Oleksandra Matviichuk is one of the leading lawyers and human rights advocates pushing for accountability for grave crimes committed during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In 2007, Oleksandra founded the Center for Civil Liberties, which she still leads. In 2022, it became the first Ukrainian organization to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. The center was awarded the prize that year alongside human rights advocate Ales Bialiatski from Belarus, and the Russian human rights organization Memorial.  

The Center for Civil Liberties aims to advance human rights and democracy in Ukraine and the broader Europe-Eurasia region. It defends individual rights, develops legislative changes, conducts public oversight over law enforcement agencies and the judiciary, and offers educational activities for young people.

How does the Center for Civil Liberties promote accountability? And what does Oleksandra see as the key issues and trends to watch as this full-scale war nears its third-year mark in February?

Just Security’s Washington Senior Editor, Viola Gienger, recently sat down with Oleksandra to discuss her work. Here is their conversation.

Show Notes: 

• Oleksandra Matviichuk (@avalaina) 
• Viola Gienger (@ViolaGienger)
• Paras Shah (@pshah518) 
• Oleksandra’s March 2023 Just Security article (with Natalia Arno and Jasmine D. Cameron) “Russia’s Forcible Transfers of Ukrainian Civilians: How Civil Society Aids Accountability and Justice” (also available in Ukrainian)
• Oona A. Hathaway’s Just Security article (with Madeline Babin and Isabel Gensler) “New Report Documents Russia’s Systematic Program of Coerced Adoption and Fostering of Ukraine’s Children”
• Just Security’s Russia-Ukraine War coverage
• Just Security’s International Criminal Court coverage
• Just Security’s International Law coverage
• Nobel Peace Prize 2022 announcement and Oleksandra’s website
• Music: “Broken” by David Bullard from Uppbeat: https://uppbeat.io/t/david-bullard/broken (License code: OSC7K3LCPSGXISVI)

Among the many war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine are large-scale efforts to deport Ukrainian children to Russia. Thousands of children have already been taken to Russian camps and facilities, leading the International Criminal Court to issue arrest warrants for two senior Russian officials, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, in March 2023. 

Despite the arrest warrants, the deportations have continued. A new report from the Yale School of Public Health Humanitarian Research Lab identified 314 individual Ukrainian children that Russian officials transferred from Ukraine to Russia for coerced adoption and fostering, acts that likely constitute grave violations of international law. 

What are the report’s key findings? And how might they contribute to efforts toward accountability, including potential new criminal charges against Russian officials? 

Joining the show to discuss the report are Oona Hathaway and Nathaniel Raymond. 

Oona is a Professor at Yale Law School and an Executive Editor at Just Security. Nathaniel is the Executive Director of the Humanitarian Research Lab and a Lecturer in the Department of the Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases at the Yale School of Public Health. 

Show Notes:  

• Nathaniel Raymond (@nattyray11)
• Oona A. Hathaway (@oonahathaway)
• Paras Shah (@pshah518) 
• Oona’s Just Security article (with Madeline Babin and Isabel Gensler) “New Report Documents Russia’s Systematic Program of Coerced Adoption and Fostering of Ukraine’s Children”
• Just Security’s Russia-Ukraine War coverage
• Just Security’s International Criminal Court coverage
• Just Security’s International Law coverage
• Music: “Broken” by David Bullard from Uppbeat: https://uppbeat.io/t/david-bullard/broken (License code: OSC7K3LCPSGXISVI)

On November 22, the United Nations General Assembly’s legal arm, the Sixth Committee, adopted a resolution paving the way for negotiations on a first-ever treaty on preventing and punishing crimes against humanity. The resolution comes after years of impasse and after Russia and a handful of other countries dropped amendments that could have derailed the process at the last-minute. 

Crimes against humanity are those committed as part of a large-scale attack on civilians and include acts such as murder, rape, imprisonment, enforced disappearances, sexual slavery, torture and deportation. To be considered a crime against humanity, a violation doesn’t necessarily have to occur during an active war. And while crimes against humanity are covered by the International Criminal Court, nearly 70 countries are not members of the Court, which creates a gap in fully prosecuting these crimes in countries from Sudan to Syria to Myanmar. 

What can we expect next as States prepare for negotiations, and how might a future crimes against humanity treaty close the impunity gap?  

Joining the show to unpack the developments on the crimes against humanity treaty are Akila Radhakrishnan and Leila Sadat.  

