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Armed men at 3 a.m. on February 20, 2026, raided the office of the Global Justice and Research Project (GJRP) in Liberia, the Center for Justice and Accountability, Civitas Maxima, Global Justice Center, Global Justice and Research Project and Human Rights Watch said today. The men, armed with a rifle and knives, attacked and assaulted a security guard and threatened Hassan Bility the director of the group, which works for accountability for crimes during Liberia’s civil wars. Liberian police have opened an investigation.

originally published by Human Rights Watch (Monrovia) – Liberian President Joseph Boakai should follow through on his commitment to justice and human rights by renewing an executive order key to establishing a war crimes court to address accountability for civil war-era crimes in the country, six human rights groups said today. The order, signed on May 2, 2024, is set to expire on May 1, 2025.  The groups, Liberian and international nongovernmental organizations, are Advocates for Human Rights, Civitas Maxima, Civil Society Human Rights Advocacy Platform of Liberia, Global Justice Center, Global Justice and Research Project, and Human Rights Watch.  “Liberia’s quest to bring closure for victims of civil war atrocities, and ensure their access to justice, remains a major priority,” said Adama Dempster, secretary-general of the Civil Society Human Rights Platform of Liberia. “We call for government and international support to ensure the establishment of the court.”  Widespread and systematic violations of international human rights and humanitarian law characterized Liberia’s two brutal armed conflicts, which took place between 1989 and 2003. They included summary executions, massacres, rape and other forms of sexual violence, mutilation and torture, and forced conscription and use of child combatants. Nobody has faced criminal investigation or prosecution in Liberia for serious crimes committed during the civil wars. The only steps toward justice for serious crimes have been cases prosecuted abroad.  The country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, in its final 2009 report, recommended the creation of an extraordinary criminal court, a hybrid court composed of Liberian and international judges, prosecutors, and other staff with a mandate to try those allegedly responsible for committing serious crimes. As the groups highlighted in a recent submission to the United Nations Human Rights Council in the context of Liberia’s upcoming November 2025 Universal Periodic Review, 16 years later, Liberia has yet to implement this critical recommendation. The May 2024 executive order established an office to “investigate, design, and prescribe the methodology, mechanisms, and the process” for the establishment of a war crimes court and a national anti-corruption court (Office for the Establishment of War and Economic Crimes Court for Liberia). “President Boakai promised Liberians accountability for wartime atrocities, but for this to become a reality, he needs to renew the executive order,” said Michelle Reyes Milk, senior international justice counsel at Human Rights Watch. “President Boakai should also work with the legislature to replace the executive order with legislation so the office can work sustainably to develop the framework for establishing the war and economic crimes court.” Over the course of 2024, the Boakai administration took further steps toward setting up the office. President Boakai made a public commitment to advance the process during a speech to the UN General Assembly on September 25, 2024. Additional steps included the withdrawal of the appointment of the first executive director for the office following strong reservations voiced by victim and civil society groups and the more consultative process involved in the second appointment, resulting in the selection of Jallah Barbu as the new executive director. President Boakai also wrote to the UN secretary-general requesting assistance in establishing a court. However, progress remains limited. In January 2025, the groups wrote to President Boakai calling on the government to take necessary measures towards the establishment of the court. The organizations highlighted the need to ensure the office has requisite staffing and budgetary support and called on the office to adopt an action plan, or “roadmap,” to advance preparation for the court’s establishment.  The plan should address the model on which the war crimes court will be designed; the composition of the court; a clear procedure for the election and appointment of its officials; a proposed budget; and efforts needed for the adoption of a statute, among other issues, and have clear action points and intended outcomes.  Despite the challenges in the process, prospects for a war crimes court continue to offer thousands of victims a promise of justice that has long evaded them, the groups said. President Boakai should renew the executive order and ensure sufficient funding is in place so that the necessary work to establish the court can accelerate.  “A comprehensive roadmap that can ensure the office has both the resources and mandate to fulfill its key mission—establishing a sustainable war crimes court—is therefore vital and urgent,” said Hassan Bility, executive director of the Global Justice and Research Project. “We urge the office to move swiftly in the adoption and implementation of such a plan of action.”

