On August 15, 2018, the Israeli Military Advocate General (MAG) released a report providing an update on their investigation of the Israeli military “Operation Protective Edge,” launched in 2014 in the Gaza Strip during the seven-week conflict between Israel and Palestine. The report provides the MAG’s findings on fighting in the city of Rafah on August 1, 2014, also known as “Black Friday,” during which Hamas militants ambushed three Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers during a humanitarian ceasefire and Israel responded with attacks that resulted in the death of over 110 Palestinians...
International Law in Brief
International Law in Brief (ILIB) is a forum that provides updates on current developments in international law from the editors of ASIL's International Legal Materials.
On August 13, 2018, the International Crimes Tribunal of Bangladesh (ICTB) sentenced five people to death for crimes against humanity during the state’s 1971 war of independence from Pakistan. The three-member panel unanimously found the men guilty of “abduction, confinement, torture, murder, and rape” and “responsible for the offences as enumerated in the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act, 1973 committed in violation of international humanitarian law in the territory of Bangladesh in 1971, during the war of liberation.” The Tribunal found that the convicted men were also part of the...
On August 1, 2018, the Protocol No. 16 to the European Convention on Human Rights entered into force for the ten member states that have signed and ratified it: Albania, Armenia, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Lithuania, San Marino, Slovenia and Ukraine. As noted in the press release, “Protocol No. 16 enables the highest national courts and tribunals, as designated by the member States concerned, to request the Court to give advisory opinions on questions of principle relating to the interpretation or application of the rights and freedoms defined in the Convention or the Protocols...
On July 25, 2018, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that organisms obtained by mutagenesis—“a set of techniques which make it possible to alter the genome of a living species without the insertion of foreign DNA”—are to be considered genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and are subject to the EU GMO Directive. However, organisms obtained by mutagenesis that have a long safety record in a number of applications are exempt, though member states may individually subject them to obligations within the Directive or otherwise, as long as they are in compliance with EU law. As...
On July 25, 2018, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled that the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) must reconsider whether the KitKat shape had acquired a distinctive character within certain EU states in order to be registered as an EU trademark. The case concerns Nestle’s application of the “4 Finger KitKat” shape as an EU trademark, which EUIPO agreed to register in 2006. According to the press release, a competitor challenged the trademark at the General Court, which found “that EUIPO had erred in law in finding that the mark at issue had acquired...
On July 25, 2018, the Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that a Palestinian with refugee status from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) cannot obtain EU refugee status while receiving protection or assistance from UNRWA. The Court also laid out the specific criteria by which Palestinians may apply for and receive asylum and subsidiary protection, and reiterated “that an individual may obtain asylum in the EU only if he or she are in a position in which his or her personal safety is at serious risk, has unsuccessfully sought assistance from...
On July 23, 2018, the International Court of Justice delivered its Order on Qatar’s request for provisional measures in the case concerning Application of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Qatar v. United Arab Emirates). The Court found that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) may have discriminated against Qatari nationals when it implemented a blockade in June 2017 and ordered the UAE to reunite Qatari families that were separated due to the blockade, allow Qatari students to complete their studies in the UAE, and allow Qataris...
On July 19, 2018, Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court dismissed (available in French) requests for reparations made by applicants in the case of The Prosecutor v. Germain Katanga for transgenerational harm, which refers to harm passed from parent to child. According to the press release, the Chamber looked at “the progress of scientific studies on the transgenerational transmission of trauma and, in particular, of two theories – epigenetic transmission, which is biological, and social transmission, which is learned.” It went on to review the principle requiring a...
On July 18, 2018, the Organization of American States (OAS) passed a resolution condemning the violence in Nicaragua and calling on the government to set an electoral calendar. Through the resolution, the OAS condemns “all acts of violence, repression, and human rights violations and abuses committed by police, parapolice groups, and others against the people of Nicaragua” and urges all parties “to participate actively and in good faith in the National Dialogue as a mechanism to generate peaceful and sustainable solutions to the situation unfolding in Nicaragua.” The OAS also requested...
On July 9, 2018, Eritrea and Ethiopia agreed to a Joint Declaration of Peace and Friendship, which marked a start to normalization of ties between the two states and an end to twenty years of conflict. The Declaration has five main provisions, which state that “war between Ethiopia and Eritrea has come to an end”; the governments will work “to forge intimate political, economic, social, cultural and security cooperation”; “transport, trade and communications links between the two countries will resume”; “diplomatic ties and activities will restart”; “the decision on the boundary between...