“This is moment of reckoning, a monumental achievement.” That’s what our partner David Yambio said on 20 May in The Hague. There, a three-day hearing had just begun before the International Criminal Court (ICC) – a development that offers hope in many ways. This is especially true for those of us at ECCHR who have been advocating for many years, through ICC communications and other legal interventions, for a comprehensive investigation and prosecution of international crimes committed in Libya and the Mediterranean.

Now, for the first time in the ICC’s 15-year-long investigation into the situation in Libya, a preliminary proceeding has been opened – and the accused was present in person when the indictment was read. Khaled Mohamed Ali El Hishri, an official in charge of the Mitiga detention center in Libya, has been charged with the most serious crimes against humanity, as well as war crimes. It is thanks to the victims and survivors that these crimes are finally being addressed before an international court – despite all attempts to render them invisible and silence them: crimes including forced labor, torture, rape, and other abuses in Libya and in the Mediterranean. They achieved this in spite of the widespread denial of their rights by Europe’s border regimes, asylum systems, and colonial-era racist social structures, as well as within an international legal system whose bureaucracy and terminology were shaped for and by the powerful in the Global North.

David Yambio and 63 other victims of these crimes have shared their traumatic experiences and memories with the court. According to David Yambio, they carried their fellow sufferers with them into the courtroom that day and will do so forever. This is where international justice must address something it has kept silent about for far too long: crimes that continue to be committed on a daily basis – with the active participation of European institutions – against Black Africans, migrants, refugees and Libyans. The fact that the court hearing explicitly addressed the crime of slavery “touched on emotional and historical burdens that are almost impossible to describe in words.” 

By 20 July at the latest, the three judges presiding over the ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber must now decide whether to open the main proceedings against Khaled Mohamed Ali El-Hishri. Regardless of their ruling, the May 2026 hearing demonstrated the power inherent in international law when it is consistently applied. For us, this means that European accomplices must finally be held accountable as well. These days in May serve as a guide for us in the urgent current and future struggles.

More about the case

1 June 2026 marks the start of yet another trial on international crimes committed in Syria under Assad. For the first time in Austria, Khalid Al Halabi, the head of the intelligence service in Raqqa, is standing trial before a European court as the highest-ranking former member of the Syrian regime to date. This trial would not have been possible without the tireless efforts of victims and Syrian lawyers – after years of delays by the Austrian judiciary. Wolfgang Kaleck was in Vienna for the opening of the trial: “Given the still precarious situation in Syria, trials based on the principle of universal jurisdiction, such as the case against Al Halabi in Vienna, are of great importance for holding the Syrian regime accountable for its crimes.” The verdict is expected in the coming weeks.

Weeks earlier, the first trial in Damascus since Assad’s fall began against another high-ranking regime official, Atef Najib. In addition to torture and massacres of the civilian population, Atef Najib is charged for arresting children in Daraa. In March 2011, they had written anti-regime slogans on the facade of their school and were subsequently arrested and tortured. These events are considered to have sparked the uprising across Syria. For millions of Syrians, the trial is a long-awaited moment of recognition of the injustices they have suffered – one that also raises questions about coming to terms with the past, writes Joumana Seif in her Letter from Damascus.

More about the case

Read the Letter from Damascus

It took more than 60 years for the Belgian justice system to be prepared to allow a court to investigate a former government official’s involvement in the assassination of Patrice Lumumba. But even before the criminal trial could actually begin, the defendant, Étienne Davignon, passed away on 18 May. His death, however, does not mark the end of the legal process. Both Belgium’s role in the assassination of the Congolese independence leader Lumumba and its subsequent cover-up, as well as the underlying colonial injustices that continue to have an impact to this day, demand clarification and redress. For this reason, ECCHR will continue to support the descendants of Patrice Lumumba in future civil lawsuits.

