On May 15 to 26, 2023, international community, represented by nearly 300 experts coming from all over the world, held a Diplomatic Conference of Plenipotentiaries in the city of Ljubljana, Slovenia. The key outcome of this gathering is the adoption, by consensus, the Ljubljana – The Hague Convention on International Cooperation in the Investigation and Prosecution of the Crime of Genocide, Crimes against Humanity, War Crimes and other International Crimes (“the Convention”).

On June 5, 2023, the International Criminal Court (ICC) addressed crime concerns in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the need for a new approach in combating the crimes committed in the DRC.  This followed Chief Prosecutor of the ICC, Karim Khans’, first visit to the DRC, where he spoke with DRC authorities and leading figures, such as Dr. Denis Mukwege, fighting the continued crimes against humanity happening in Eastern Congo.  There have been efforts made to help with the ongoing conflicts in the DRC, however there is still a significant number of atrocities occurring on a regular basis.  This fact-finding mission resulted in him calling for a ‘stronger partnership’ between global players and local authorities, citing the fact that the “rapes and crimes have not stopped” as proof that their current strategies are not enough.[1]

On June 9, 2023, Interpol announced the results of a month long operation conducted in March and April codenamed Tripartite Spider which resulted in the seizure of explosives and the arrests of 14 terror suspects linked to terror groups ADF, Al-Shabaab, and ISIS.   The enforcement action occurred in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya, Somali, Tanzania, and Uganda.[1]

On June 6, 2023, a High Court judge in the UK denied Julian Assange permission to appeal an order to extradite him to the United States to stand charges under the Espionage Act.[1]

On June 8, 2023, Peru extradited Joran van der Sloot, the prime suspect in the 2005 disappearance of Natalee Holloway to the United States to face charges that he tried to extort money from the mother of the missing daughter.  Van der Sloot arrived in an FBI-operated plane at Shuttlesworth Airport in Birmingham, Alabama.[1]

On June 8 2023, Canada and the Kingdom of the Netherlands (the Applicants) filed a joint application instituting proceedings against the Syrian Arab Republic before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, concerning alleged violations of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (the Convention against Torture).[1]

On April 12, 2023, Wilfred Rattigan, a Jamaican national residing in Maryland and an attorney and retired  FBI Supervisory Special Agent, brought a lawsuit in the Supreme Court of Judicature of Jamaica, seeking to compel Senator Kamina Johnson Smith, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of Jamaica, and the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service to disclose a gift in the amount of US $99,000.[1]

On May 12, 2023, the French cour de cassation (Supreme Court), Plenary Assembly, issued a ruling based on two cases involving acts in Syria, clarifying the “universal jurisdiction” standard for claims in France.

On May 24, 2023, the Belgian Data Protection Authority (BDPA) declared unlawful and prohibits the transfers of personal data of Belgian “Accidental Americans” by the Belgian Federal Public Service Finance (BFPS) to the United States tax authorities pursuant to the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA). [1] The BDPA has ruled that the processing done under this agreement does not comply with all the principles of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), including the rules on data transfers outside the EU.  The ruling also asks the BFPS to advise the competent Belgian legislator of the defects identified by the BDPA.[2]

On April 19, 2023, U.S. Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General Benjamin Mizer announced the creation of the Timber Interdiction Membership Board and Enforcement Resource (TIMBER), a working group of different departments of the U.S. government devoted to ending the illegal trade of plant and plant products, including timber, in international commerce.  The announcement was made at a roundtable established by the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Environment and Natural Resources.[1]