Retired Indian judge Srinivasan Muralidhar, chair of the UN Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, said the panel’s unequivocal conclusion was that Israeli security forces continued to commit “war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of genocide” a year after the October 2025 ceasefire brokered by the United States. The report says more than 75,000 Palestinians across the Occupied Palestinian Territory have been killed since October 7, 2023, including at least 21,500 children and 11,000 women. The document was presented by Muralidhar to the UN General Assembly on October 26; according to The Hindu, he could not present the report in person because the United States denied him a visa. The report calls on UN member states to “employ all means” to prevent the genocide, investigate and prosecute suspects, and establish clear rules for the use of artificial intelligence in conflicts.
Theme: International justice
The United Nations General Assembly elected, in three rounds of balloting, Dapo Akande of the United Kingdom and four other judges to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), for nine-year terms starting on February 6, 2027. Akande received 129 votes, in an election where the absolute majority was 97. Mahmoud Daifallah Hmoud of Jordan and Phoebe N. Okowa of Kenya were re-elected, and François Alabrune of France and Rena Lee of Singapore were elected. Akande will become the first British judge on the court since 2018 and is expected to sit on the bench as the court decides the case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of violating the Genocide Convention in Gaza.
Japan’s government is considering financial aid to the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has been hit by sanctions, following a call from the court’s president, according to Kyodo News.
Professor Dapo Akande has been elected a judge at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The United Kingdom had not had a judge at the court for almost a decade, and Akande will serve a nine-year term. Nine candidates were running for the five seats in simultaneous elections in the Security Council and the General Assembly, which required an absolute majority in both bodies. The election was treated as a major British diplomatic victory, almost ten years after the previous British judge failed to win re-election.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) will rule on November 19 in the case in which Gambia accuses Myanmar of genocide against the Muslim Rohingya minority, the court said on Tuesday, according to Reuters, in a text republished by U.S. News. The judges will start reading out their judgment at 8:00 GMT on November 19. Gambia argues that the 2017 offensive by Myanmar government forces, which forced at least 730,000 Rohingya to seek refuge in Bangladesh, constituted genocide. Myanmar denies the accusations and says the offensive was a legitimate counterterrorism campaign. It will be the first genocide judgment by the court in more than a decade and only the third in the tribunal's history. Gambia brought the case in 2019, and the outcome is likely to shape future cases, including South Africa's 2023 case accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza, a charge Israel denies.
France has opened a judicial investigation into a war crimes complaint over an Israeli strike on a residential building in Lebanon, according to the complainant’s lawyer, Clemence Bectarte, speaking to AFP. French-Lebanese artist Ali Cherri, whose parents were killed in the Beirut strike in 2024, filed the complaint as a civil party this year with the International Federation for Human Rights. The crimes against humanity unit of the Paris Judicial Court appointed two investigating judges to the case, a decision the lawyer called “a first.”
The French judiciary opened a judicial investigation into a war crimes complaint over an Israeli strike on a residential building in Lebanon, according to a lawyer who spoke to AFP on Tuesday. The crimes against humanity unit of the Paris Judicial Court appointed two investigating judges to the case, a move the lawyer described as a first. The complaint, seen by AFP, concerns the November 26, 2024 bombing that killed seven civilians, including Cherri's parents, aged 87 and 77, in a 12-story building in central Beirut; three floors were destroyed.
International Criminal Court (ICC) President Tomoko Akane told the UN General Assembly on Monday that US sanctions against the court are an attempt to obstruct the course of justice. In a virtual address, she said the measures, imposed on October 9 — the same day the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the Peace Prize to former ICC judge Navi Pillay — target 13 independent judges and prosecutors, including herself, and strike at “the heart of the sovereign equality of states.”
Prosecutors from 10 EU member states — Spain, France, Italy, Portugal, Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Sweden and Finland — plus Australia are cooperating and sharing information on complaints of torture, kidnapping and ill-treatment of their nationals who took part in the Global Sumud Flotilla missions, intercepted by Israel in international waters. According to legal sources who spoke to El País, the investigations target Israeli politicians, officials and military commanders, including members of Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet. Those sources say the meeting took place on September 16 in The Hague, within a framework coordinated by Eurojust, the EU's judicial cooperation agency, with Australian representatives attending as guests.
