• Questions and Answers on the Olympics, Women and Sports in Saudi Arabia
    Feb 15, 2012
  • Libya: Q&A on the ICC and Saif al-Islam Gaddafi
    Jan 23, 2012
  • Q & A: US Targeted Killings and International Law
    Dec 19, 2011
    This Q&A focuses on legal and policy issues related to targeted killings, primarily attacks using unmanned aerial vehicles, known as drones, conducted by the US Armed Forces and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Human Rights Watch raised many of the issues addressed here in a December 2010 letter to President Obama.
  • Russian National Elections in 2011 and 2012
    Nov 21, 2011
    On December 4, Russians will go to the polls to elect a new Duma, the lower house of parliament, and in March 2012 they will elect a new president.
  • Q&A on Incendiary Weapons and CCW Protocol III
    Nov 11, 2011

    Despite the regulations in Protocol III to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW), incendiary weapons continue to cause needless and unacceptable suffering to civilians in conflicts around the world. These weapons produce conscience-shocking injuries to humans and are frequently indiscriminate. Human Rights Watch and the Harvard Law School International Human Rights Clinic call on states to revisit Protocol III.

  • Kenya: Q&A on Pre-Trial Hearing in Second ICC Case
    Sep 20, 2011

    On September 21, 2011, a “confirmation of charges” hearing will begin before an International Criminal Court (ICC) pre-trial chamber in The Hague. It will determine whether the second case in the Kenya situation at the ICC should be sent to trial. The ICC prosecutor’s investigations have focused on the violence in Kenya that followed what was widely perceived as a rigged presidential election in favor of the incumbent, Mwai Kibaki, in December 2007.

  • Kenya: Q&A on Pre-Trial Hearing in First ICC Case
    Aug 30, 2011

    On September 1, 2011, a “confirmation of charges” hearing will begin before an ICC pre-trial chamber in The Hague. It will determine whether the first case in the Kenya situation at the International Criminal Court (ICC) should be sent to trial. In March, the pre-trial chamber issued summonses to appear for these six people, and all six appeared voluntarily before the court in April. The Kenya investigation – the ICC’s fifth – opened in March 2010 after the prosecutor received authorization from the court. Kenya ratified the Rome Statute, which created the ICC, in 2005.

  • Libya: Q&A on the Arrest and Surrender of the Three International Criminal Court Suspects
    Aug 26, 2011
    On February 26, 2011, the United Nations Security Council adopted resolution 1970 by a vote of 15-0 referring the situation in Libya to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Under the Rome Statute, the ICC's founding treaty, the Security Council may refer a situation in any country to the ICC prosecutor if it determines the situation to warrant such action under Chapter VII of the UN Charter. Resolution 1970 gave the court authority over events in Libya beginning on February 15, 2011. On March 3, the ICC prosecutor announced he would open an investigation into the situation in Libya.
  • Syria’s Human Rights Crisis: Myths and Realities
    Aug 24, 2011
    Syria’s authorities have promised and, in certain areas, enacted a number of reforms since anti-government protests erupted in mid-March. However, the ongoing repression on the ground has completely undermined these reforms and raises questions about the authorities’ intention to carry them through.
  • ICC: Q&A on the International Criminal Court Prosecutor Election Process
    Aug 12, 2011