Ruling in Case Against Dominic Ongwen Sets Historic Precedent on Reproductive Autonomy NEW YORK/THE HAGUE  — The International Criminal Court today upheld the conviction of Dominic Ongwen, a former commander of the Lord’s Resistance Army, a rebel force that operated in Uganda for decades. In 2021, Ongwen was found guilty of 61 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Northern Uganda between 2002 and 2005. This included many sexual and gender-based crimes such as forced marriage and forced pregnancy, neither of which had previously tried at the ICC. The Global Justice Center, Amnesty International, Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice, and Dr. Rosemary Grey filed an amicus brief on the crime of forced pregnancy in the case in December of 2021. They presented this analysis to the court during appeal hearings in February of this year. In its ruling today, the court affirmed this analysis and found that the legal interest behind the crime of forced pregnancy is “woman’s reproductive health and autonomy and the right to family planning,” and that national abortion laws are irrelevant to the court’s analysis of the crime. Akila Radhakrishnan, President of the Global Justice Center, issued the following statement: “Today’s ruling is a victory not only for the victims of Dominic Ongwen, but for all victims of sexual and gender-based violence that come to the ICC for justice. This is especially true for victims of forced pregnancy, whose human rights are now further protected by the creation of a historic precedent on reproductive autonomy in international law.”  Alix Vuillemin, Advocacy Director at Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice, issued the following statement: “Today, the crime of ‘forced pregnancy’ was recognized by the ICC as the incomparable violence done to women who are raped, forcibly made pregnant, and confined with the intent to keep them pregnant. As we said in the 1990s in pushing for the criminalisation of these acts, with forced pregnancy, the invasion of the body and self is total. Women are being treated as chattel for the purpose of reproduction, which is another form of gender enslavement. Decades later, with this judgment, the ICC has given us sharper tools to advance the recognition, accountability and prevention of this violence.” Matt Cannock, Amnesty International's Center for International Justice, issued the following statement: “The Appeals Chamber's decision will doubtless prove critical for the future of the International Criminal Court's consideration of the crime of forced pregnancy, and it firmly holds the door open to victims of this horrendous crime to access justice before the court and beyond. “In particular we welcome the court's crucial finding, centered around human rights considerations, that the crime of forced pregnancy seeks to protect women’s ‘reproductive health and autonomy and the right to family planning’ - an absence of which can cause severe physical and psychological harms and lasting personal, social and economic consequences.” Dr. Rosemary Grey, Lecturer at Sydney Law School, issued the following statement: “Today, the value of reproductive autonomy was recognised by the International Criminal Court’s highest chamber. The decision affirms that forced pregnancy is among the most serious crimes of international concern, regardless of whether reproductive rights are protected under national law. It’s inspiring — and long overdue — to see the court taking this strong stance on reproductive rights under international law. And inspiring to see the strength of the two women whose evidence supported this historic conviction for forced pregnancy.”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – April 13, 2018 [New York] – The Global Justice Center (GJC) applauds the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the charging of Al-Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mohamed Ag Mahmoud for persecution on the grounds of gender. This potentially groundbreaking case could be the first time that the Court will consider the crime of gender-based persecution and has the potential to define the Court’s jurisprudence around gender. In a statement following Al-Hassan’s arrest, Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda announced that, “Mr. Al-Hassan is allegedly responsible for the crimes against humanity of persecution on both religious and gender grounds; rape and sexual slavery committed in the context of forced marriages; torture and other inhuman acts intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health.” The inclusion of the crime of gender-based persecution in Al-Hassan’s case is a promising indication of Prosecutor Bensouda’s commitment to securing justice for sexual and gender-based crimes. According to his arrest warrant, Al-Hassan was a member of Ansar Dine, one of several Islamic militant groups that seized control of Mali in 2012. As the de-facto chief of Islamic police in Timbuktu, Al-Hassan enforced a policy of forced marriages