In April 2026, the Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED) adopted a resolution under Article 34 of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (hereinafter “the Convention”) and urgently brought the matter before the UN General Assembly. Article 34 empowers the CED to bring a situation to the attention of the UN General Assembly when it receives well-founded indications that enforced disappearance is being practised on a widespread or systematic basis. A significant aspect of the Resolution is the Committee’s application of what may be described as a third scenario of enforced disappearance: disappearances committed solely by non-State actors as crimes against humanity under Article 5. Although previously recognized by the CED, the Mexico Resolution assessed this scenario in practice for the first time and within the exceptional Article 34 procedure. Mexico rejected this interpretation, arguing that Article 34 is limited to enforced disappearances involving direct or indirect State participation under Article 2.
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The Spanish Supreme Court on Rejection at the Borders of Ceuta and Melilla: What About Human Rights at Sea?
Ceuta and Melilla are Spanish Autonomous Cities located on the northern coast of Africa and bordering Morocco. They occupy a singular position within the European legal order. They simultaneously constitute the external borders of Spain, the European Union, and the Schengen Area, making them the only land frontiers between Europe and Africa. For decades, these borders have been…
In This Issue – Reviews
In our current state of affairs in the world some of us must feel a measure of fatigue. Helplessness. Despair. At loss. A loss. A sense that we're losing. It might have been a day like this when George Orwell's Winston Smith sat in his room and wrote the first page of his diary. ‘From where Winston stood…
From Survival to Justice: A Conversation with Judge Theodor Meron
Few figures in international law have witnessed and influenced its development as much as Judge Theodor Meron. A Holocaust survivor who became a leading scholar, government legal adviser, diplomat and international judge, his unique reflections offer a first-hand account, built over decades of experience, of how international law is formed, interpreted, and applied under pressure. I…
Two Weeks in Review: 13—24 July 2026
Nicolas Boeglin - July 26, 2026 at 15:12
Dear Professor von Massow Many thanks for all this very valuable information provided. It is rather strange that none of our esteemed colleagues at EJIL-Talk has chosen in July to…
Crimean Coastal State Rights and the Resilience of…
Gleb Liashko - July 25, 2026 at 09:44
Thanks a lot for your post - an interesting read with its perspective and inferences. As someone who deals with the law of the sea from time to time, I…
The Legality of the Use of Interstate Force…
Mary Ellen O'Connell - July 24, 2026 at 19:31
The duty to comply with peremptory norms is not affected by the number of condemnations of a violation, let alone the identity of a state that issues or refrains from…
Who Pays for Aggression? Ukraine’s Reparation Claims and…
Sharifuddin Adamu - July 19, 2026 at 16:59
As a human rights lawyer, I support establishing a narrowly defined exception to the state immunity, regarding state's assets, in order to hold aggressive countries responsible for full reparation to …