Akila is an international human rights lawyer and gender-justice expert, who currently serves as the Strategic Legal Advisor for Gender Justice for the Atlantic Council’s Strategic Litigation Project. Leila is the James Carr Professor of International Criminal Law and longtime Director of the Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute at Washington University School of Law. 

Show Notes: 

• Akila Radhakrishnan (@akila_rad)
• Leila Nadya Sadat (@leilasadat1)
• Paras Shah (@pshah518) 
• Just Security’s Proposed Crimes Against Humanity Treaty coverage
• Just Security’s International Law coverage
• Just Security’s International Criminal Court coverage
• Music: “Broken” by David Bullard from Uppbeat: https://uppbeat.io/t/david-bullard/broken (License code: OSC7K3LCPSGXISVI)

Earlier this fall, three Pacific Island States – Vanuatu, Fiji, and Samoa – formally proposed adding ecocide as a crime that can be heard and punished by the International Criminal Court, which can currently try individuals for war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and the crime of aggression.

Any change to the ICC’s Rome Statute, particularly adding a new international crime, would require a massive level of diplomatic coordination and negotiation. But the future crime might hold individuals criminally accountable for severe environmental damage, such as massive oil or chemical spills or the destruction of rainforests. 

In the meantime, what does the ecocide proposal mean in practice? How might it potentially impact our understanding of ongoing destruction of the environment and the role of international criminal law? 

Joining the show to unpack the ecocide proposal are Naima Fifita, Rebecca Hamilton, and Kate Mackintosh.  

Naima is a lawyer from Tuvalu. She is the Executive Director of the Institute for Climate and Peace. Bec is an Executive Editor at Just Security and a Professor of Law at American University. Kate is Executive Director of the UCLA Law Promise Institute Europe, and Deputy Co-Chair of the Independent Expert Panel on the Legal Definition of Ecocide.  

Show Notes:  

• Naima Fifita
• Rebecca Hamilton (@bechamilton) 
• Kate Mackintosh (@Katemackintosh2)
• Paras Shah (@pshah518) 
• Just Security’s expert round up article “Why Criminalize Ecocide? Experts Weigh In” 
• Just Security’s Climate Change coverage
• Just Security’s International Law coverage
• Just Security’s International Criminal Court coverage
• Music: “Broken” by David Bullard from Uppbeat: https://uppbeat.io/t/david-bullard/broken (License code: OSC7K3LCPSGXISVI)

With the U.S. presidential election less than a week away, anxiety is high, both across the country and around the world. Many fear the rise of populism and the erosion of democratic norms. In over two centuries, the United States has had many presidents who pushed on the door of anti-democratic power, but it has also had people who pushed back. 

Ahead of the election, what lessons can we learn by looking to the past? 

Brown University political scientist Corey Brettschneider is one of the leading thinkers on presidential power. His recent book, The Presidents and the People: Five Leaders Who Threatened Democracy and the Citizens Who Fought to Defend It examines how John Adams, James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Woodrow Wilson, and Richard Nixon abused their power, and how citizens like Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, and Daniel Ellsberg resisted and offered a more democratic understanding of the Constitution. 

Just Security Senior Fellow Tom Joscelyn sat down with Brettschneider to discuss the book and the lessons it offers for the election, the state of American democracy, and beyond.

Here is Tom’s conversation with Corey Brettschneider. 

Show Notes: 

• Corey Brettschneider (@BrettschneiderC)
• Tom Joscelyn (@thomasjoscelyn) 
• Paras Shah (@pshah518) 
• Corey’s book The Presidents and the People: Five Leaders Who Threatened Democracy and the Citizens Who Fought to Defend It published by W. W. Norton & Company
• Just Security’s “Democracy Backsliding” series
• Just Security’s 2024 Presidential Election coverage
• Just Security’s Democracy coverage
• Just Security’s Domestic Extremism coverage
• Music: “Broken” by David Bullard from Uppbeat: https://uppbeat.io/t/david-bullard/broken (License code: OSC7K3LCPSGXISVI)

For five years, Christopher Smith, a man with intellectual disabilities, was forced to work 100 hours per week at a South Carolina restaurant without pay. Smith faced verbal and physical abuse at the hands of his employer. Around the world, persons with disabilities like Smith face many modern forms of enslavement, from forced labor and begging to sexual exploitation and imprisonment by caregivers. 

