International Legal News - 9 June 2025
- Ned Vucijak
- Jun 8
- 4 min read
Updated: Jun 15
The following media round up on international and foreign policy issues from around the world for the period of 2 June to 7 June 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.
6 June 2025
UK Conservative Party launches review into UK’s withdrawal from the ECHR
In a speech on Friday, the Conservative and Unionist Party’s leader, Kemi Badenoch has announced her party’s intention to launch a commission into whether the UK should withdraw as a member state European Convention on Human Rights (“ECHR”).
The ECHR was established in 1950 and is the primary human rights regime for 46 signatory countries. The convention itself was drafted by the Conservative MP David Maxwell Fyfe, a prosecuting counsel at the Nuremberg trials, and Attorney-General in Winston Churchill’s caretaker government.
Badenoch is expected to appoint Conservative peer and former justice minister Lord Wolfson of Tredegar to chair the commission. Only two other countries have previously left the ECHR. Greece withdrew in 1970 after a military coup, only to be readmitted in 1974. Russia was expelled in 2022 due to the invasion of Ukraine.
6 June 2025
UN Rights Chief issues response to United States’s sanction of ICC Judges
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk has publicly criticised an announcement by US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, that the United States will issue sanctions against judges sitting in the International Criminal Court.
Mr Türk called for a reconsideration of the decision adding:
“I am profoundly disturbed by the decision of the Government of the United States of America to sanction judges of the International Criminal Court – specifically four women judges, from Benin, Peru, Slovenia and Uganda – who had been part of rulings in the situations in Afghanistan or in the State of Palestine.”
The decision affected specific ICC judges who are overseeing a 2020 case that examines allegations of war crimes committed by US and Afghan military forces, as well as the 2024 ICC arrest warrants issued against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, the former Defence Minister.
5 June 2025
US Supreme Court dismisses Government of Mexico’s lawsuit against US gun manufacturers
SCOTUS has dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Government of Mexico against US gun manufacturers for failing to prevent illegal firearms sales to organised criminal groups (“OCGs”). The claim began in a federal court in Boston, MA, where the Mexican Government alleged that the volume of firearms smuggled into Mexico amounted to negligence on part of the manufacturers.
In a unanimous decision on Thursday, the Supreme Court held that the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act protected manufacturers from the Mexican Government’s claim.
In her leading joint judgment, Justice Elena Kagan explained that “Mexico’s complaint does not plausibly allege that the defendant manufacturers aided and abetted gun dealers’ unlawful sales of firearms to Mexican traffickers.”
The Judgment can be found:
5 June 2025
Democratic Republic of the Congo urged to investigate war crimes and issue compensation
The Human Rights NGO Amnesty International have published a briefing on the Kisangani War (also known as the six-day war) which took place in 2000, urging the DRC to prosecute those responsible for crimes committed against civilians during the conflict, investigate what took place, and provide compensation 25 years on. The burden of investigation falls on the shoulders of the DRC government because the International Criminal Court (ICC) does not have jurisdiction over crimes committed prior to 2002.
Atrocities committed during the conflict are alleged to include killings, pillage, and sexual violence.
4 June 2025
Thailand rejects the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice
Thailand’s defence minister Phumtham Wechayachai reaffirmed the South-East Asian state’s government policy to resolve border issues with neighbouring Cambodia through three extant mechanisms and not allow the dispute to escalate to the matter to the International Court of Justice.
Phumtham has instead insisted that Thailand wishes to address points of tension by adhering to the 2000 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two countries.
A Thai-Cambodian Joint Boundary Commission (“JBC”) meeting has been scheduled for Phnom Penh on 14 June 2025.
3 June 2025
Italy Overturns controversial arbitral award rendered under the Energy Charter Treaty
An ICSID Committee has annulled an award issued under the Energy Charter Treaty that would have obligated the Republic of Italy to pay more than €190 million plus interest to a UK company over a decision to ban offshore drilling near its coastline.
The decision will likely send a further indication as to the fecundity of the Charter.
On 22 February 2024, the UK Government under the Sunak Ministry announced the UK would join France, Spain, and The Netherlands in withdrawing from the Treaty following an impasse amongst European states as to aligning the treaty with net zero.
