule of law.

Read the full interview here and read the Benchbook on the Adjudication of International Crimes

UpRights prepared an independent expert report assessing the Human Rights Due Diligence (HRDD) process of the Mozambique Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) Project operated by TotalEnergies. This report, commissioned by Justiça Ambiental!, Friends of the Earth Europe, Friends of the Earth, Milieudefensie was published today.

While clear signs indicate that TotalEnergies is considering officially restarting the development of the LNG project it operates in the Northern Province of Cabo Delgado in Mozambique, the independent review conducted by UpRights highlights gaps and omissions in the HRDD assessment conducted in 2020 and in the subsequent Action Plan. The report also points to the significant disconnect between the project’s public commitment in its human rights policy to respect human rights and its actual implementation in the Project’s operations and the human right situation on the ground. While some of the limitations encountered in conducting the process may be related to the COVID-19 pandemic, it does not obliviate the shortcomings identified in the report.

The main area of concern relates to the disregard in the HRDD process of the armed conflict in Mozambique. The HRDD assessment conducted in 2020 and the following Action Plan of TotalEnergies fail to properly prioritize and consider the armed conflict and to conduct heightened HRDD with a conflict-sensitive approach. No justification can be found for such a disregard given that the LNG project has been operating in a conflict-affected area since 2017 and that TotalEnergies became the operator of the project in September 2019. As a result, the human rights due diligence process fails to:

Accurately assess the potential human rights impact of the Project on the security situation of the communities vis-à-vis the insurgents and the Mozambique security forces.

Consider international humanitarian and international criminal law as relevant legal frameworks despite their undeniable relevance to the context of the Project’s operation.

Assess the real risk of being considered complicit in international humanitarian law violations or war crimes allegedly committed by the Mozambican armed forces.

Comprehensively address the issue of gender and conflict as part of any heightened human rights due diligence.

This review was conducted on the basis of documents made publicly available by TotalEnergies. The public scrutiny of the implementation of HRDD by the LNG Project was limited by the unavailability of several important documents as well as the inadequate level of detail and lack of explanation of certain key considerations in the documents available.

Read the Assessment of TotalEnergies’ Mozambique LNG Project Human Rights Due Diligence

On July 12, 2023, UpRights Co-Director Valérie Gabard led the 11h lecture of the Summer School on International Criminal Justice organised by the University of Amsterdam. The Summer School examines the juridical and empirical sides of mass atrocities, striving to give its attendees a better understanding of the nature of international crimes, of their perpetrators and of the role of the international community in pursuing international justice.

UpRights provided students with a lecture on the role of civil society to fill the accountability gap for international crimes. Notably, while international tribunals played an undeniable role in holding perpetrators accountable, international actors like civil society and victim representatives have progressively attempted to mend the limitations of the current international legal order.

To illustrate the creative ways in which civil society organizations at the national and international level are trying to assist to fill this accountability gap, Valérie Gabard discussed the important role of civil society organizations in documenting international crimes and preserving evidence, highlighting in particular the best practices to ensure the efficacy of the documentation and the importance of employing creative legal thinking to assist victims in their quest for justice.

UpRights is pleased to announce it has developed an online transitional justice course for civil servants and local administrators in Ukraine in coordination with the National Agency of Ukraine for Civil Service and the Hague Academy for Local Governance. The course introduces the fundamentals of transitional justice and its role in helping society cope with the past, ensure accountability, serve justice and promote reconciliation.

Through four distinct modules, participants gain practical knowledge concerning four primary objectives of transitional justice: accountability, reparations, strengthening the rule of law and fostering trust and promoting truth seeking and reconciliation. Specific transitional justice mechanisms which help to realise these objectives are covered in detail while concrete challenges affecting conflict-affected communities in Ukraine are considered through interactive scenarios. The course emphasises the importance of empowering local government to collaborate with national actors and provide accessible, victim-centred services to address conflict and post-conflict challenges.

