• International Criminal Court issues first warrants for Russia-Georgia war; 
  • Palestinian authorities systematically mistreat and torture detainees; 
  • 50 dead migrants in a truck in Texas show failure of US migration policy; 
  • Oklahoma court denies equal rights to lesbian mother; 
  • Lessons from Columbia in the fight for access to abortion.
Get the Daily Brief by email.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for war crimes committed during the 2008 conflict between Georgia and Russia, the first public results of the court’s six-year investigation. ICC judges approved the prosecutor’s application for warrants for three members of the de facto South Ossetia administration on charges of unlawful confinement, torture, inhuman treatment, outrages upon personal dignity, hostage taking, and unlawful transfer. The conflict cost hundreds of lives on both sides, forcibly displaced tens of thousands of civilians, and caused extensive damage to civilian property. The ICC prosecutor opened an investigation into the Georgia situation in January 2016.

Palestinian authorities are systematically mistreating and torturing Palestinians in detention, including critics and opponents. Torture, both by the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank and Hamas authorities in Gaza, may amount to crimes against humanity, given its systematic nature over many years. More than a year after the PA beat to death prominent activist and critic Nizar Banat while he was in custody and violently dispersed people demanding justice for his death, no one has been held to account. Prosecutors brought charges against 14 accused security officers, but critics say the authorities are moving too slowly and are biased, including in a June 21 decision by military prosecutors to release the accused for 12 days.

More than 50 people died of heat exhaustion in the back of an abandoned truck in south Texas while migrating to the United States, a horrific tragedy that should serve as a wakeup call to lawmakers. While US authorities were quick to blame smugglers, they avoided naming the underlying co-culprit: the US government and its abusive border policies. For three decades now, the United States has carried out a set of policies called “prevention through deterrence,” designed to make irregular migration so punitive and dangerous people will stop attempting it. At the same time, it has shut down legal pathways to migrate, while also cutting off access to asylum under the “Remain in Mexico” and Title 42 expulsion policies.

The case of a lesbian mother in the US state of Oklahoma fighting for legal parenthood of her child demonstrates what happens when states get to decide which rights queer people deserve. Kris Williams and her wife Rebekah Wilson conceived their child in 2019, and her wife gave birth. When the couple filed for divorce two years later, Wilson petitioned the court to remove Williams from the birth certificate. The judge ruled in favor, stating that as the non-gestational mother, Williams had “failed to pursue a legal remedy to establish parental rights.” According to the judge, Williams should have adopted her own son. The Oklahoma court’s assertions in Williams’ case deny her the rights granted to married different-sex couples. 

People living in the United States should look to Colombia for motivation, as abortion rights were expanded there earlier this year. On February 21, Colombia’s Constitutional Court delivered a major victory for women’s reproductive rights by decriminalizing abortion on all grounds up to 24 weeks of pregnancy. The decision builds on a 2006 court ruling that legalized abortion if the pregnancy posed a risk to the health or the life of the pregnant person, was nonviable, or was the result of rape. In the 2022 ruling, the Court confirmed the need for the Colombian Constitution to be interpreted consistently with the country’s human rights treaty obligations.