Switzerland's Supreme Court upheld on Friday the 20-year prison sentence of former Liberian rebel commander Alieu Kosiah for war crimes, but overturned his conviction for crimes against humanity, according to Al Jazeera.
The United Nations (UN) Commission of Inquiry found that Israeli authorities and forces continue to commit genocidal acts in Gaza even after the ceasefire agreement, with the intent to destroy the Palestinian people, in whole or in part, according to the commission's report. The commission pointed to at least 196 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire since the ceasefire was signed in October 2025, and to Israeli control over Gaza going from 53% to at least 60%, according to the Associated Press (AP). The same commission accuses Israeli soldiers and prison guards of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the West Bank, including extermination, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence, according to AP.
A UN independent commission of inquiry concluded that Israel committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including extermination, persecution, torture and rape, and that it continues to commit genocide in Gaza by deliberately targeting Palestinian civilians. In a report released Monday, the group of experts commissioned by the UN said the ceasefire agreement in Gaza has not stopped what it describes as genocide and accused Israeli forces of torture and rape in the West Bank. The document submitted to the General Assembly compares airstrikes in the West Bank: six Palestinians killed between 2008 and October 6, 2023, against 254 between October 7, 2023 and September 30, 2026.
The Special Criminal Court of the Central African Republic is at risk of closure by 2028 with thousands of victims awaiting justice, Amnesty International says in a new report — the court has tried six cases since its inauguration on 22 October 2018, resulting in 19 convictions for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
A United Nations (UN) commission of inquiry accused the Israeli government of committing extermination, persecution, torture and rape against Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank, according to Opera Mundi. The body also said Israeli forces killed 1,080 Palestinians in the West Bank between October 2023 and September 2026, while more than 34,000 Palestinians remained displaced as of August. The independent commission accused Israel of crimes against humanity, including extermination, against Palestinians in the West Bank, according to UN News.
Israel kept committing genocide in Gaza after last October's US-brokered ceasefire, a UN commission said in a report published on Monday, according to Reuters. The report says Israeli authorities kept committing genocidal acts with the genocidal intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the Palestinians in Gaza. Israel's Foreign Ministry called the report a propaganda document detached from reality aimed at undermining the country's right to self-defense. The commission also recorded almost 500 Palestinians killed annually in the West Bank since 2022, the highest numbers since the UN started collecting that data, according to the Jerusalem Post.
The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry concluded that Israel committed war crimes and the crimes against humanity of extermination, persecution, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. According to the commission, Israel deliberately targets Palestinian civilians and continues to commit genocide in Gaza. The report records that six Palestinians were killed by airstrikes in the West Bank between 2008 and October 6, 2023, against 254 between October 7, 2023 and September 30, 2026, and concludes that Palestinians in the West Bank are targeted on the basis of their nationality, race and ethnicity, gender and age.
Interpol will seek approval at its general assembly in Hong Kong next month for a new “silver notice” system to track and seize criminals' assets and speed up financial investigations into transnational crime, according to the South China Morning Post.
The Democratic Alliance’s candidate for mayor of Durban, Haniff Hoosen, said he would welcome Benjamin Netanyahu despite the International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant. Asked whether he would receive him should the Israeli prime minister travel to the city, he answered: “Why shouldn’t I if he comes to visit the city?”, in a mayoral debate earlier this week, according to Middle East Eye.
The Philippine government offered a bounty of 50 million pesos (US$786,000) on Friday for the capture of Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, a former national police chief, according to the South China Morning Post (SCMP), in a text by Agence France-Presse (AFP). “As of today, Senator Bato will be considered armed and dangerous. We are placing a bounty of 50 million pesos (US$786,000) for his capture,” Interior Secretary Juanito Victor Remulla said at a news conference. Dela Rosa is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), which unsealed a November 2025 arrest warrant against him in May. Former president Rodrigo Duterte, whose anti-drug crackdown dela Rosa spearheaded, goes on trial on November 30 for crimes against humanity, including murder and attempted murder.
