International Legal News - 31 March 2025
- Ned Vucijak
- Mar 31
- 5 min read
Updated: Apr 7
The following media round up on international and foreign policy issues from around the world for the period of 24 March to 30 March 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.
28 March 2025
UN Commission urges protection of civilians and adherence to peace agreement in South Sudan
The UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan called on its regional and international partners for “urgent, coordinated action to protect civilians and preserve the Revitalized Peace Agreement”. The call comes in response to escalating violence and political instability in the region, where increasing military clashes, reports of indiscriminate attacks on civilian populations, and arrests of prominent political figures raises concerns about a potential unraveling of the peace process.
The Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (RPA) is an agreement signed between the South Sudanese Transitional Government of National Unity and several opposition parties in the country in 2018. The binding agreement established a permanent ceasefire and created arrangements for power sharing and the unification of armed forces within the country, alongside demobilization and disarmament of former combatants, and is considered a cornerstone of South Sudan’s fragile stability.
27 March 2025 Arrest of South Sudan’s first vice-president and main opposition leader prompsts fears of renewed civil war
Riek Machar, South Sudan’s first vice-president and main opposition leader, has been placed under house arrest, prompting a warning from the UN that the country is at risk of relapsing into widespread conflict. Machar’s party said his arrest had in effect collapsed the peace deal that ended the 2013-2018 civil war. In a statement, the acting chair of the foreign relations committee of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in-Opposition, Reath Muoch Tang, said the defence minister and chief of national security accompanied a convoy of more than 20 heavily armed vehicles, which had “forcefully entered” Machar’s residence. There his bodyguards were disarmed and an arrest warrant issued “under unclear charges”, he said.
Machar’s arrest poses a grave threat to the power-sharing agreement between him and the country’s president, Salva Kiir, his longtime rival. The agreement was part of a 2018 peace deal to end the civil war, in which 400,000 people were killed.
The UN human rights commission in South Sudan said in a statement that the arrest, alongside escalating armed clashes and reported attacks on civilians, “signals a severe unravelling of the peace process – and a direct threat to millions of lives. Failure to uphold the protections enshrined in the peace agreement – including freedom of movement, political participation and the cessation of hostilities – will lead to a catastrophic return to war.”
28 March 2025
Amnesty International calls for access to humanitarian aid for earthquake survivors in Myanmar
A 7.7-magnitude earthquake hit Myanmar at around 1:20pm on 28 March. It was recorded in Myanmar’s Sagaing Region, but initial reports indicate widespread damage in Myanmar’s second largest city Mandalay and the capital Naypyitaw, with homes, religious sites and cultural property among the impacted sites. Tremors were also felt across the border in Thailand in Bangkok and Chiang Mai.
Following news of the earthquake, Amnesty International’s Myanmar Researcher Joe Freeman said: “Central Myanmar, which is believed to be the epicentre of the earthquake, has been ravaged by military air strikes and clashes between resistance groups and the military. Myanmar’s military has a longstanding practice of denying aid to areas where groups who resist it are active. It must immediately allow unimpeded access to all humanitarian organizations and remove administrative barriers delaying needs assessments. All parties to the armed conflict should be prioritizing the needs of civilians whose lives have been upended in this disaster and ensuring that they have unfettered access to aid. Human rights must be at the centre of all relief efforts, and there must be no discrimination in aid provision. Amnesty International is calling particularly for the protection of those with specific needs, including children, older people, people with disabilities, and women and girls in vulnerable situations.”
26 March 2025
UNICEF calls for urgent protection of children and immediate humanitarian access
Grave violations against children have surged across Sudan’s Darfur states since the start of the year, with 110 violations verified in North Darfur alone and a 83 per cent increase in child casualties in Sudan compared to the first quarter of 2024.
In Al Fasher, North Darfur, more than 70 children have been killed or maimed in less than three months. Since early 2025, intense shelling and airstrikes in the Zamzam camp for internally displaced people (IDPs), have resulted in 16 per cent of all verified child casualties in Al Fasher.
“An estimated 825,000 children are trapped in a growing catastrophe in and around Al Fasher,” said UNICEF Representative for Sudan, Sheldon Yett. “With these numbers reflecting only verified incidents, it is likely the true toll is far higher, with children in a daily struggle to survive. Death is a constant threat for children, whether due to the fighting around them or the collapse of the vital services they rely on to survive.”
25 March 2025
UN to reduce staff in Gaza, blaming Israel for a strike that killed employee
The UN announced it will “reduce its footprint” in the Gaza Strip after an Israeli tank strike hit one of its compounds last week, killing one staffer from Bulgaria and wounding five other employees. The UN will temporarily remove about a third of its approximately 100 international staffers working in Gaza, U.N. Secretary-General spokesman Stéphane Dujarric. He pointed to the increased danger after Israel relaunched its military campaign last week with bombardment that has since killed hundreds of Palestinians. Israel has also cut off all food, medicine, aid and other supplies to Gaza’s population for the past three weeks.
Dujarric’s statement was the UN’s first to point the finger at Israel in the March 19 explosion at the UN guesthouse in central Gaza. He said that “based on the information currently available,” the strikes on the site “were caused by an Israeli tank.”
24 March 2025
UK sanctions for human rights violations and abuses during the Sri Lankan civil war
The UK government has imposed sanctions on four individuals responsible for serious human rights abuses and violations during the Sri Lanka civil war, including extrajudicial killings, torture and/or perpetration of sexual violence. The sanctions aim to seek accountability for serious human rights violations and abuses, committed during the civil war, and to prevent a culture of impunity.
The individuals sanctioned by the UK today include former senior Sri Lankan military commanders, and a former LTTE military commander who later led the paramilitary Karuna Group, operating on behalf of the Sri Lankan military against the LTTE. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-sanctions-for-human-rights-violations-and-abuses-during-the-sri-lankan-civil-war