More about the case

Over the past 12 years of war, and four years into Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukrainians have endured immense suffering – living under missile attacks, loss, displacement, and constant uncertainty. Writing from Kyiv, ECCHR partner and human rights lawyer Nadia Volkova, founder and director of the Ukrainian Legal Advisory Group (ULAG), reflects on the challenges facing Ukraine today. In her Letter from Kyiv, she offers a personal and political reflection on Ukrainian society amid an ongoing war of aggression, their demands for justice and accountability, and the need for a more democratic approach from Ukraine’s political leadership. She argues that while international leaders debate peace, Ukrainians bear the true cost of war, yet remain largely excluded from decisions shaping their future. She discusses how peace negotiations, justice efforts, and reconstruction should be guided by ordinary Ukrainians rather than political elites alone, warning that prioritizing political expediency over public participation risks undermining both justice and lasting peace.

Read the Letter from Kyiv

No collaboration with individuals or organizations on national or international sanctions lists – this is what contributors to ZDF programs are required to agree to. This is stipulated in a new compliance rule issued by the broadcaster. This raises questions, particularly since the OFAC list – compiled by the US Department of the Treasury to monitor foreign assets – is included here.

Since taking office, Donald Trump has been putting increasing pressure on the International Criminal Court (ICC) by imposing sanctions against the ICC’s Chief Prosecutor and judges. The US administration has also imposed sanctions on UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, as well as on three leading Palestinian human rights organizations and partners of ECCHR. A climate of intimidation and overly cautious compliance with sanctions further amplifies the reach of the sanctions regime. As is so often the case, those directly affected are the ones who suffer as a result of this development. The German government itself is fostering a climate in which international law is increasingly discredited as an instrument, and even public broadcasters are bowing to pressure from the US administration – with alarming consequences for freedom of the press and international criminal justice.

In an open letter, ECCHR Secretary General Wolfgang Kaleck addresses ZDF Director General Norbert Himmler and calls on the broadcaster to reverse its decision. 

Read the open letter (only available in German)

Sign call from Campact (only available in German)

This full-day workshop at the Berlin Institute for Migration and Integration Research fulfilled a wish expressed by many scholars who study Afghanistan: greater exchange across disciplinary and national boundaries. Nerges Azizi moderated a panel on marginalization and the role that gender, racism, and minority rights play in it. The workshop’s opening session was dedicated to the unique situation of exile and the diaspora in the context of the question of Afghanistan’s future. The two subsequent sessions focused on the Taliban regime and the resistance against it, as well as the environmental crisis in Afghanistan.

More about the workshop and the participants

Ahead of the EU Day Against Impunity (23 May 2026), the Global Initiative Against Impunity (GIAI), of which ECCHR is a member, urged the EU and its Member States to renew their commitment to justice for the gravest international crimes, warning that escalating conflicts, democratic backsliding, attacks on international courts, shrinking civic space, and setbacks in gender and transitional justice threaten accountability worldwide. The GIAI highlighted the importance of protecting the ICC, supporting survivor-led advocacy and strengthening universal jurisdiction.  “When States undermine the ICC, they do not simply weaken an institution; they harm us, making the possibility of accountability fragile and conditional. States Parties have both the authority and the responsibility to strengthen and defend the Court, so that it can protect every individual who has become a victim of atrocity crimes,” said Lala Abgaryan, an Armenian victim.

Read the GIAI statement

Following a flawed process, civil society organizations and affected parties have rejected an offer of mediation from the relevant OECD body within the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs. The “German National Contact Point (NCP),” which is responsible for ensuring compliance with the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, had previously dismissed key points of a complaint against the agrochemical company Bayer: neither specific damages nor claims for compensation were to be the subject of the mediation process. Yet the complaint documents serious human rights and environmental harm caused by Bayer’s business model using glyphosate-based pesticides and genetically modified soybeans in South America. Bayer thus evades all responsibility. Over the past two years, the company has repeatedly attempted to contact those affected outside the established OECD complaint procedure. With this “soft law” tactic – which the NCP mediation proposal now also follows – human rights are reduced to mere favors, and corporate due diligence obligations are replaced by non-binding concessions. “Discussing abstract guidelines does nothing to change the situation of people who are still unlawfully losing their land and falling ill due to the Bayer pesticides used in soy production,” said Silvia Rojas Castro. “Mediation under these conditions would have merely allowed Bayer to exploit the affected communities for its corporate greenwashing, rather than bringing about real change.”