The European Parliament awarded the International Criminal Court (ICC) the Sakharov Prize, the European Union's (EU) top human rights honour, two weeks after US President Donald Trump vowed to dismantle the court through new sanctions. “The European Union is built on respect for multilateralism and international institutions, and this prize recognises the important work of the court in upholding international law and justice,” said European Parliament President Roberta Metsola. The ICC thanked the parliament for the honour “at a time when the Court and its officials face unprecedented challenges”, and its president, Tomoko Akane, said the prize carries particular significance by reaffirming the importance of independent judicial institutions. It is the second international recognition for the tribunal this month: former ICC judge Navi Pillay was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) was awarded the European Union’s top human rights prize, the Sakharov Prize, on Thursday, while facing United States sanctions, according to Le Monde. The court thanked the European Parliament for the award at a time when “the Court and its officials face unprecedented challenges”, the newspaper reported.
The Hind Rajab Foundation said it filed an urgent request with the US Department of Justice to arrest and prosecute an Israeli commander over his alleged involvement in the killing of five-year-old Hind Rajab, according to Middle East Eye.
The Justice Department of the United States charged former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and former First Lady Cilia Flores with conspiring to commit torture, narcoterrorism, cocaine importation conspiracy and weapons offenses, in a superseding indictment. According to the department, the torture described includes electric shock, asphyxiation, rape, forced nudity, prolonged isolation, starvation, punishment cells and psychological torture, such as threats to harm and kill victims’ families. Maduro and Flores each pleaded not guilty to the new charges on Thursday, according to ABC News, which reports that the indictment accuses them of torturing people, including Americans, to help them cling to power.
Prosecutors in Rome have placed Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz, the chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, Eyal Zamir, and military, police and prison officials under investigation over the treatment of Gaza flotilla activists, Italian prosecutors said on Friday, according to the Times of Israel. The case concerns alleged torture, kidnapping, personal injury, robbery and damage when Israeli forces intercepted small fleets of boats headed toward Gaza in 2025 and 2026.
Navi Pillay, former UN high commissioner for human rights and 2026 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, said the purpose of the Genocide Convention is to prevent genocide, according to Middle East Eye. Pillay also said: “That’s a legal obligation that rests on every state even if the genocide didn’t happen in their own territory.”
Argentina’s government said it had filed a request for provisional measures with the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) seeking to halt British-authorized hydrocarbon activity near the Falkland Islands, according to The Jerusalem Post. The government said in a statement that the request aims to prevent the United Kingdom from exploiting hydrocarbon resources on the continental shelf of the Northern Falklands Basin.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that holding the country's enemies accountable for military aggression and environmental damage is an undeniable necessity, and that US and Israeli attacks on Iran and on oil and energy targets created serious environmental hazards, according to Mehr News, adding that Iran “neither forgives nor forgets.”
Navi Pillay, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and 2026 Nobel Peace Prize winner, condemned US sanctions against the International Criminal Court (ICC), imposed shortly after she won the prize, describing the measures as “unlawful” against a court mandated to uphold the Rome Statute, according to Al Jazeera.
Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said that Tehran will take the legal case over the US strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh school in Minab to foreign courts. According to him, the school was hit three times by missiles in the early hours of February 28, 2026, in what Tehran describes as the start of the joint US-Israeli aggression against Iran, and 168 people died, mostly schoolchildren, along with a number of parents and teachers.
Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Esmail Baghaei, said the international order collapses as much through aggression as when the use of force becomes normalised and the world stays silent about it, according to Mehr News. The statement reacted to new US sanctions against the International Criminal Court (ICC) and threats to dismantle it, the agency said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Nobel Peace laureate Navi Pillay a “bigot” and the prize committee “misguided,” according to the Jerusalem Post. The Prime Minister's Office said the committee had lost its moral compass by awarding its highest honor to someone who built a career around inventing and propagating blood libels against the only Jewish state. Israel's Foreign Ministry rejected Pillay's genocide allegations.
This year’s Nobel Peace Prize laureate, judge and former UN rights chief Navi Pillay, called US sanctions against the International Criminal Court (ICC) unheard of and unacceptable, according to AFP, in text published by RFI. Pillay said there is so much tension and anxiety over the continued existence of international courts, mainly the ICC in The Hague. Hours after she was named the laureate, the US announced new sanctions against the court, provoking swift condemnation from member states and the United Nations, according to AFP.
The Hind Rajab Foundation announced on Thursday that it had asked the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague to investigate the involvement of Israeli medical personnel in alleged abuses at Sde Teiman. The request names medical professionals, hospital administrators, senior Health Ministry and Defense Ministry officials, and leaders of the Israel Medical Association, in connection with alleged abuses at the facility since October 7, 2023. The submission was filed under Article 15 of the Rome Statute and is not an indictment or a court decision to open an investigation, according to the Jerusalem Post.