that “led to the repeated rapes and sexual enslavement of women and girls”. Under ICC pre-trial procedures, Al-Hassan will not be formally charged until a confirmation of charges hearing, which has been tentatively scheduled for September 24, 2018. The ICC should continue this commitment to gender justice and open an investigation into the genocidal crimes Daesh is committing against Yazidi women and girls in Iraq and Syria. In December 2015, the Global Justice Center sent a brief to Prosecutor Bensouda calling on the ICC to investigate Daesh’s gender-based crimes including the systematic rape, torture, and enslavement of women and girls. As the international community begins the process of holding Daesh fighters accountable, it must provide justice for the victims targeted due to their gender. The charges of persecution based on gender in the Al-Hassan case are an important first step in prosecuting the gender-based crimes that are a central tactic of extremist groups in conflicts around the world. “It is encouraging that the Court is looking beyond the narrow lens of counterterrorism to prosecute the real gendered crimes that often go hand in hand with violent extremism,” says Staff Attorney for the Global Justice Center, Grant Shubin. “When gender is at the heart of the crimes committed, gender must also be at the center of accountability.” For more information contact: Liz Olson (New York), Global Justice Center, lolson@globaljusticecenter.net 212.725.6530 ext. 217

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — April 7, 2017 [NEW YORK, NY] - Today marks the 23rd Anniversary of the start of the Rwanda genocide when 80% of the Tutsi population in Rwanda was exterminated. Over the course of 100 days, up to a half million Tutsi women were raped, sexually mutilated or murdered. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda handed down the first conviction for the use of rape as an act of genocide. Since then, genocide and ethnic cleansing continue to occurr around the world, including in places like Iraq, Syria, Burundi and Sudan. Since 2014, ISIS has been targeting the Yazidi, a minority ethnic community in Iraq and Syria, for genocide. Their crimes include mass killing of Yazidi men, and the kidnapping, forcible transfer and enslavement of Yazidi women and children and institutionalizing sexual violence, including by forced pregnancy and forced abortion. In Burundi, a country at risk of genocide, a recent video emerged of pro-government youth militia singing about “impregnating” the opposition. “In the case of ISIS, it is long past time for the international community to act on its obligations under the UN Genocide Convention to prevent, suppress and punish genocide,” says Janet Benshoof, Global Justice Center President. “These crimes have been going on for almost three years and there has been no accountability for the genocide. Evidence is languishing, women remain in captivity and the Iraqi government is delaying justice. It is an insult to the victims and the rule of law.” The United States, UN and other international bodies have recognized that genocide is occurring but have taken limited steps to ending this genocide or hold the perpetrators accountable. Over 3,200 Yazidi women and children remain in captivity and are daily subjected to genocidal acts. “There are strong international precedents on prosecuting genocide, including for rape as an act of genocide in Rwanda, that must be upheld,” says Benshoof. “Genocide prosecutions are enormously important to deter and delegitimize ISIS atrocities. The perpetrators of these atrocities should not be killed in counter-terrorism measures or only held accountable for terrorism crimes, they should be seen in court being held accountable for the full scope of the crimes they committed—including genocide.”   For more information contact: Stephanie Olszewski (New York), Global Justice Center, solszewski@globaljusticecenter.net +1.212.725.6530 ext. 211

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE— March 29, 2017 [NEW YORK, NY] - Yesterday, Jordan welcomed Omar al-Bashir, Sudan’s President, for the Arab League’s annual summit. Bashir is attending despite two longstanding arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court (ICC) for his actions in Darfur, including rape, murder, torture and extermination. He has been charged with genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity and has been a fugitive from the ICC since 2009. Jordan, as a party to the ICC’s Rome Statute, has an obligation to arrest Bashir and turn him over to the court. Jordan also has obligations as a party to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide to cooperate with international criminal proceedings to hold genocidaires accountable. In 2015, South Africa similarly failed to arrest Bashir when he attended an African Union summit. “When countries like Jordan and South Africa allow Bashir to visit and fail to arrest him, they are not only in violation of their obligations under the Rome Statute