Read the press release

Playing for time – that appears to be TÜV Süd’s strategy for evading any legal liability in connection with the dam collapse in Brumadinho, Brazil. In a civil lawsuit that has now been ongoing for four years, a hearing before the Munich Regional Court took place at the end of May without the responsible manager from TÜV Süd’s Munich headquarters. He had visited the Brazilian subsidiary – which had certified the dam that burst in 2019 as safe just a few months earlier – on multiple occasions. Instead of providing detailed information on the matter, he was suddenly unable to attend the court hearing, which had been scheduled months earlier.

In addition to the civil lawsuit, the Munich Public Prosecutor’s Office has been reviewing for nearly seven years whether to file criminal charges against TÜV Süd employees. As early as 2019, we had filed a criminal complaint together with Misereor and the survivors. Given that the statute of limitations expires in 2029, “this is a failure toward those affected – and a dangerous signal to the industry that those who certify are not liable. It is precisely this structural irresponsibility that makes global certification systems so dangerous,” said Felipe Bley-Folly. At the same time, the Brumadinho case highlights why the German Supply Chain Act urgently needs to be supplemented with civil claims for compensation. The upcoming implementation of the EU Supply Chain Directive this summer would provide an opportunity to do so.

More about the case

Those who culpably cause harm must be held liable – Annabell Brüggemann reminded the assembled management and shareholders of Heidelberg Materials of this fundamental legal principle. At the company’s annual general assembly on 13 May, she – along with Karin Zenning of medico international and the Association of Ethical Shareholders – took the opportunity to highlight the multinational building materials company’s business model, which exhibits contempt for both people and the environment.

Like the energy company RWE, Heidelberg Materials is one of the roughly 100 large corporations responsible for 70 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions to date. Among those suffering from the resulting climate catastrophe are 39 farmers from the Pakistani province of Sindh, which was flooded by heavy rains in 2022. With our support, they are suing Heidelberg Materials and RWE for damages. At the meeting, the Association of Ethical Shareholders proposed setting aside appropriate provisions from their net income. This motion was rejected. However, in her speech, Annabell Brüggemann warned “that Pakistani farmers will not give up their fight for their livelihoods and for justice.” Together with a growing number of affected people worldwide, they are demanding justice. And their voices are being heard more and more: rulings such as the one in the case of Peruvian farmer Saul Luciano Lliuya against RWE and the lawsuit filed by Asmania and other residents of Pari Island against the cement company Holcim – which has been admitted for consideration – show that major emitters can no longer simply evade their legal responsibilities.”

More about the case

What criminal liability do representatives of arms companies and governments bear when the weapons they have exported or authorized are used to commit war crimes? In light of rising global military spending and increasing attacks on civilians in today’s conflict zones, this question must be answered urgently – not only politically, but also legally. To this end, we called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) as early as 2019 – for the first time in its history.

The criminal complaint filed at that time concerns the complicity of European companies and government officials in alleged war crimes committed in Yemen by Saudi Arabia and the UAE. We drafted the 350-page complaint in collaboration with Mwatana for Human Rights, Amnesty International, Campaign Against Arms Trade, Centre Delàs, and Rete Italiana Pace Disarmo. It contains detailed information on 26 airstrikes carried out by the coalition, which most likely constitute war crimes under the Rome Statute. Despite clearly documented cases of indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks, arms manufacturers from Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy and Spain continued to supply weapons, ammunition and logistical support to the coalition forces. Government officials and civil servants facilitated this by issuing the necessary export licenses.

After more than six years of preliminary investigations, the ICC has now decided not to open an investigation. It did not provide a specific legal justification for this decision. We are continuing our efforts to hold those responsible to account: by filing criminal complaints in various countries as well as before the European Court of Human Rights.

More about the case

Regional human rights courts need to adopt a more accessible and flexible approach in their assessment of evidence. This was the conclusion of the “Evidence Matters” conference, hosted at the University of Pretoria (South Africa) in collaboration with Ghent University from 11–13 May and which explored the role of evidence in regional human rights courts. Analyzing pushback cases on the Spanish-Moroccan border, Hanaa Hakiki and Delphine Rodrik presented on the coloniality of obstructed and inadequate judicial investigations. Arguing that Europe’s border regime and the courts are “a reconstructed colonial space,” they showed how applicants struggle for recognition as rights holders and how the handling of evidence and investigations in these cases functions outside of customary legal and human rights frameworks.