While some of these crimes are prosecuted through national court systems, international criminal law can also play an important role in promoting accountability for grave crimes, including the crime of the slave trade. The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court is formulating a new Slave Crimes Policy, which he hopes will be “survivor-centred, trauma-informed and gender-competent.”

How can international law, and the new policy, best account for the unique needs and challenges persons with disabilities face regarding slavery crimes? 

Joining the show to unpack how slavery crimes impact persons with disabilities and what the international community can do in response are Janet Lord and Michael Ashley Stein. 

Janet is the Executive Director of the University of Baltimore School of Law’s Center for International and Comparative Law and a senior research fellow at the Harvard Law School Project on Disability. Michael is the co-founder and Executive Director of the Harvard Law School Project on Disability, and a Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School. 

Show Notes:  

• Janet E. Lord
• Michael Ashley Stein
• Paras Shah (@pshah518) 
• Janet, Michael, Pace Schwarz, Matthew “Hezzy” Smith, Alex Green, and Rosemary Kayess’ Just Security article “Time for the International Criminal Court to Recognize Persons with Disabilities and the Slave Trade” 
• Just Security’s Disability Rights coverage
• Just Security’s International Criminal Court (ICC) coverage
• Just Security’s International Law coverage
• Harvard Law School Project on Disability (HPOD) 
• Music: “Broken” by David Bullard from Uppbeat: https://uppbeat.io/t/david-bullard/broken (License code: OSC7K3LCPSGXISVI)

During this year’s election season in Mexico, propagandists leveraged a new mass-broadcasting feature on WhatsApp, called “channels,” to impersonate reputable political news outlets and pump out misleading information. Thousands of miles away, Telegram users in Hungary leveraged the app’s forwarding bot against LGBTQ+ and pro-democracy civil society organizations, portraying them as “Western-controlled” ahead of European Union elections. 

Messaging platforms such as WhatsApp, Telegram, and Viber have become highly influential tools for manipulating and misleading voters around the world. 

In fact, a new report, “Covert Campaigns: Safeguarding Encrypted Messaging Platforms from Voter Manipulation” examines how political propagandists have refined a digital “broadcasting toolkit.” The toolkit is a set of tactics for reaching large swaths of voters directly on their phones using narratives tailored to resonate with their specific interests and viewpoints. 

What are some of the most common tactics in the “broadcasting toolkit”? How can users and messaging platforms respond to the spread of propaganda and disinformation? 

Joining the show to discuss the report’s key findings are two of its authors, Mariana Olaizola Rosenblat and Inga Trauthig. 

Mariana is a policy advisor on technology and law at the New York University Stern Center for Business and Human Rights. Inga is the head of research for the Propaganda Research Lab at the Center for Media Engagement at the University of Texas at Austin.

Show Notes:  

• Mariana Olaizola Rosenblat
• Inga Trauthig
• Paras Shah (@pshah518) 
• Mariana, Inga, and Samuel C. Woolley's Just Security article “Political Propaganda Runs Wild on Messaging Apps – Platform Owners Can Help Counter It” 
• Just Security’s Disinformation and Misinformation coverage 
• Just Security’s Technology coverage
• Just Security’s Elections coverage
• Music: “Broken” by David Bullard from Uppbeat: https://uppbeat.io/t/david-bullard/broken (License code: OSC7K3LCPSGXISVI)

The conflict in Sudan, which erupted in April 2023, primarily involves the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) under General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti. While the fighting began in the country’s capital, Khartoum, it has since spread to other regions, including Darfur. 

The conflict has resulted in thousands of deaths and injuries, with estimates of 15,000 killed and more than 20,000 injured. The humanitarian crisis is dire, with millions facing severe food shortages. Around 25 million people are in need of assistance, 8.1 million are internally displaced, and 2.9 million people have crossed the border since April 2023. Recent discussions at the United Nations General Assembly highlighted the urgent need for international intervention and support. 

Meanwhile, the most recent clashes in Khartoum suggest a possible shift in the balance of power, as both sides continue to vie for control amid an increasingly fragmented landscape.

Co-hosting this episode is Just Security Executive Editor Matiangai Sirleaf. Matiangai is the Nathan Patz Professor of Law at the University of Maryland School of Law.

Joining the show to discuss the conflict’s origins and its impact, and the international community’s response are Laura Beny, Nisrin Elamin, and Hamid Khalafallah. 

Laura is a Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School, Nisrin is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Toronto, and Hamid is a Researcher at the University of Manchester. 