to cooperate with the ICC, but their obligations under the Genocide Convention as well,” says Akila Radhakrishnan, Vice-President & Legal Director of the Global Justice Center. “The International Court of Justice, in its 2007 decision in the Bosnia-Serbia Genocide case, found that when Serbia failed to cooperate with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and arrest Ratko Mladic when he was on Serbian territory, they violated their obligations to punish under the Genocide Convention. What is happening in Jordan today is no different—Jordan's failure to take action puts it in violation of its international obligations. GJC joins Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Arrest Bashir Campaign and other NGOs in calling for Jordan and the international community to take immediate action to end impunity for war crimes.” Since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011, over 1 million refugees have poured into Jordan. “Jordan is at the center of the Syrian refugee crisis and has voiced disappointment in the past about the UN Security Council’s failure to refer the situation in Syria to the ICC, says Stephanie Johanssen, EU and UN Director for the Global Justice Center. “With the Syrian war now entering its 6th year, Jordan knows first-hand the dangers of shielding a war criminal for the sake of political interests. These are precisely the actions that undermine the efficiency of the ICC, we cannot have countries proclaim support for international justice on the one hand, and then collaborate or mingle with the ICC’s most wanted.” The failure to arrest and prosecute war criminals undermines the interests of justice and signals to others that they can commit these crimes with impunity. “Allowing war criminal to thrive while depriving their victims of justice undermines the very system these States themselves created to hold perpetrators accountable,” says Radhakrishnan. “Victims of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide committed around the world require justice—whether committed by Bashir, Assad, ISIS or the Burmese military. Justice cannot come second to political convenience.” For more information contact: Stephanie Olszewski (New York), Global Justice Center, solszewski@globaljusticecenter.net +1.212.725.6530 ext. 211

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE—June 27, 2016 [Windhoek, Namibia] – The African Caribbean Pacific (ACP)- European Union (EU) Joint Parliamentary Assembly (JPA) adopted a resolution on rape and sexual violence against women and children in armed conflict that recognized rape as an element crime of genocide when commmitted with the intent to destroy the targeted group. The resolution further called for abortion to be treated as necessary medical care for girls and women impregnated by rape in war under international humanitarian law. The resolution also further affirmed that the Geneva Conventions and its additional protocols applies in times of conflict and supersedes national or local law. It called on all states to prevent rape and sexual violence in conflict and ensure that victims recieve adequate medical care including access to sexual and reproductive healthcare in line with the Geneva Conventions. It called on states to prosecute perpetrators and on the UN to provide its members with training guidelines on the particular needs of children. The resolution asked states involved in post-conflict humanitarian activities to collect data on rape and sexual violence in conflict. "This strongly worded resolution demonstrates the political will that exists to address these serious issues" said Akila Radhakrishnan, Global Justice Center, Legal Director. The resolution was adopted by Members of the European Parliament together with MPs from the 78 ACP states For more information contact: Stephanie Olszewski (New York), solszewski@globaljusticecenter.net, +1.212.725.6530 ext. 211

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – April 14, 2014 [NEW YORK, NY] – On the night of April 14th, 2014, 276 Nigerian schoolgirls were abducted from their boarding school in Chibok, Nigeria by the terrorist group Boko Haram. The abduction ignited worldwide outrage, sparked a vigorous social media campaign to #BringBackOurGirls, and drew condemnation from political leaders around the world. However, today, on the one-year anniversary of the kidnapping, the majority of the schoolgirls are still missing. "The young Chibok school girls have been living lives of daily terror and torture, including rape, forced conversion to Islam, forced marriage, forced pregnancy and sexual slavery, for 365 days and there has been no internationally motivated effort to rescue them,” says GJC President, Janet Benshoof, “this demonstrates the enormous gulf between the global concern for women and the political will to do anything about it.” Not only have the girls not been found, but there has been no accountability for the heinous crimes committed against them, which is why, today, the Global Justice Center (GJC) is