International Legal News - 7 April 2025
- Ned Vucijak
- Apr 7
- 4 min read
Updated: Apr 14
The following media round up on international and foreign policy issues from around the world for the period of 31 March to 6 April 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.
5 April 2025
Decision on restitution of land to Brazil indigenous communities a positive yet inadequate measure
Amnesty International welcomed Itaipu Binacional’s decision to finance the restitution of indigenous land in Brazil to the Avá Guaraní Paranaense people (“the Avá Guaraní”). These lands were previously dispossessed for the construction of the Itaipú hydroelectric dam, a joint project between Brazil and Paraguay.
Under international law, companies are required to conduct human rights due diligence and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples stipulates that states have to take all necessary measures to ensure the rights of indigenous peoples are respected.
Amnesty International stressed that while this measure was a positive first step toward compensating the Avá Guaraní for the human rights violations they have endured, it did not discharge Itaipu Binacional or the respective governments from their duty to provide full reparation to the indigenous communities. The Avá Guaraní welcomed this partial land restitution, stating that it brings hope and relief to their community after 40 years of land reclamation and struggle for formal recognition of the atrocities they suffered. However, they emphasised that this partial land restoration is still insufficient to address the total damages experienced by 31 indigenous communities.
3 April 2025
UN treaty on human rights of older people moves ahead
According to Human Rights Watch, the United Nations Human Rights Council began an intergovernmental process to draft an international human rights treaty on older people. Older people around the world experience a wide range of human rights violations on a daily basis, which include violence and mistreatment; age-based discrimination; social, economic, and political exclusion; denial of access to care and support services; inadequate social security; exclusion from climate change responses; and abuses in armed conflict.
Significant protection gaps for older people remain in the current international human rights framework. Years of advocacy by older people and civil society groups, notably the Global Alliance for the Rights of Older People (GAROP), led to this historic UN action. GAROP, a global network of more than 400 civil society organizations, including Human Rights Watch, has campaigned since 2011 to strengthen the rights and voice of older people all over the world.
3 April 2025
Hungary withdraws from ICC as Israeli leader visits
Hungary has decided to withdraw from the International Criminal Court, shortly after Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who is sought under an ICC arrest warrant, arrived in the country for a State visit. Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu applauded Hungary for its decision to leave the ICC as he visited Budapest, a rare trip abroad in defiance of an ICC arrest warrant.
As a founding member of the ICC, Hungary is theoretically obliged to arrest and hand over anyone subject to a warrant from the ICC, but Hungary’s PM Viktor Orban made clear that Hungary would not respect the ruling which he called “brazen, cynical and completely unacceptable”. At the news conference with Netanyahu, Orban stated “This is no longer an impartial court, a rule-of-law court, but rather a political court. This has become the clearest in light of its decisions on Israel”.
Hungary signed the Rome Statute in 1999 and ratified it in 2001, but the law has not been promulgated. Gergely Gulyas, Orban’s chief of staff, had previously stated that although Hungary ratified the Rome Statute, it “was never made part of Hungarian law”, meaning that no measure of the court can be carried out within Hungary.
31 March 2025
Museums looted in Sudan during ongoing conflict
According to Sudan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Museum in Khartoum was looted of all but one artefact while the site was under the control of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). It accused the RSF and “its regional sponsor”, referring to the UAE, of destroying the National Museum and looting collections representing 7,000 years of civilisation. The RSF has been fighting the army since April 2023 in a conflict that has devastated parts of the country. The Ministry added that RSF forces also targeted the Khalifa House Museum, the Republican Palace Museum, the Armed Forces Museum, the Ethnography Museum, the Natural History Museum at the University of Khartoum, and the Sultan Ali Dinar Museum in Al-Fashir, North Darfur.
The Foreign Minister of Sudan announced that “the Government of Sudan will continue its efforts with UNESCO, Interpol, and organizations concerned with the protection of museums and antiquities, to recover the artifacts looted from the National Museum and other museums, and to hold those responsible for these crimes accountable.”
It noted that attacks on cultural heritage constitute war crimes under Article 8 of the Rome Statute and the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, and that UNESCO prohibits trafficking in cultural property.