Building upon the online transitional justice course, the Hague Academy for Local Governance and UpRights co-director Asa Solway and legal advisor Sofia Poulopoulou conducted a training of trainers on transitional justice for civil servants in Ukraine. During the training, representatives of the Ukrainian civil service, members of the judiciary and academics discussed relevant tools to conduct the training on transitional justice.

UpRights’ senior legal advisor David Kinnecome co-authored with James Patrick Sexton, junior researcher at T.M.C. Asser Instituut, an analysis for the blog of the European Journal of International Law “Enforcing Sanctions Violations to Fund the Reconstruction of Ukraine”.

The article analyses the recent efforts by the European Union and the United States to pursue the enforcement of sanctions, notably concerning the violations committed in the context of the RussiaUkraineWar.

In particular, the article contends that the enforcement of sanctions violations could gather the necessary funds to pursue both compensation for victims of the conflict and the implementation of reconstructive efforts, concluding that although these approaches may not fully cover the financial needs of compensation and reconstruction, they would still offer additional legitimate sources of funding.

Read the post here

UpRights is pleased to announce its participation to the upcoming Peace&Justice Café event organised by The Hague Humanity Hub in collaboration with The Hague Institute for the Innovation of Law.

The event, as part of Hague Justice Week, will focus on the concept of “People-Centred Justice” which is an idea that emphasizes the necessity, for legal practices and systems, to become evidence-based, outcome-oriented, and accessible to the people they serve. The Peace&Justice Café is a fundamental networking event for human rights professional that fosters and strengthens the collaboration towards a more just world, providing us with the opportunity to collectively come up with concrete solutions to tackle today’s complex and urgent problems. Launched by the Hague Humanity Hub in collaboration with the Municipality of The Hague and The Hague Institute for the Innovation of Law, the event brings together peacebuilders, justice innovators, researchers, humanitarians, impact entrepreneurs, policymakers, and other changemakers from The Hague and beyond to foster an environment of profitable exchange and mutual enriching.

The Peace&Justice Café is based on the “roundabout” sessions: a series of small-scale, interactive and informative discussions aimed at providing an environment for conversation and information sharing among the participants.

Through their contribution, UpRights co-directors and founders Valérie Gabard and Asa Solway will underline the importance of employing an inclusive and people-centred approach to using international law to promote human rights and ensure accountability for serious human rights violations. They will consider the opportunities and challenges in employing international law to empower local and national actors to promote human rights by exploring practical examples of its implementation in the pursuit of justice. Alongside the active engagement of the participants, the session will provide the opportunity to discuss innovative legal pathways, strategies to build partnerships and lessons learned from employing people-centred justice in the context of international law.

Meet us at the Peace&Justice Café on June 8 by registering here and join the conversation!

UpRights Co-Founder Alessandro Pizzuti has co-authored with Assistant Professor Giulia Pinzauti, UpRights Advisory Board Member, an article in the Journal of International Criminal Justice titled “Prosecuting Aggression against Ukraine as an ‘Other Inhumane Act’ before the ICC”.

The article, building on a past blogpost in OpinioJuris, revisits the possibility of prosecuting the underlying acts of aggression as crimes against humanity before the International Criminal Court, with specific reference to the February 2022 unlawful use of force against Ukraine by the Russian Federation.

In particular, the article contends that Russia’s unlawful use of force in breach of the right to self-determination of the Ukrainian people, which caused them great suffering or serious injury to mental/physical health, can be qualified as other inhumane acts under Article 7(1)(k) of the Rome Statute. While this approach has its challenges, it would allow the Court to prosecute the underlying acts of aggression as crimes against humanity avoiding the jurisdictional limitations that apply to the crime of aggression.

On Friday, September 30, from 9 to 18:30, the Faculty of Law of the University of Bologna will host the Seminar “Migrants’ rights and international crimes. New perspectives and challenges for international and domestic jurisdiction” (Sala Armi, Palazzo Malvezzi, via Zamboni 22, Bologna and online).