US President Donald Trump said that Washington's sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) were intended to defend Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and others from prosecution, not himself.
The US will ban transactions with the International Criminal Court (ICC), cutting off its resources and crippling its ability to operate, according to Reuters, in a text republished by CNBC Africa — a move that goes far further by potentially punishing companies that provide services to the court itself. The court said that “no one should be punished for serving the cause of justice” and that “history will judge this moment”, according to Middle East Eye.
President Donald Trump reposted a message saying the Nobel Committee shamed itself beyond repair and demeaned the once great Nobel Peace Prize by giving it to Navi Pillay, according to Politico. The post came from the law firm of attorney David Schoen, Politico reported. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the Nobel Committee has lost its moral compass, according to Politico. Pillay is a South African human rights lawyer and judge who led a United Nations commission that stated Israel committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, according to Politico.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize to South African jurist Navanethem “Navi” Pillay, according to Al Jazeera. The committee said it was honoring her “for her efforts to promote peace and international law”, and Pillay is a former judge at the International Criminal Court (ICC) and former UN human rights chief, according to CBS News.
European states, Canada, Japan and the United Nations (UN) came out in defence of the International Criminal Court (ICC) against United States (US) sanctions, after Washington sanctioned the court itself on Friday. The ICC said the move was an “assault on the rule of law and on the very foundations of the international legal order” and called on its 125 member states to defend the institution. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that Washington would ban transactions with the “rogue court”, cutting off its resources and crippling its ability to operate.
United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Guterres condemned the new US sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC), according to UN News. The court said the measure is aimed at disrupting its operations and intimidating those who work for or cooperate with it.
The Trump administration announced on Friday, October 9, 2026, severe financial sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC), an effort to cripple the global body that prosecutes war crimes, including genocide, and other serious criminal acts, according to The New York Times. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington would ban transactions with what he called a “rogue court”. The court responded that the sanctions are “an assault on the rule of law and on the very foundations of the international legal order,” one that strikes at the principle that no one stands above the law. The EU called the sanctions “deeply regrettable” and said it was ready to take any necessary measures to enable the court to carry out its work. The US justifies the move by the arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over alleged crimes in Gaza, according to AFP, in a text published by France 24.
Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs criticized the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to jurist Navanethem Pillay, saying the prize legitimizes “hatred and anti-Israel prejudice.” In a statement, the ministry said granting the Nobel to Pillay, who chaired the committee that accused Israel of genocide, is “the grotesque instrumentalization of a prize.”
Navanethem “Navi” Pillay, 85, a former UN human rights chief and a judge on the International Court of Justice, won the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize, according to The Guardian. The Norwegian committee recognised her for efforts to promote peace and international law, said Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the committee. This year's prize drew 287 nominations and pays 12 million Swedish kronor, about $1.2 million.
Judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) found former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte fit to stand trial on charges of crimes against humanity, Al Jazeera reported.
Syrian general Bassam al-Hassan, who ran Syria’s chemical weapons programme and was a senior advisor to former President Bashar al-Assad, has been living in Lebanon under US protection since Assad’s government was toppled in late 2024, according to a joint NPR and BBC investigation released on Thursday, because he has provided information about the abduction of American journalist Austin Tice.
Bassam al-Hassan is being bankrolled and protected by American and Lebanese authorities, according to a BBC investigation. He was offered residency, protection and help securing his living needs in return for information, primarily about journalist Austin Tice. Officials from two branches of Syria’s new government told the BBC they want Hassan back to face trial — but that the American authorities want him kept in Lebanon.
Police clashed with demonstrators outside Kosovo’s parliament, who demanded the passage of a bill to curb the war crimes court, according to France24. The court is a hybrid tribunal: although it is part of Kosovo’s judiciary, it is staffed with international judges and based in The Hague, according to Balkan Insight.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) unsealed warrants against four Taliban leaders for gender persecution, issued in July and September last year, according to The Hindu. Among the targets are the Taliban’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, and the head of Afghanistan’s Supreme Court, Abdul Hakim Haqqani. The court sees reasonable grounds to hold them criminally responsible for persecution, a crime against humanity under article 7(1)(h) of the Rome Statute. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid rejected the decision.
