On June 8, 2022, the Clooney Foundation for Justice published a report, documenting the harms created by looting of antiquities as a weapon of war and a major source of financing state and non-state armed groups in conflicts in the Middle East.  The report makes a number of excellent recommendations. 

On July 19, 2022, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) released its fact finding report into the Ryanair Flight 4978 incident on May 23, 2021, when the flight was diverted by a bomb threat to land at Minsk National Airport, where two passengers were arrested by authorities.  

The Philippine Court of Appeals on July 7, 2022 upheld the criminal conviction of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa and her co-defendant, Reynaldo Santos Jr., for the offense of criminal libel, a case not brought until six years after the alleged libel was published and for violation of a cyber libel law that did not yet exist. ^[1]

The circumstances of prisons in the Caribbean were spotlighted this past July 5 and 6 at a conference on penal reform held in St. Kitts and Nevis.  The conference was organized by IMPACT Justice, a Barbados-based program funded by the Canadian government and headed by Professor Velma Newton, a former law dean at the Cave Hill campus of the University of the West Indies.[1] The conference, which I had the honor to chair, had several aims, including to highlight access to justice and other issues within the prison sector, such as inmate treatment, physical facilities, inmate programs and services, and compliance with the Mandela Rules. Moreover, the meeting was intended to reflect on improvements needed and encourage discussions among government officials, advocates, and experts about reform. The conference, which brought together prison sector leaders, prosecutors, academic experts, legal aid advocates, and journalists, some in person and others via zoom, highlighted some of the harsh realities of prisons in the Caribbean, a few of which are discussed below.  

In November 2019, The Gambia instituted proceedings against Myanmar alleging violations of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Genocide Convention) through “acts adopted, taken and condoned by the Government of Myanmar” against the Rohingyas, a principally Muslim and stateless ethnic group, which has lived for centuries in the majority Buddhist Myanmar. It also requested the indication of provisional measures to protect the Rohingyas’ rights, which were ordered in January 2020.[1] Exactly one year later, Myanmar raised four preliminary objections to the ICJ jurisdiction and the admissibility of the Application. The ICJ gave its judgment, rejecting them all, in July 2022.[2] The purpose of this note is to offer an overview of Myanmar’s objections in the order examined by the ICJ.

On July 25, 2022, Colombia’s Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) charged 19 former members of the army, one state official, and two civilians with war crimes and crimes against humanity. The JEP determined that the members of the 16th Brigade killed 303 innocent people in 218 incidents between 2005 and 2008 in the Casanare department.

On July 22, 2022, the Portuguese media announced that on July 15, 2022 the Central Department of Investigation and Prosecution (DCIAP) for Portugal’s Office of Public Prosecutions has finalized new charge sheets in two cases connected to the defunct Espíritu Santo group, with respect to financing by Banco Espíritu Santo (BES) to its subsidiary in Angola, Banco Espíritu Santo Angola (BESA).[1]

On June 21, 2022, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU, the EU Court) delivered its long-awaited judgment interpreting the Passenger Name Record   (PNR) in the context of both the EU and Belgian legislation.

On July 15, 2022, a Swedish court convicted Hamid Nouri of international war crimes and human rights abuses related to the death of prisoners of Gohardasht prison in 1988 at the orders of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and current President Ebrahim Raisi, he has been sentenced to life in prison.  Nouri was lured into Sweden and prosecuted under the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows any national court to prosecute atrocities regardless of where they are committed.

According to official documents released on June 16, 2022, the EU and the U.S. are to set up an “informal expert group” aiming to “improve the practical implementation” of agreements on mutual legal assistance and extradition.