There is no world court for human rights – but the UN comes close. The UN’s treaties each have their own committee which can examine complaints by individuals alleging violations. With this new book, legal practitioners and academics look at the essential question of how evidence is handled in these UN procedures. In two chapters, Hanaa Hakiki assesses how evidence is treated in pushback cases in front of the UN – and subsequently makes recommendations to the treaty bodies on how to apply evidentiary standards with greater clarity and fairness. The book is published by Cambridge University Press and edited by Deborah Casalin, Marie-Bénédicte Dembour and Cornelia Klocker.

Read the book

What if the way we organize, resist, and build solidarity today is already laying the foundations for a different world? Drawing on the concept of prefiguration – the idea that the future is forged through our actions in the present – a panel of international guests on 2 July at Spore Initiative in Berlin will explore what it means to create transformative change here and now.

Rather than asking separate questions, the discussion will focus on the shared struggle to defend freedom of movement and equal rights in a time of border entrenchment, criminalization of migration, and authoritarian nationalism; to confront impunity and stand with survivors of armed conflict and crimes against humanity amid ongoing violence and stalled justice; and to support communities across the Global South as they resist dispossession, defend their territories, and reclaim power in the face of extractivism, corporate abuse, and political repression.

In addition to introducing ECCHR’s 15th Critical legal Training Alumn* Reunion, this event is part of the Institute for Legal Intervention’s thematic focus on world-building, where the discussion revolves not only around the injustices we confront, but also the worlds we are already creating in response. Previous events for this thematic focus included a seminar and game night with Max Haiven on the importance of games and play for collaboration and radical imagination. Radical imagination is more than envisioning alternatives – it is the collective courage to make them real, and the political strategies to turn possibility into transformation.

More info about participants and registration

From 4 to 9 October 2026, ECCHR, the Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) and Tilburg Law School will host an international summer school on Corporate Accountability and Climate Justice. Expert speakers include Jameela Joy Reyes (LSE), Phillip Paiement (Tilburg Law School), Daniel Augenstein (Tilburg Law School & ECCHR), Markus Krajewski (FAU) and Miriam Saage-Maaβ (ECCHR) as well as others experts in the field of Business and Human Rights and Climate Justice. The summer school is addressed to early-career human rights practitioners and advanced students with prior knowledge of climate change law and policy and/or business and human rights, who are interested in pursuing a career in a civil society organization.

More info and registration

Irene Khan, the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, following her visit to Germany from 26 January to 6 February 2026, recently presented her report on the situation in Germany, highlighting growing polarization, a chilling effect on speech, and rising antisemitism, Islamophobia and hate speech against minorities. While recognizing Germany’s strong human rights framework and media landscape, she raised concerns about the excessive use of criminal law to restrict expression, particularly regarding Palestine and climate activism. Her observations confirm the findings of the ECCHR report Grey Zones, Red Lines: Defending Academic Freedom in Law and Politics. The report, which has now been published as a book, in collaboration with the Department "Anthropology of Economic Experimentation" at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology (Halle/Saale) and Berlin Institute for Migration and Integration Research at Humboldt University, also examines how political pressure and institutional responses are shrinking academic space. Such restrictions risk making academic freedom conditional on political acceptability, with migrant scholars and students facing disproportionate consequences, including threats to employment, residency, and participation in public debate.