The seminar is organized by StraLi for strategic litigation, UpRights and the Faculty of Law of the University of Bologna. Together with journalists, researchers, civil society’s representatives, lawyers, prosecutors, and judges, we will discuss pivotal issues at the intersection of migration and criminal law, such as the qualification of abuses against migrants as international crimes and the impact of European migration policies on human rights. It will comprise of three panels (panel 1 and 2 will be held in English, panel 3 in Italian) which will deal respectively with: migration policies from a human rights perspective; migrations and international criminal law; migrations and Italian criminal law.

Alessandro Pizzuti will be among the speakers of panel 1 to discuss human rights’ application at sea. Alice Giannini and Tomas Manguel will be among speakers of panel 2 and will discuss StraLi’s, UpRights’, and Adala for All’s Article 15 Communication on War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity Committed Against Migrants and Asylum Seekers in Libya.

The full program, including the list of the topics discussed and the panelists, are available here.

No registration needed.

Save the date!

Asa Solway, UpRights Co-Founder, recently completed teaching a course offering on self-determination in international law at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law.

“Self-determination of Peoples in International Law”, offered for the first time at the Berkeley School of Law in Fall 2021, built on his experience working with self-determination movements and national minorities. It introduced students to the legal underpinnings of self-determination in international law including in the context of the United Nations Charter, case law of the International Court of Justice and national and international self-determination movements. Students considered issues related to decolonization and secession, internal versus external self-determination, minority rights, state sovereignty and claims to natural resources while discussing and debating the scope of the right in the context of numerous case studies.

The course presented the opportunity for students to consider modern approaches and re-evaluation of the right to self-determination in light of modern advocacy movements, including in the Pacific Islands and Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as ongoing debates over the applicability, scope and intent of the right as envisioned in the drafting of the United Nations Charter. The course further considered human rights-related litigation related to past abuses suffered by self-determination movements.

In the last week, UpRights participated in three seminars on current issues in the field of International Criminal Law (ICL) to students of University of Bologna (Italy) and ITAM University of Mexico City (Mexico).

On 24 March, UpRights co-founder Alessandro Pizzuti, and legal researcher Luigi Prosperi met with students of the “International and European Criminal Law” course of the Department of Legal Studies of the University of Bologna to discuss challenges and outcomes of potential International Criminal Court investigations into crimes allegedly committed against migrants in Libya. They actively worked with students to identify challenges related to the jurisdictional requirements arising from the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1970 which triggered the jurisdiction of the Court and concerning the qualification of the abuses committed against migrants as war crimes and/or crimes against humanity.

On 25 March, Luigi Prosperi discussed with the students of the “International and European Criminal Law” course of the Department of Legal Studies of the University of Bologna the recent decision of the International Criminal Court in the situation in Palestine. He analyzed the context, the reasoning, and the conclusions of the decision as well as the dissent, and the impact the decision may have on the investigation and prosecution of crimes allegedly committed by Palestinian and Israeli nationals during the 2014 Gaza War, in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and in the context of the 2018 demonstrations on the border fence between the Gaza Strip and Israel.

On 19 March, Luigi Prosperi spoke with students as part of the “Seminario sobre Derecho Internacional Penal” organized by ITAM University of Mexico City (Mexico). He introduced the concept of crimes against humanity, as defined in the Statutes of international criminal tribunals – including the Nuremberg and Tokyo Tribunals, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and the International Criminal Court – and in the Draft articles on Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Humanity adopted by the International Law Commission in 2019. Discussion focused on the contextual elements of crimes against humanity and current practice of the International Criminal Court concerning the “organizational policy” requirement.

We would like to warmly thank Professors Gabriela Rodríguez and Guilherme Vasconcelos of ITAM University and Professor Emanuela Fronza of the University of Bologna for the invitation, and we look forward to further opportunities to discuss important issues of international criminal law and UpRights’ ongoing projects with students and scholars.