Syria’s Al-Ikhbariah TV reported that Israeli forces shelled farmland between Buraiqa and Kodana in southern Quneitra, according to the Middle East Eye. Syria, Qatar and Jordan denounced Israel’s resumed excavation work on the “Sofa 53” project in Syria’s Quneitra province. Syria’s Foreign Ministry said the resumption of excavation work near the separation line with the occupied Syrian Golan Heights was a “flagrant breach” of the 1974 deal.
Lawyer Stanley Cohen told RT that the International Criminal Court (ICC) is weakened by the impotence of member states and the United Nations in the face of the warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In 2024, the Hague-based court issued warrants for Netanyahu and his then-defense minister, Yoav Gallant, over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza war.
Leonie von Braun, senior trial lawyer at the International Criminal Court (ICC) and lead investigator in the Kony case, told France24 that the latest information indicates the leader of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) is still alive, active and present within the group, today on a much smaller scale than in the 2000s; given his age, he is probably not on the front lines of operations. In the Central African Republic, authorities report a resurgence of attacks in the east and southeast of the country, with at least 25 children abducted in several raids on villages, in attacks attributed to Kony's militia.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has ended its contract with the French health and life insurer Axa effective immediately and will be moving to another insurance provider, Al Jazeera reported. Axa and the Court decided by mutual agreement to terminate the contractual relationship, an ICC spokesperson told Reuters news agency. The move comes as the White House was preparing sanctions against the court, The Wall Street Journal reported late last month, amid the court’s call to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is preparing a potential case at the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, seeking to use it as leverage in their escalating dispute, according to i24NEWS, cited by RT. According to RT, Netanyahu reportedly instructed an Israeli interministerial team and the head of Israel’s International Law Department to prepare a dossier focused primarily on alleged attacks against Kurdish minorities, along with accusations that Erdogan’s government finances Hamas. The move would follow Türkiye’s request last month for an Interpol Red Notice for Netanyahu, after a Turkish court issued an arrest warrant on charges including genocide over Israel’s interception of the Gaza-bound Global Sumud Flotilla earlier this year.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered an interministerial team and a senior Justice Ministry official to prepare a legal case against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, according to the Middle East Eye, citing i24NEWS. The order followed Erdogan’s announcement that Turkey had asked Interpol to issue a red notice for Netanyahu. According to TASS, which also cites i24News, Netanyahu instructed his government to prepare a filing with the International Criminal Court (ICC) accusing Erdogan. Neither Israel nor Turkey is a party to the Rome Statute and neither recognizes the ICC’s jurisdiction.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has insulated itself against United States sanctions, deputy prosecutor Nazhat Shameem Khan told the Financial Times, in a Reuters text republished by WIMZ. The court moved its office software from Microsoft to the German open-source alternative openDesk and found workarounds for health insurance and banking, and began paying employees months in advance to mitigate payroll disruption. Donald Trump’s administration has prepared sanctions against the entire court and plans to announce them soon.
There is alarm at the United Nations (UN) over U.S. threats of sanctions against the International Criminal Court (ICC), according to The Guardian.
The United Nations (UN) human rights office expanded on Friday, 25 September 2026, its database of companies with activities in Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories: there are now 214 firms from 11 countries, with 61 additions and five removals since the previous update, Le Monde reports. Airbnb, Booking.com, Motorola Solutions and TripAdvisor remain on the list, and the UN human rights office said the update is a reminder to companies of their human rights responsibilities, according to Le Monde.
The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement has launched a petition calling for the suspension of Israel’s membership in the United Nations, addressed to the president of the 81st General Assembly, Khalilur Rahman, Bangladesh’s foreign minister, and arguing that Israel should be treated as South Africa was during the apartheid era. Released on Wednesday, 23 September 2026, during the Assembly’s general debate, the petition says Israel has violated international law, failed to comply with resolutions and decisions by UN bodies and the International Court of Justice and targeted UN facilities and personnel, according to the Palestinian news agency WAFA.
