The UK Supreme Court’s Unworkable Sex Definitions in For Women Scotland
14.05.2025
Manon Beury
Lena Holzer
Electra Zacharias
On 16 April 2025, the UK Supreme Court decided in the case of For Women Scotland Ltd v. The Scottish Ministers that the term “woman” in the Equality Act 2010...
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The New European Convention for the Protection of the Profession of Lawyer
13.05.2025
On March 12, 2025, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe unanimously adopted the European Convention for the Protection of the Profession of Lawyer (‘the Convention’). This instrument...
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From Denial to Accountability
12.05.2025
Spyridoula (Sissy) Katsoni
Mariana Gkliati
A long-denied reality by the Greek authorities is now on court record. Through its judgement in A.R.E. v Greece the European Court of Human Rights (Court) has confirmed the longstanding...
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Will the Swiss Grandmas Travel the World?
12.05.2025
Liz Hicks
Hannah Leoni Stahl
Aylin Yildiz Noorda
Anticipation has run high for what some call the of the KlimaSeniorinnen ruling delivered on 9 April 2024. While it is too early to definitively assess the KlimaSeniorinnen ruling’s impact...
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Precaution as Obligation?
01.05.2025
On March 14, 2025, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) made public a landmark ruling holding Ecuador internationally responsible for the violation of various rights of the Tagaeri and...
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Are All Options Exhausted?
19.03.2025
Following the European Parliament's resolution on the situation of Afghan women after implementation of the Virtue and Vice Law, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled on 4th October 2024...
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“Senator, I Can’t Give You a Yes or No Answer”
10.03.2025
At the end of January, videos of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s confirmation hearings went viral. Kennedy – a controversial figure best known for his anti-vaccines rhetoric – was chosen by...
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- Symposium
- Women in International Law Vol. 4
Introducing the Fourth Annual ‘Women in International Law’ Symposium
03.03.2025
Céline Chausse
Rishiti Choudaha
Polina Kulish
Spyridoula (Sissy) Katsoni
On the occasion of International Women’s Day, celebrated annually on the 8th of March, Völkerrechtsblog hosts the 'Women in International Law' symposium. Held each year during this week, it features...
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Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric and Detaining the “Other”
27.02.2025
Fiza Lee-Winter
Selin Altay
Not a day goes by without increasing discrimination against refugees around the world. Sometimes, this takes the form of a U.S. president making baseless claims about refugees eating other people’s...
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- Symposium
- Rights of Nature: Obstacles and Challenges
Rights of Nature Through the History of Problematizations
26.02.2025
In 2022, the Spanish saltwater lagoon Mar Menor became the first ecosystem in Europe to be granted rights of nature. This widely celebrated success, which allows this ecosystem the “right...
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- Symposium
- Rights of Nature: Obstacles and Challenges
A Ring of Hope
25.02.2025
The text examines the current environmental challenges threatening the cenotes within the ‘Ring of Cenotes’ natural reserve in Yucatán State, Mexico. It briefly analyzes a case involving a large-scale pig...
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- Symposium
- Rights of Nature: Obstacles and Challenges
“Nature […] is Always Right”
25.02.2025
In recent years, the notion of “human interconnectedness” with the “non-human world” led to several legislative initiatives and court decisions granting legal subjectivity to nature and/or recognizing inherent “Rights of...
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- Symposium
- Rights of Nature: Obstacles and Challenges
Revolution of Rights, Rethinking of Freedom
24.02.2025
The debate on inherent rights of nature (RoN) is no longer uncharted domain. What initially emerged as a theoretical concept in the 1970s through the work of Christopher Stone, who...
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- Symposium
- Rights of Nature: Obstacles and Challenges
The Struggles of Rights of Nature
24.02.2025
Elena Ewering
Andreas Gutmann
Janina Reimann
Tore Vetter
Social movements have always played a crucial role in determining the trajectory of world history. Today, all over the world, various actors of civil society demand for RoN). Ecuador’s pioneering...
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Special Editorial: A Nation in Crisis
21.02.2025
The 19 February 2025 marks the fifth anniversary of the Hanau terror attack, a heinous act of violence perpetrated by a far-right extremist whose racist ideology culminated in the killing...