Read Grey Zones, Red Lines: Defending Academic Freedom in Law and Politics

Watch Irene Kahn’s Presentation

For the Ovaherero and Nama peoples, Namibia’s lands are both wound and witness. This exhibition reveals how the enduring consequences of the German colonial occupation are inscribed in the country’s terrain. At its center are the Ovaherero and Nama claims for reparations, the return of ancestral lands, and the protection of sites central to their history and cultural memory. Today, Namibia is a lens through which to understand unresolved histories which define the contemporary world: dispossession, extractivism, genocide, and memory. The exhibition, Fractured Lifeworlds, which opened at Spore Initiative in Berlin on 6 June, brings together large-scale video and sound installations, cartographic analyses, satellite imagery, environmental modelling, and digital reconstructions – developed by Forensis and Forensic Architecture over four years, in close collaboration with descendant communities, oral historians, Indigenous scholars, activists in Namibia and Germany and ECCHR’s Institute for legal Intervention. The exhibition will unfold over three seasons – Bush, Wind, and Sand – each reflecting an aspect of Namibia’s landscapes, and highlighting a different cluster of research within the collaborative project. The exhibition will be accompanied by a public program, including a panel discussion on 8 July moderated by ECCHR’s Anne Schroeter on unmasking the truth of the respective Ovaherero and Nama genocides.

More about the exhibition

More about Forensis

In a world where international law is not only violated by autocrats, but also by those who once upheld it, we must constantly ask ourselves what it means to work with international law today. In Sudan, gold looting finances war. In Ukraine, in Gaza, and in Iran, the law applies to some – but apparently not to others. Companies profit from conflicts, while arms exports fuel them. And those same Western democracies that have long championed the international legal order are increasingly contributing to its erosion.

On May 18, we launched our 2025 Annual Report 2025 with discussions with Wolfgang Kaleck (ECCHR, General Secretary), Miriam Saage-Maaß (ECCHR, Legal Director), the artist Ahmed Isamaldin, the author and journalist Şeyda Kurt, and Sinthujan Varatharajah (ECCHR, Fundraising and Partnerships) on the extractivist networks behind violent conflicts and on what it means to confront the law of the strongest with the power of the law.

Read the ECCHR 2025 Annual Report

We are looking for a new team member to join our communications team starting November 1. You can find more information about the diverse learning opportunities and responsibilities, as well as our expectations for applicants, here.

On May 9th Theo van Boven passed away. He supported ECCHR’s work as an honorary board member for many years and will be remembered as an example of courage in defending truth and human rights against power. In 1982, his term as director of the UN Human Rights Division was not extended, because his critical attention to human rights atrocities in Latin America was too outspoken for the UN headquarters in New York. He replied, “Whenever necessary, we must speak out on matters of principle, regardless of whom we please or displease within or outside the organization.”

Multimedia artist Sara Sallam was one of four participants with whom Wolfgang Kaleck discussed what justice might look like as part of the Hamburg Photo Triennial. The discussion centered on the question of whose images are given a platform in the first place, what leeway curators have to break with unjust exhibition traditions, and the various artistic approaches to illustrating justice. The exhibition “Care – Reconsidering Photography” currently demonstrates what this might mean in practice. In it, Sara Sallam responds to various items in the collection of the Hamburg Museum of Arts and Crafts through photographic and other works. She brings to light the injustices and alienation linked to the museum’s colonial history, while also exploring ways to come to terms with loss and trauma. 

until 10 January 2027, Tues.–Sun. 10:00–6:00 pm, thurs. 10:00–9:00 pm, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Steintorplatz, Hamburg

More about the exhibition and podium discussion

“Kaleck has long since ceased to harbor any illusions about the state of the world, but he has always remained committed to his cause and has accepted that, in the struggle for human rights, even small steps forward count – because they are vital for those affected.” This quote from a review in the Süddeutsche Zeitung is representative of the media response to Wolfgang Kaleck’s latest book. Anyone who is not yet familiar with this polemic – which also offers a concise and accessible introduction to the history of the development of international human rights frameworks – can still do so. As part of the “Books that matter” series, Wolfgang Kaleck will be in conversation with criminal law professor Leonie Steinl at the invitation of the Heinrich Böll Foundation. The Bruno Kreisky Forum has produced a podcast based on a discussion in early June between the Kaleck, Austrian journalist Robert Misk, and politician Muna Duzdar – perfect for summer vacation.

30 June 2026, 6:30 –8:00 pm, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, Schumannstr. 8, Berlin

Registration

Further events

The decline of so-called liberal democracies, rising authoritarianism, and the rise of fascism are currently the subject of much discussion even among the white middle class. But anyone who truly wants to understand these processes must place the ongoing experiences of discrimination faced by black people in precisely these liberal democracies at the center of their analysis. Yet, this is exactly what is becoming increasingly difficult to do in the US and elsewhere: due to restrictions on academic freedom, the abolition of legally enforceable guarantees of participation, and the expansion of the powers of the police and military.