urging the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Fatou Bensouda, to investigate whether Boko Haram, who recently pledged allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), is perpetrating genocide against the Christian community in Nigeria. The abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls, among others, in Nigeria is exactly the act of genocide, as defined in the Genocide Convention, called the “forcible transfer of children.” The essence of genocide is not mass killing but the intent to destroy a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. Removing children from a group destroys its future, and has been a tool of genocide for as long as the legal concept has existed. If Prosecutor Bensouda examines Boko Haram’s gender-based abductions as genocide it would put all countries unequivocally on notice that genocide is occurring in Nigeria, propelling them to action. All states and the international community have the duty to prevent and halt genocide. It would also send a powerful message to other perpetrators, including terrorist groups in Iraq and Syria who are increasingly using the kidnapping of young girls and women as a tool in their campaign of terror, that genocide will not be tolerated. This year marks not only the one year anniversary of our failure to rescue the Chibok girls, but also the 100 year anniversary of one of the largest campaigns of child transfer in history: the Armenian Genocide. In 1915, tens of thousands of Armenian women and children were forcibly removed from their families, then “Islamized” through placement with Muslim families, in Muslim orphanages, or forced marriages to Muslim men. The ICC has admirably taken historic steps to put justice for women and girls at the forefront of its agenda. And in this case, there is a way to ensure justice for (and rescue of) the abducted girls of Nigeria as well as to establish a precedent of intolerance for crimes of this nature. The GJC calls on the ICC to demonstrate its will to do so. GJC’s letter to the Prosecutor can be found here. Accompanying Article 15 communication can be found here with supporting Annex found here. *** For further information or press inquiries, please contact: Sarah Vaughan, Director of External Relations, Global Justice Center, by e-mail at svaughan@globaljusticecenter.net or by phone a 212.725.6530, ext. 204. Sherrie Russell-Brown, Senior Attorney for Global Security, Global Justice Center, by email at srussellbrown@globaljusticecenter.net or by phone at 212.725.6530 ext.212. Download PDF

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – April 14, 2016 [NEW YORK, NY] – It is now two years since Boko Haram abducted nearly 300 Chibok Christian schoolgirls. The loud global rallying cry, which included Michelle Obama, to “Bring Back Our Girls”, has not stopped Boko Haram from targeting women and girls with heinous crimes including kidnappings, rapes, forced pregnancies, forced conversion, and murder by forced suicide. Today, the European Parliament formally marked the second anniversary of the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping by urging a resolution calling for their immediate release and demanding that women and girls have access to the full range of sexual and reproductive health services. While the Chibok girls remain in captivity, Boko Haram continues to act with total impunity, abducting an estimated 2,000 more women and girls. No less a global shame is how Nigeria treats girls who have escaped captivity, who as war victims, have clear rights under international law. Rescued girls face persecution for their “association” with their Boko Haram rapists. Many were forcibly impregnated and due to US restrictions, unable to access abortion services, a denial of their rights under the Geneva Conventions as war rape victims. While they suffer, no Boko Haram perpetrator has been prosecuted for these international crimes nor have the survivors been given their rights to justice including reparations. The International Criminal Court (ICC) should fast track its investigating of crimes committed in Nigeria opened in 2010, which includes crimes committed by Boko Haram. This investigation and any resulting prosecutions must include rape and enslavement as war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. Last year on this anniversary the Global Justice Center (GJC) made a submission brief to the ICC setting forth evidence sufficient to trigger a genocide investigation of the abduction of the Christian Chibok schoolgirls. Boko Haram uses sexual violence and forcible impregnation as tactics of war. The fundamentalist ideologies of groups like Boko Haram and ISIS rely on women being chattels, inferior and disposable. The global call to “Bring Back Our Girls” must go beyond rescue and include a demand for global justice for all women and girls suffering under extremists. For more information contact: Stephanie Olszewski, Communications Manager, solszewski@globaljusticecenter.net, 212.725.6530 ext. 211 Download PDF