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- Symposium
- Advanced Digital Technologies in Migration Management: Data Protection and Fundamental Rights Concerns
Advanced Digital Technologies in Migration Management
10.02.2025
Spyridoula (Sissy) Katsoni
Daniela Vitiello
Giulia Raimondo
Sara Arapiles
As migration management systems across the globe increasingly adopt advanced digital technologies, new challenges emerge at the intersection of technological innovations, human rights, and data protection. From artificial intelligence (dataAI)...
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Collective Resistance, Ancestrality and Black Women’s Power
11.12.2024
Melody Dodoo
Luna Borges
Muskan Tibrewala
Wellington 'Dinho' Gabriel
Wellington ‘Dinho’ Gabriel is a community leader from the Quilombo Pitanga dos Palmares community in Bahia, Brazil. In October 2024, Dinho spoke at an event at the United Nations, ahead...
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Remaining Tensions Between the “Global Souths” and the “Global Norths”
26.11.2024
Tejas Rao
Renatus Otto Franz Derler
The Convention on Biological Diversity gained increased momentum with the establishment of the 2022 Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) which aimed to address the limitations of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets...
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- Interview
- Symposium
- Climate Change Conference COP29
Setting the Scene for COP29
11.11.2024
Margaretha Wewerinke-Singh
Khaled El Mahmoud
Dear Margaretha, we would like to express our gratitude for accepting our invitation and for agreeing to this interview. We are delighted to have the opportunity to engage in discourse...
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The Cost of Silence
22.10.2024
The recent comments by the Indian Government reaffirming the marital exemptions carved out within the provisions on rape in Indian criminal law is a distressing reminder of the appalling condition...
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- Interview
- Symposium
- International Law and the Political
The Private is Political
30.09.2024
León Castellanos-Jankiewicz
Hendrik Simon
Despite its enormous growth in importance over the last 20 years or so, the History of International Law as an academic sub-discipline has so far widely neglected private international law....
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Beyond Atrocities
17.09.2024
Priorities in international human rights are undergoing a significant transformation as a result of the growing preoccupation with “atrocity crimes”, argued recently New York University law professor and former UN...
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What Are Human Rights Worth to Bayer?
28.07.2024
“Respect for human rights is a task for society as a whole, for which we all – governments and companies as well as individuals – must take responsibility,” states Bayer,...
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Louisiana’s Castration Law
28.07.2024
While Louisiana’s new castration law aims to deter sexual offences, it raises ethical and legal concerns because it infringes upon international human rights norms such as bodily autonomy and informed...
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Hello, Can You Hear Me?
07.06.2024
In March, the former Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights (“the Commissioner”), Dunja Mijatović, published a report, following up on her visit to Germany in November 2023, where she...
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- Symposium
- Blögiversary: Celebrating Ten Years of Völkerrechtsblog
Revisiting “The Right to Land”
01.05.2024
First and foremost, I would like to thank Völkerrechtsblog for allowing me to rediscover and discuss my 2016 blog post. At the time of writing, I felt it was necessary...
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Is the Harmonisation of IHL and IHRL Eroding?
18.03.2024
Editor's note: a two-part rebuttal to this piece by Mischa Gureghian Hall has been published on Völkerrechtsblog (see Part I and Part II). On 19 December 2023, the European...
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- Symposium
- Women in International Law Vol. 3
Staining International Law
08.03.2024
“Women are born with pain built in. It’s our physical destiny – period pains, sore boobs, childbirth. We carry it within ourselves throughout our lives.” Belinda in Fleabag, Series 2,...
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- Interview
- Symposium
- International Law and the Political
Against the Historiographical Hierarchization of Human Rights
12.02.2024
Steven L.B. Jensen
Hendrik Simon
Social and economic rights have often been considered part of so-called ‘second-generation rights’ – falsely, as Steven L. B. Jensen argues. Instead, he calls for a new historiography of social...
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Every Day Counts
06.02.2024
Dilara Karmen Yaman
Sabrina Seikh
Globally, approximately every seventh pregnancy worldwide results miscarriage, prompting a notable gap in legal discourse. This deficiency is exemplified by a critical issue: women in Germany who suffer a miscarriage...
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Children as Agents of Change
05.10.2023
The Committee on the Rights of the Child (Committee) has recently published its new General Comment No. 26 (GC26) on Children’s rights and the environment with a special focus on...
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Prohibition of Racial Discrimination is not Enough
27.09.2023
On 27 June 2023, 17-year-old Nahel M. was fatally shot by police during a vehicle stop in Paris, sparking nationwide riots. On the basis of video evidence, a number of...
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- Symposium
- Progress and International Law: A Cursed Relationship?