Show Notes:  

• Laura Nyantung Beny
• Nisrin Elamin (@minlayla77)
• Hamid Khalafallah (@HamidMurtada)
• Matiangai V.S. Sirleaf (@matiangai)
• Paras Shah (@pshah518) 
• Just Security’s Sudan coverage
• Laura and Sondra Hale's book "Sudan's Killing Fields: Political Viilence and Fragmentation" 
• Nisrin's article with Sara Abbas, Rabab Elnaiem, and Abdelraouf Omer "In Sudan, the People’s Revolution Versus the Elite’s Counterrevolution" 
• Music: “Broken” by David Bullard from Uppbeat: https://uppbeat.io/t/david-bullard/broken (License code: OSC7K3LCPSGXISVI)

More than 130 world leaders just completed a week of meetings in New York for the annual opening of the United Nations General Assembly. This high-level week, as it’s called, began with States adopting U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' "Pact for the Future,” a key document generated as part of the "Summit of the Future."  

The goal of the Summit, and the pact, is to recharge the idea of global cooperation, which is facing severe strain amid competition between the United States and its allies on the one hand, and Russia and China and their allies on the other. The U.N. meetings also occurred as conflicts in Ukraine, the Middle East, Sudan, and Myanmar, to name just a few, are killing tens of thousands of people and displacing millions. 

What were the key outcomes from the Summit of the Future and how might it shape future global diplomacy? And how can the U.N. more broadly remain relevant amid such geopolitical tensions? 

Co-hosting this episode is Just Security’s Washington Senior Editor, Viola Gienger. 

Joining the show to assess the high-level week and the Summit of the Future is Richard Ponzio. 

Richard is a Senior Fellow and Director of the Stimson Center’s program on Global Governance, Justice & Security.

Show Notes:  

• Richard Ponzio (@RichardPonzio)
• Viola Gienger (@ViolaGienger)
• Paras Shah (@pshah518) 
• Richard's Just Security article "The UN's New 'Pact for the Future': A Milestone That Can Set a Path for Change"
• Just Security’s UNGA 79 coverage including expert analysis and resources
• Just Security’s U.N. Security Council coverage
• Just Security’s Russia-Ukraine war, Israel-Hamas war, and Sudan confect coverage   
• Just Security’s Summit of the Future coverage
• Music: “Broken” by David Bullard from Uppbeat: https://uppbeat.io/t/david-bullard/broken (License code: OSC7K3LCPSGXISVI)

Earlier this month, a SpaceX mission called Polaris Dawn launched four civilians into outer space. The crew completed the first ever “commercial spacewalk” while floating more than 800 miles above the Earth’s surface. But private companies aren’t the only ones interested in exploring the stars. Militaries are increasingly using space for a comparative advantage, from Russia’s plans to place a nuclear weapon into orbit to China’s development of anti-satellite weapons for the final frontier. 

And while these “new space races” are full of emerging technology, the law that governs outer space is decades old and incomplete. Much of it was developed in the 1960s and 70s. It remains murky and the legal guardrails, where they exist, are largely untested. 

Recently, experts from academia, industry, and government have published the Woomera Manual on the International Law of Military Space Activities and Operations. The Manual is the first comprehensive and detailed articulation of how international law applies to military operations in outer space.  

What motivated the project of drafting the Manual, and how was it developed? How might it benefit the future development of space law and where do gaps remain? 

Co-hosting this episode is Just Security’s Co-Editor-in-Chief, Tess Bridgeman. 

Joining the show to discuss the Woomera Manual are two of its editors, Jack Beard and David Koplow. Jack is a Professor of Law and the Director of the Space, Cyber, and National Security Law Program at the University of Nebraska College of Law. David is the Scott K. Ginsburg Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center where he specializes in public international law and national security law. 

Show Notes: 

• Jack M. Beard
• David A. Koplow
• Tess Bridgeman (@bridgewriter)
• Paras Shah (@pshah518)
• David’s Just Security article “In the Woomera Manual, International Law Meets Military Space Activities” 
• The Woomera Manual on the International Law of Military Space Activities and Operations
• Just Security’s Space coverage
• Just Security’s International Law coverage
• Just Security’s Law of Armed Conflict coverage
• Music: “Broken” by David Bullard from Uppbeat: https://uppbeat.io/t/david-bullard/broken (License code: OSC7K3LCPSGXISVI)