Amnesty International called on the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) to suspend Israel’s football association, saying Israel’s participation in the UEFA Nations League, whose group phase opens on 24 September 2026, is “unconscionable” while clubs based in illegal settlements remain in Israel’s domestic leagues. Steve Cockburn, Amnesty International’s director for Europe, said UEFA and FIFA “should have suspended” the Israeli association long ago for refusing to exclude settlement clubs, in the statement published by the organisation itself (Amnesty International) and carried by Arab News. Israel is in League B with Austria, Ireland and Kosovo; the Ireland–Israel games were scheduled for neutral venues in Hungary and Serbia, behind closed doors, after the Football Association of Ireland asked UEFA to consider suspending the Israeli team. FIFA decided in March 2026 to take no action against the Israeli association, and the Palestinian Football Association appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Spain’s Council of Ministers on Tuesday, 22 September 2026, allowed a US extradition request against activist and donor James Cox Chambers Jr., known as Fergie Chambers, 41, to move to the judicial phase, a decision his defence calls a “dangerous precedent” for the Palestinian cause, according to Middle East Eye. Chambers was arrested in Ibiza on 10 July 2026 at Washington’s request and remains in pre-trial detention in Madrid. The sealed indictment charges him with international money laundering, riot and conspiracy to riot over transfers of about $7.5 million to a company in Tunisia and over 2023 protests at the US facilities of an Israeli arms manufacturer in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, according to The National and The Straits Times, which published a Reuters dispatch. It is the first time the US has sought the extradition of a citizen over alleged support for Hamas, The National says. Government spokesperson Elma Saiz said the decision was “purely procedural” and that the final word rests with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s cabinet, after review by the Audiencia Nacional, the Spanish court that handles extradition requests. Chambers’s lead counsel, Baltasar Garzón, said: “Spain cannot defend international law, the rights of the Palestinian people and the protection of those who provide humanitarian aid while at the same time allowing a request to proceed with an extradition that shows clear signs of political persecution by the US government.” The Sumar party, a junior partner in the governing coalition, had urged the government to block the request; Podemos lawmaker Ione Belarra called Chambers “the first political prisoner in Spanish history being imprisoned because of his support for Palestine”. His defence says the transfers funded humanitarian projects in Gaza, including a bakery and a medical clinic.
Jamaica’s culture minister, Olivia Grange, told the country’s House of Representatives on Tuesday, 22 September 2026, that King Charles III has referred Jamaica’s slavery reparations petition to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. The petition was filed on 7 September 2026 on behalf of the Jamaican people, according to the Jamaica Gleaner and The Guardian. The petition asked the King, who remains Jamaica’s head of state, to seek an advisory opinion from the country’s highest court on three questions: whether the enslavement of Africans in Jamaica was lawful under English common law, whether it breached international law, and whether the United Kingdom has a legal obligation to provide a remedy. Grange described the decision as a “really big deal”, according to The Guardian. Jamaica is now awaiting directions from the Privy Council on the next steps in the case, and the country’s attorney general is preparing to handle it, according to the Jamaica Gleaner. The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, which advises the British monarch, is the final court of appeal for Jamaica and other Commonwealth countries.
According to the UN’s official record of the debate and Middle East Eye, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva opened the general debate of the 81st United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) saying that “generations of Palestinians will carry the pain and trauma left by the genocide of women and children perpetrated by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in Gaza.” In the same speech, on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, Lula said that “Israeli civilians paid the price for the radicalism and intolerance of Hamas’ terrorist acts” and that illegal settlements in the West Bank are making a two-state solution increasingly unviable, according to The New Republic. He criticised the persecution of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and its members and said that the UN special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, must not be “silenced for telling the truth,” according to Al Jazeera, The New Republic and Israel Hayom.
A special court in Paris sentenced French citizen Othman Garrido, 32, to 30 years in prison on Tuesday, 22 September 2026 for murders committed as part of an organised group, with a 20-year period without parole eligibility. He was convicted over the public execution of two Iranians in Syria in September 2015 and acquitted of being their executioner; some 1,500 French nationals transited through Iraq and Syria to join the Islamic State group in the 2010s, according to Le Monde and Agence France-Presse (AFP). At trial, Garrido said he was forced to follow the group or risk death.
