Crimes against humanity are certain acts that are purposely committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack, directed against any civilians, in time of war or peace. The first prosecution for crimes against humanity took place at the Nuremberg trials. Initially being considered for legal use, widely in International Law, following the Armenian Genocide.
Issues relating to the State of Israel and aspects of the Arab–Israeli conflict and more recently the Iran-Israel conflict occupy repeated annual debate times, resolutions and resources at the United Nations. Since its founding in 1948, the United Nations Security Council, has adopted 79 resolutions directly related to the Arab–Israeli conflict as of January 2010.
Hina Jilani, is an advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and a human-rights activist from Lahore in Punjab, Pakistan.
The Melbourne Journal of International Law ('MJIL') is a biannual peer-reviewed law review associated with Melbourne Law School which covers all areas of public and private international law. It was established in 2000 and is one of two student-run law journals at the University of Melbourne. MJIL is edited and managed by an editorial board of around 70 law students of Melbourne Law School, overseen by three Editors, Faculty Advisors and an Advisory Board. Students are selected to be part of the editorial board via a rigorous process based on their abilities, aptitude, enthusiasm and editing skills.
Fionnuala Ní Aoláin is an Irish academic lawyer specialising in human rights law.
Navanethem "Navi" Pillay is a South African jurist who served as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2008 to 2014. A South African of Indian Tamil origin, she was the first non-white woman judge of the High Court of South Africa, and she has also served as a judge of the International Criminal Court and President of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Her four-year term as High Commissioner for Human Rights began on 1 September 2008 and was extended an additional two years in 2012. She was succeeded in September 2014 by Prince Zeid bin Ra'ad. In April 2015 Pillay became the 16th Commissioner of the International Commission Against the Death Penalty. She is also one of the 25 leading figures on the Information and Democracy Commission launched by Reporters Without Borders.
Deshamanya Radhika Coomaraswamy is a Sri Lankan lawyer, diplomat and human rights advocate who served as the Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict until 13 July 2012. Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed her to the position in April 2006. She was nominated to the Constitutional Council as a civil representative on 10 September 2015. In 2017, after atrocities against the Rohingya people, she was appointed a Member of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on Myanmar.
The 2006 shelling of Beit Hanoun by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) happened on 8 November, when shells hit a row of houses in the Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun, killing at least 19 Palestinians and wounding more than 40. The shelling followed the IDF's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in completion of a week-long operation codenamed Operation "Autumn Clouds", which the Israeli government stated had been intended to stop the Qassam rocket attacks on Israel by Palestinian militants. The Israeli government apologized and attributed the incident to a technical malfunction.
UN Watch is a Geneva-based non-governmental organization whose stated mission is "to monitor the performance of the United Nations by the yardstick of its own Charter". It is an accredited NGO in Special Consultative Status to the UN Economic and Social Council and an Associate NGO to the UN Department of Public Information.
Issues relating to the State of Palestine and aspects of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict occupy continuous debates, resolutions, and resources at the United Nations. Since its founding in 1948, the United Nations Security Council, as of January 2010, has adopted 79 resolutions directly related to the Arab–Israeli conflict.
Gay Johnson McDougall is an American lawyer who has spent her career addressing international human rights and racial discrimination. She is currently a Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence at the Leitner Center on International Law and Justice of Fordham University Law School, and a Vice-Chairperson of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, one of the UN human rights treaty bodies that oversees the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. She was Executive Director of Global Rights, Partners for Justice. In August 2005, she was named the first United Nations Independent Expert on Minority Issues, serving until 2011.
The United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, also known as the Goldstone Report, was a team established in April 2009 pursuant to Resolution A/HRC/RES/S-9/1 of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) of 12 January 2009, following the Gaza War as an independent international fact-finding mission "to investigate all violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law by the occupying Power, Israel, against the Palestinian people throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, particularly in the occupied Gaza Strip, due to the current aggression". South African jurist Richard Goldstone was appointed to head the mission. The other co-authors of the Report were Hina Jilani, Christine Chinkin and Desmond Travers.
Desmond Travers is a retired Irish Army colonel. During his years with the army he served with various United Nations and European Union peacekeeping forces. Since his retirement from the army in 2001, he has taught military affairs at the Institute for International Criminal Investigations in The Hague. He also served on the institutes board of directors. In 2009 together with Richard Goldstone, Christine Chinkin, and Hina Jilani, he was appointed to the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict. The report that the mission subsequently published is commonly referred to as the Goldstone Report and Travers is credited as one of the four co-authors.
Hilary Christiane Mary Charlesworth is a feminist international law scholar. Since 2016 she has been a Melbourne Laureate Professor at Melbourne Law School and Distinguished Professor and Director of the Centre for International Governance and Justice at the Australian National University. Her Australian Research Council Federation Fellowship was used to establish the Centre within the Regulatory Institutions Network (RegNet) in 2005.
Noura Erakat is a Palestinian American legal scholar, and human rights attorney. She is an activist and writer, as well as a specialist in national security. Erakat is one of six core figures who launched Jadaliyya in 2010. She is the sister of Yousef Erakat, better known by his YouTube moniker, FouseyTube.
The Geneva Academy of international Humanitarian Law and Human Rights is a postgraduate joint center located in Geneva, Switzerland. The faculty includes professors from both founding institutions and guest professors from major universities.
Ratna Kapur is a law professor and former Director of the Centre for Feminist Legal Research in New Delhi, India [1995–2012].
James J Busuttil is a lawyer, former professor, and author. He is also a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration, The Hague and a legal publisher.
Mark Steven Ellis is an international criminal law expert and the executive director of the International Bar Association. He is the current chair of the UN-created Advisory Panel on Matters Relating to Defence Counsel of the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals.
Rosa Anne Freedman, who has written as Rosa Davis, is professor of law, conflict, and global development at the University of Reading. Her principal area of research is the activities of the United Nations as they relate to human rights. She has given evidence before the Foreign Affairs Select Committee of the British House of Commons about the human rights work of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and to the Scottish Government relating to gender questions on the national census.