The “Responsibility to and for Progress” in International Law
22.09.2023
How do we achieve a responsible approach to progress and its consequences? This old question of humankind has been given new momentum by recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI): Numerous...
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- Symposium
- Progress and International Law: A Cursed Relationship?
Border Dialectics: Progress, Regress, and Resistance
20.09.2023
Received knowledge about the protection of migrants in international law tells a story of progress. A story of expanded refugee definitions, complementary protection, and extraterritorial obligations. Yet a counternarrative has...
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- Symposium
- Progress and International Law: A Cursed Relationship?
Locating Progress in the European Convention on Human Rights
19.09.2023
Progress may seem to be a temporal concept. That is certainly how it is usually understood in the literature on progress and international law. Statements of progress are said, for...
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A Serious Humanitarian Crisis Leading to Genocide in Nagorno-Karabakh
13.09.2023
It is already more than 270 days since the blockade of the Lachin Corridor, also known as the "road to life,” which connects the Nagorno-Karabakh region to Armenia and the...
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Iran’s Appointment as the Chair-Rapporteur of the UNHRC Social Forum
08.06.2023
On 10 May 2023, the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council (HRC) President appointed the Islamic Republic of Iran to chair the 2023 Social Forum. The upcoming Forum focuses on...
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God Save the King – From “Annoying” Protesters?
07.06.2023
For peaceful protesters, the United Kingdom (‘UK’) has turned into difficult terrain over the last years. In the recent past, this has become increasingly obvious, especially by the way the...
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Trojan Horses with Emergency Lights
16.05.2023
Medical impartiality, the principle that during armed conflicts or civil unrest, no one should interfere with the access to or delivery of medical services, is of utmost importance for effective...
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Trash or Treasure?
03.05.2023
What do you think happens with your phone after its approximately two years of usage? It will probably be on its way abroad together with other electronic equipment. With due...
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Beyond Property Relations
19.04.2023
In December 2022, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), the supervisory body of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) adopted General Comment No....
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The Future of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in Human Rights
02.03.2023
Over the last decades, the regulation of gender and sexuality has undergone major changes in Europe. From Athens to Reykjavik, same-sex unions are legal reality. States must no longer require...
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The Future of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in Human Rights
09.02.2023
The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has a long history of adjudicating cases concerning sexual orientation and gender identity. Many of those cases involved the controversial interpretive approach known...
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Emergency Derogation or Curtailment of Human Rights?
06.02.2023
Shiva Sharifzad
Reza Khabook
Following the killing of Mahsa (Jina) Amini in the so-called "Morality Police" custody due to the alleged non-compliance with Iran's hijab regulation, mass protests erupted all over the country in...
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The Vocal, yet Elusive Elephant in the Room of Supply Chain Regulation
20.12.2022
Sitting at the helm of the EU Council on 1 December 2022, Jozef Síkela, the Czech Minister for Industry and Trade, seemed astonished at the result of a vote count...
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- Symposium
- Racial Profiling in Germany
Race and Empire in International Law
14.12.2022
The prohibition of racial discrimination has played a marginal role within the global human rights agenda. This corresponds to the subordination and neglect of ‘race’ in how international legal scholars...
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- Symposium
- Adivasi Struggles in Chhattisgarh
India Trains Its Sights on Dissent in Chhattisgarh
28.10.2022
Development in the form of profit-driven resource exploitation ventures in India’s central state of Chhattisgarh, led by corporations and facilitated by the state, have wreaked havoc on the lives and...
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Behind the Curtain
17.10.2022
It is increasingly difficult to form social relations, to work, or to get information about the work of government or public offices without having access to information and communications technologies...
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Wofür kämpfen?
25.07.2022
Der russische Angriffskrieg gegen die Ukraine ist zu einem Zermürbungskrieg im Osten des Landes geworden. Seine Fortdauer kostet jeden Tag unzählige Menschenleben. Dennoch zeigt sich gerade in Hinblick auf die...
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- Media
- Völkerrechtspodcast
#3 Bindung an Menschenrechte im Ausland
05.03.2021
Sophie Schuberth
Erik Tuchtfeld
Isabel Lischewski
Philipp Eschenhagen
Wie man Staaten dazu bekommt, auch für ihr Handeln jenseits ihres Territoriums Verantwortung zu übernehmen, ist ein altes Problem des Völkerrechts – umso drängender wird es, wenn dieses Handeln Menschenrechte...
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