Albania’s Special Court of First Instance for Corruption and Organized Crime (GJKKO) ordered on 21 September 2026 that Vlora Hyseni, director of the State Intelligence Service (SHISH), be placed under house arrest and suspended from office, as part of the investigation into the National Agency for Information Society (AKSHI), according to the statement from the Special Prosecution Office against Corruption and Organized Crime (SPAK) carried by Albeu and Panorama. Hyseni is under investigation for disclosing an investigative secret and for aiding the perpetrator of a crime; Prime Minister Edi Rama announced her immediate dismissal, saying he expects “every suspicion raised by the prosecution to be investigated and clarified fully through an independent judicial process”. Panorama reports that Hyseni was in Baku, Azerbaijan, for an international meeting of intelligence chiefs when the measure was issued, was not at home on the morning of Tuesday, 22 September 2026, and entered Albanian territory through the Morina border crossing. Reuters reported that the court suspended the spy chief on suspicion of disclosing classified information to unauthorized people in connection with the AKSHI case, which manages Albania’s digital public services and IT infrastructure; Hyseni, who is originally from Kosovo, has headed SHISH since 2023. The same decision authorized searches at the home of former State Police chief Ilir Proda and at a villa complex in Durrës, and ordered pre-trial detention for a section head at the Institute of Forensic Police and an employee of a private company, according to Albeu.
Donald Trump called on Tuesday, 22 September 2026, at the 81st United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York for every country that is a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to resign from what he called an “out-of-control institution” and “an evil group of people”. “I call on all nations that are members of the ICC to officially resign from this rogue institution immediately,” he said, according to The Independent and Gulf News. The US president said Washington would “never allow US service members or anyone else to be investigated or given show trials by an anti-American tribunal with no jurisdiction over us”. The United States is not an ICC member and has never ratified the Rome Statute that created the court; Washington has sanctioned court officials since February 2025, after the ICC issued arrest warrants in November 2024 against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then defence minister Yoav Gallant over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. Secretary of State Marco Rubio vowed in July 2026 to “dismantle the ICC, brick by brick”, and The Independent reports that fresh sanctions against the court could be finalised shortly after the General Assembly.
Sri Lanka’s High Court on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, sentenced the 15 men convicted over the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings to 200 years in prison each and ordered their property confiscated, according to a dispatch from the Associated Press (AP) published by the Hindustan Times. The three-judge panel had convicted 14 of the 24 defendants of direct involvement and found a 15th guilty on some of the charges, acquitting the other nine. The bombings of April 21, 2019, struck three churches and three luxury hotels and killed more than 260 people, including 42 foreigners, according to AP, while the BBC puts the toll at 270 dead and more than 500 wounded. The trial ran on 23,270 charges and lasted nearly five years.
International Criminal Court (ICC) deputy prosecutor Nazhat Shameem Khan, who has been running the office since chief prosecutor Karim Khan was removed amid sexual misconduct allegations, said the court has taken no steps to withdraw the arrest warrants or the warrant applications against Israeli officials, despite US sanctions and pressure. “The case is still proceeding,” she told CNN in an interview aired on 18 September 2026. “We have taken no steps to try and withdraw any of those arrest warrant applications or the arrest warrants themselves, and the team continues to investigate in that situation.” The ICC issued the warrants in November 2024 for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his then defence minister, Yoav Gallant, over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Gaza since October 2023. Washington has since sanctioned most of the court’s leadership, including former chief prosecutor Karim Khan, the two deputy prosecutors and nine judges, among them the court’s president, and secretary of state Marco Rubio pledged in July 2026 to “dismantle the ICC – brick by brick”, as also reported by TASS and Middle East Eye.
Sri Lanka’s High Court convicted 14 of the 24 defendants tried for direct involvement in the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, and found a 15th guilty on some of the charges while acquitting nine others, according to Al Jazeera and The Hindu. The convictions include murder, conspiracy to commit terrorism, and the possession of firearms and explosives under the Prevention of Terrorism Act; the three-judge bench said sentencing would be delivered later on Tuesday. Six near-simultaneous bombings struck three churches and three luxury hotels on April 21, 2019, killing 279 people, 45 of them foreign nationals — the deadliest attack in the country since the end of its civil war in 2009. The verdict runs alongside the investigation into Suresh Sallay, the former head of the State Intelligence Service (SIS), arrested in February 2026 on accusations of orchestrating the attacks, which he denies.
