Excerpt of Just Security op-ed co-authored by GJC President Akila Radhakrishnan.

States considering the International Law Commission’s draft articles for a proposed treaty on crimes against humanity sought to narrow their differences in a weeklong session last month that began an 18-month process of debate and discussion towards the goal — at long last — of negotiations to conclude a treaty on the prevention and punishment of crimes against humanity.

A diverse cross-section of States engaged substantively on a number of issues, and it was clear by the conclusion of the session that positive momentum continues to build. As State representatives and civil-society organizations meet in Ljubljana, Slovenia, to discuss a parallel process, negotiations for a multi-lateral mutual legal assistance treaty, we hope that it serves as a springboard to further support the momentum achieved on crimes against humanity.

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Excerpt of American Bar Association op-ed authored by GJC President Akila Radhakrishnan.

When the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization was revealed—first the leak and then the nearly identical ruling—the reverberations were felt not only across the United States but also around the world.

The decision elicited responses from a range of international actors. For instance, United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet called the decision “a huge blow to women’s human rights and gender equality.” The World Health Organization, which had released comprehensive new abortion guidelines just months before, responded by emphasizing that “safe abortion is health care.” And UN human rights experts denounced the ruling as “shocking and dangerous.”

Countries allied with the United States were also vocally—and surprisingly—critical. French President Emmanuel Macron called abortion a fundamental right and said he stood in solidarity with women in the United States, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the news “horrific,” and Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo stated that he was very worried about the decision’s implications and “the signal it sends to the world.”

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Excerpt of Women's Media Center op-ed co-authored by GJC Legal Intern Katelyn Buckles.

In October, the United Nations Committee Against Torture issued a final decision in Elizabeth Coppin v. Ireland that once again dashed hopes of justice for survivors of one of Ireland’s worst regimes of torture and abuse. The committee, under its mandate to examine individual allegations of torture and ill-treatment around the world, ruled that Ireland did not violate the Convention Against Torture — despite repeatedly calling the Irish government’s investigation into torture in the Laundries over the years inadequate. By ignoring their own jurisprudence, the committee is setting a dangerous precedent for standards of future investigations into violence against women and girls.

In 1951, the Listowel District Court found Elizabeth Coppin to be destitute and illegitimate, meaning she was born to a single mother who could not afford to raise her. They then committed her to an industrial girl’s school, a system which has also been investigated for abuse and neglect, which later sent her to Saint Vincent’s Magdalene Laundry in 1964. The Laundries were religious institutions where at least 10,000 women and girls — many of whom were perceived to be “promiscuous” as unmarried mothers (or their daughters) or as burdens to their families or the state — were confined and forced to work unpaid, laundering and sewing for local businesses or government departments. Coppin was transferred to two other Laundries before being discharged in 1968 at the age of 19.

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Excerpt of Foreign Policy op-ed co-authored by GJC President Akila Radhakrishnan.

Last December, reports of a shocking program of forced abortions emerged in Nigeria. The Nigerian military, a Reuters investigation found, has allegedly forcibly terminated the pregnancies of at least 10,000 women and girls who were rescued or returned from Boko Haram-controlled territories in the country’s northeast. A follow-up report found that the army has also massacred children. Both patterns of abuse, Reuters reported, are part of the military’s systematic campaign amid the Boko Haram conflict to end the armed group’s supposed “bloodline.”

Nigerian authorities have rejected these allegations outright, but this is not the first report detailing alleged abuses by the Nigerian military in the Boko Haram conflict. Nor is it the first report to find patterns of violence, including possible crimes against humanity, in which the military has specifically targeted women and girls. For too long, this issue has been ignored by Nigeria’s allies and the United Nations. Now, the international community must act.

Over the past decade, the Nigerian military’s abuses have been well documented. For example, in 2015, Amnesty International issued a report concluding that the military had extrajudicially executed more than 1,200 people, arbitrarily detained at least 20,000 people (leading to at least 7,000 deaths in custody), and committed countless acts of torture in the Boko Haram conflict. These numbers have continued to grow.

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