In this complex landscape, how can struggles against racial discrimination still be waged and won, and what role does civil law play in this? These questions were discussed by US civil rights activist and legal scholar Kimberlé W. Crenshaw, author Alice Hasters, and legal scholar Cengiz Barskanmaz as part of the “On Justice” discussion series organized by ECCHR and HAU Theater. The discussion will soon be available as a podcast.

More about the series and podcasts

The current geopolitical upheavals were also the subject of many presentations, discussions, and critical inquiries at this year’s re:publica. In their presentations, Wolfgang Kaleck, Miriam Saage-Maaß, and Alexander Schwarz placed international law at the center of the discussions. All three panels were recorded and can be viewed online:

Wolfgang Kaleck at WDR Europaforum

Is international law going down the drain? (Only available in German) 

Miriam Saage-Maaß

Who Profits from War? Holding corporations to account for international crimes 

Alexander Schwarz und Frederik Obermeier (Paper Trail Media)

From Smartphone to Courtroom: How Digital Evidence Brings International Crimes to Trial (Only available in German)

What role do religion, goddesses and gods play in contemporary capitalism? This question was the focus of the three-day “Tribunal of Faith” at this year’s Vienna Festival, directed by theater artist Milo Rau and moderated by Wolfgang Kaleck. Drawing on three case studies, the event explored issues of artistic, institutional and political appropriation of religious practices. In all three areas, the legitimization of power has been – and continues to be – a key motivation. According to Wolfgang Kaleck in his opening speech, a new trend in this regard is “the deliberate creation of ignorance, lack of knowledge, and Potemkin-style controversies, such as the denial of climate change.”

Video recordings and further information (only available in German)

Hannah Franzki

Research with Reservations – The Legal Protection of Acadmeic Institutions’ Editorial Independence (only available in German)

Verfassungsblog, 17 June 2026

Wolfgang Kaleck

Human rights lawyer Wolfgang Kaleck: “Everyone can do something” (only available in German)

Frankfurter Rundschau, 11 June 2026

Wolfgang Kaleck

Rupture and Continuity: How International Law Can Be Defended Against Trump (only available in German)

Blätter für deutsche und internationale Politik, June 2026

Felix Henn, Julia Manek, Henning Melber, Laura Mahler, Reinhart Kößler, Tim Mulhanga, Anne Schroeter, Prince Kamaazengi Marenga

Reparations for the genocide in Namibia? Eleven Responses to Key Objections in the German Debate

Werkstatt Ökonomie e.V., May 2026

Allison West

“Detention Has Become an Industry in Libya” Five Questions"

Verfassungsblog, 29 May 2026

Wolfgang Kaleck

Justice Against Power (only available in German)

DIE ZEIT, 20 Mai 2026

Wolfgang Kaleck

Indivisible International Law Needs New Coalitions: Restoring Order (only available in German)

Neue Gesellschaft Frankfurter Hefte, 28 April 2026

Cannelle Lavite

A judgment against Cynicism (only available in German)

DIE ZEIT, 23 April 2026

Alexander Schwarz

ECCHR: “Impunity is not a natural law" (only available in German)

nd Journalismus von links, 22 April 2026

Annabell Brüggemann

A test for the Supply Chain Act: A flaw in the chain (only available in German)

Taz, 28 March 2026

Chloé Bailey

Siemens in Mozambique – Lucrative Business Despite Human Rights Violations (only available in German)

ZDF frontal, 9 June 2026

Wolfgang Kaleck

Nachtclub ÜberPop – Music & Human Rights: Pop as a Political Tool (only available in German)

NDR, 22 May 2026

Wolfgang Kaleck

A Day with Wolfgang Kaleck: Power Isn't Cool (only available in German)

Deutschlandfunk Kultur, 22 April 2026

Clara Gonzales & Annabell Brüggemann

Ep. 43 - Climate Justice in Court: The Pakistan and Pari Island Cases

Podcast NOVA Center on Business, Human Rights and the Environment, 14 April 2026