International Legal News - 12 May 2025
- Ned Vucijak
- May 12
- 3 min read
Updated: May 19
The following media round up on international and foreign policy issues from around the world for the period of 06 May to 11 May 2025. Guernica 37 will provide weekly media updates from the International Criminal Court, European Court of Human Rights, United Nations, European Union and other sources. Should you wish to contribute or submit a media summary, opinion piece or blog, please send to Ned Vucijak at nenadv@guernica37.com for consideration.
10 May 2025
International coalition endorses special tribunal for crime of aggression against Ukraine
An international coalition of states formally endorsed the establishment of the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine within the Council of Europe. The endorsement came during a high-level event in Lviv attended by Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, European Commissioner Michael McGrath, High Representative Kaja Kallas, and representatives from the Council of Europe and over 40 supporting nations.
The ICC has opened investigations into war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the conflict but lacks jurisdiction over the crime of aggression in cases involving non-state parties such as Russia. The proposed Special Tribunal is designed to address this gap in accountability. Ukrainian authorities will be able to refer ongoing national investigations into aggression to the Tribunal’s prosecutor. Evidence collected by the International Centre for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression at Eurojust will also be transmitted for prosecution. The Tribunal’s establishment will be based on an agreement between Ukraine and the Council of Europe.
9 May 2025
China and Russia vow to strengthen cooperation on international law matter
China and Russia have agreed to strengthen cooperation in matters of international law, according to a joint statement released following Chinese President Xi Jinping’s meeting with Russia's Vladimir Putin.
The two countries condemned unilateral sanctions, military interventions not sanctioned by the UN Security Council, and the misuse of legal mechanisms for political ends. They also defended the legal immunity of state officials and expressed strong opposition to extraterritorial legal actions and coercive measures. Furthermore, the declaration stressed the importance of multilateral arms control agreements, cybersecurity governance, environmental cooperation, and development of international law in outer space and artificial intelligence.
9 May 2025
UN Human Rights Committee finds Guatemala responsible for transgenerational harm to Mayan peoples suffering forced displacement
The UN Human Rights Committee found that Guatemala is responsible for violating the rights of multiple generations of Mayan Indigenous peoples who were forcibly displaced during the country’s armed conflict in the 1980s. The ruling marks a landmark decision that addresses the transgenerational impact of state-led human rights violations.
The case was brought in 2021 by 269 members of the K’iche’, Ixil and Kaqchikel communities, who were violently uprooted from their ancestral lands during the government’s “scorched earth” military campaigns, one of which saw the Guatemalan army destroy Mayan civilian bases and systematically target Indigenous populations believed to be supporting guerrilla groups. Fleeing mass violence and persecution, survivors sought refuge in Guatemala City, where they continued to face systemic discrimination, cultural erasure, and the erosion of communal identity.
The UN Committee found that Guatemala compounded the harm by allowing cultural loss, psychological trauma, and socioeconomic hardship to persist across generations. In a new approach, the Committee recognized that the harm extended beyond the initial victims. It held that Guatemala also violated the rights of third-generation children born in displacement and transmits the trauma of being uprooted onto future generations. This decision underscores the importance of cultural transmission as a core aspect of Indigenous Peoples’ identity and survival.
6 May 2025
UN human rights experts urge Council of Europe to recognize right to healthy environment
The Special Rapporteur on the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change, the Special Rapporteur on the implications for human rights of the environmentally sound management and disposal of hazardous substances and wastes, and the Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order, called on the Council of Europe to begin the negotiation on initiating a binding protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights recognizing the right to a healthy environment.
The protocol aims to recognize the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment. It stems from an initiative from an appeal in a November 2024 letter from UN Special Rapporteurs urging the body to address the triple planetary crisis of intertwined climate change, biodiversity loss, and toxic pollution. The UN General Assembly and the Human Rights Council recognized these rights in resolution A/RES/76/300 adopted on July 28, 2022, and resolution A/HRC/RES/48/13 adopted on October 8, 2021. All 46 Council of Europe member states endorsed the implementation of the resolutions, with 28 states already enshrining these rights domestically.