Sri Lanka is expected to learn on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, the verdict in the trial of 24 defendants over the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings, the deadliest attack on civilians in the country’s history. The hearing at the Colombo High Court was due to open at 9:30 am local time (0400 GMT), with heavy security around the court complex, according to Agence France-Presse. Prosecutors filed 23,270 charges against the 24 defendants, the highest number ever brought in a single case in Sri Lanka, including murder, conspiracy to commit terrorism and possession of firearms and explosives under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. Each defendant faces hundreds of counts because the indictment lists a separate charge for every person killed or wounded. All have denied involvement, and some could face the death penalty, which Sri Lanka has not carried out since 1976 and which is usually commuted to life imprisonment. Prosecutors identify Mohamed Naufar (Naufer Moulavi) as the ringleader who provided support to the eight-member suicide squad that struck three churches and three luxury hotels on April 21, 2019, killing 279 people including 45 foreigners, according to AFP; BBC News puts the toll at 270. The trial runs alongside a separate investigation into former intelligence chief Suresh Sallay, in custody and accused of orchestrating the attacks, which he denies; in July 2026, two former security officials were sentenced to death for failing to prevent the bombings despite intelligence warnings.
Lebanon’s general amnesty law remains suspended by the Constitutional Council, which ruled by majority on September 10 to freeze the effects of the contested text until a final verdict expected by early October, after an appeal by the Strong Lebanon bloc of MP Gebran Bassil, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) and The New York Times. The suspension blocks the release of detainees who would have benefited, and prisoners protested the decision, some of them launching a hunger strike, according to The New York Times. The law, passed by parliament on August 12, 2026, and signed by President Joseph Aoun, is the first general amnesty since 1991: it commutes death sentences to life imprisonment, cuts life terms to 17 “prison years” — each counted as nine months — and orders the release of anyone held for more than 12 years without trial, according to AFP and New Arab. The most cited case is that of Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir, sentenced to death over the 2013 Abra clashes in which 18 Lebanese Army soldiers were killed. Bassil argues the text pardons perpetrators of murder, rape and attacks against the army and wants it narrowed to Islamists held without trial; Prime Minister Nawaf Salam is the amnesty’s main backer.
The Canadian province of British Columbia sued OpenAI in the United States on Monday over February’s mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, which left eight people dead, including five students at the local secondary school, according to The New York Times and The Canadian Press. Attorney General Niki Sharma said the company failed to warn police about alarming interactions between the shooter, 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar, and the ChatGPT chatbot, and that OpenAI refused to show those conversations to provincial officials who asked for them. The claim, filed in US district court in San Francisco, names founder and chief executive Sam Altman as an individual defendant and accuses the defendants of negligence, ‘aiding and abetting a mass shooting’ and liability for a defective product; it seeks a jury trial and damages to rebuild the town’s secondary school. ‘One telephone call to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) could have prevented the tragedy,’ the lawsuit states. Sharma said she has written to federal officials asking for changes to Canada’s Criminal Code so that artificial intelligence (AI) companies can be held accountable for criminal conduct arising from their technologies. Survivors and witnesses are suing OpenAI separately, and the company has said it banned the shooter’s account in June 2025 but that the content did not meet the threshold to report it to authorities, according to CBC.
Sanna Manjang, former head of the Gambian paramilitary unit known as the Junglers, which the United Nations (UN) accuses of extrajudicial killings and torture, appeared in a military court in Banjul on Monday to face desertion charges. He is accused of an absence of nine consecutive years with the intention of deserting, after fleeing the country in January 2017, when Yahya Jammeh left power after 20 years. Murder charges against him, including the killing of Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalist Deyda Hydara in 2004, were dropped in July for lack of witnesses.
A Vermont jury on Monday convicted Jason Eaton, 51, of attempted murder in the shooting of three Palestinian college students in Burlington in November 2023. The jury rejected the defense’s insanity claim, which held that Eaton acted on orders he attributed to the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and to Israel’s foreign intelligence service, Mossad, transmitted over FM radio. Hisham Awartani was left paralyzed from the waist down, and Tahseen Aliahmad and Kinnan Abdalhamid were wounded. Eaton faces up to life in prison.
Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has charged Dr Vincent Brown, formerly Dr Vincent Bajinya, 65, with one offence of conduct ancillary to genocide and six offences of conduct ancillary to murder as a crime against humanity, under section 52 of the International Criminal Court Act 2001 — the first time charges relating to the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda have been brought in the United Kingdom. The service says he is alleged to have directed and incited acts of murder and genocide carried out by others, that he lives in Islington, north London, and that the decision followed a review of an evidence file from the Metropolitan Police’s War Crimes Team; he is due at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, 22 September. The CPS says proceedings are active and asks that there be no reporting, commentary or sharing of information online that could prejudice them, according to the CPS, the BBC and Reuters.