Calendar
mywilpf
Donate

Celebrating Feminists’ Voices, Inspiring Global Peace

Back to all news
Opinion
#InternationalCriminalJustice

Will we resuscitate International Criminal Justice or watch it die?

“International justice is flat‑lining—will we resuscitate it?” On this International Criminal Justice Day, WILPF SG Dr. Amrita Kapur connects the dots: unchecked militarism, settler colonialism, racial supremacy, patriarchal violence, profit‑from‑war—and a system that is failing Palestinians. Cross‑posted from Raseef22—thank you for amplifying.

A woman smiles in the lower right corner. Bold text reads: International justice is flat-lining. Will we resuscitate it or watch it die? Smaller text notes its an op-ed for International Criminal Justice Day.
Image credit: WILPF
  • 4 min
Amrita Kapur
17 July 2025


This op-ed by Dr. Amrita Kapur, Secretary-General of WILPF, first appeared at Raseef22. We’re sharing it here to amplify this urgent call for accountability. Read the original article on Raseef22.

“The entire world watches a daily live broadcast of massacres, displacement, starvation and brutality. The occupier openly violates international law. At the same time, governments and institutions claiming to champion human rights, shield Israel, distort our image, demonise our voices and even supply the occupation with weapons that support our genocide.” — Madlin Hamed, Palestinian journalist based in Gaza

Today, on the Day of International Criminal Justice, we will witness a familiar contradiction: states will tweet about their commitment to fighting impunity for international crimes while they continue to profit from or tolerate the ongoing genocide in Palestine. 

By continuing to send weapons to Israel and refusing to impose consequences for the continuing commission of international crimes, states embolden all perpetrators. As a gender expert with a focus on crimes of sexual and gender-based violence, I am deeply familiar with the challenges to accountability. But as an international lawyer, dedicated to criminal justice, I have never been more disillusioned with state selectivity on complying with international law. Progress toward accountability for international crimes has been slow and inconsistent. After the WWII tribunals and the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide, international criminal trials were piecemeal and sporadic for decades. The ad-hoc tribunals of the 1990s and the establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2002 heralded more systemic gains. In the last decade, international justice mechanisms have been complemented by a gradual increase in national trials for international crimes, under the ICC’s complementarity principle, universal jurisdiction and domestic laws. We have seen country leaders charged and arrested for international crimes, and national courts try genocide cases. 

For a moment, it seemed that Martin Luther King might have been right when he said the “arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” But today, it seems justice may be beyond reach. For over 18 months, we have seen every standard defied, week after week, as governments continue shielding Israel and its leaders from accountability for its international crimes. 

Ever more frequently, the question “How is this happening?” is asked by increasingly distressed, disturbed, and despairing individuals and communities around the world. We thought we had evolved, but it’s never been clearer that international criminal justice was a noble project permitted to operate, only at the fringes of power.  The overnight exception to this is the commitment by 12 countries in the Hague Group to take collective action to prevent genocide.

We cannot understand this failure of international criminal justice without naming the intersecting systems of oppression that enable genocide. Unchecked militarism, exemplified by the continuing arms trade with Israel; settler colonialism, which normalises Palestinian dispossession; nationalism and racial supremacy, which dehumanizes them; patriarchal violence, which deepens gendered suffering; and extractive capitalism, which profits from war and occupation—all form a legal and political shield against accountability, despite overwhelming evidence of atrocity crimes, including genocide.

Even the most damning convergence of international expert conclusions – from the International Court of Justice, to the ICC, to UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, to the UN Commission of Inquiry, to the countless independently investigated evidence-based reports and universal jurisdiction efforts by the Global 195 coalition and various States – has failed to slow the genocidal trajectory.

International criminal justice is a promise that criminal accountability will prevent international crimes – including genocide – in the future. Yet, as the genocide unfolds in real time in Palestine, this promise feels nearly impossible.

“I headed to the hospital expecting to find my daughter in a bed so I could bring her home. Her name is Ghena, she’s seven years old. Then I saw the shroud: it said ‘Ghena Al-Jazar.’ I looked at her face, still so beautiful, but the wound was in her head; the entire back of her skull was gone … The shock was overwhelming; my mind couldn’t grasp it for a long time, maybe it still can’t.” — Alaa – 29-year-old mother and widow from Rafah

That promise of justice relies on us dismantling the structures and systems that give rise to these crimes in the first place. Until we start to challenge these intersecting systems and spheres of unchecked power, international criminal justice will continue to unravel. And our shared humanity with it.

By shielding Israel from all consequences, world leaders are not just complicit in the genocide, they are destroying the very foundation of international criminal justice. What States must do to avoid this and fulfill their legal obligations is clear: execute ICC arrest warrants; ensure compliance with ICJ judgments on Palestine; sanction and suspend arms transfers to Israel; suspend Israel from the UN General Assembly; and support all efforts to investigate and punish international crimes in Palestine.


To honor this day and connect lofty principles of justice to lived reality, I urge you to pause and listen to those who bear the weight of our collective inaction. Spend a few minutes with Nakba testimonies, where Palestinians recount 77 years of dispossession and their experience with the ongoing genocide; then tune in to “Voices from Gaza: Unravelling the Genocide.” Palestinian voices remind us that resuscitating international criminal justice is not a technical exercise but a moral imperative.

Share the post
A person with long dark hair smiles, wearing a white shirt and dark jacket. The background is blurred.
Amrita Kapur

Matt Mahmoudi

Matt Mahmoudi (he/him) is a lecturer, researcher, and organizer. He’s been leading the “Ban the Scan” campaign, Amnesty International’s research and advocacy efforts on banning facial recognition technologies and exposing their uses against racialized communities, from New York City to the occupied Palestinian territories.

Berit Aasen

Europe Alternate Regional Representative

Berit Aasen is a sociologist by training and has worked at the OsloMet Metropolitan University on Oslo. She has 40 years of experience in research and consultancy in development studies, including women, peace, and security, and in later years in asylum and refugee studies. Berit Aasen joined WILPF Norway five years ago. She is an alternate member of the National Board of WILPF Norway, and representing WILPF Norway in the UN Association of Norway, the Norwegian 1325 network and the Norwegian Women’s Lobby. Berit Aasen has been active in the WILPF European Liaison group and is committed to strengthening WILPF sections and membership both in Europe and relations across continents.

Your donation isn’t just a financial transaction; it’s a step toward a more compassionate and equitable world. With your support, we’re poised to achieve lasting change that echoes through generations. Thank you!

Thank you!

Melissa Torres

VICE-PRESIDENT

Prior to being elected Vice-President, Melissa Torres was the WILPF US International Board Member from 2015 to 2018. Melissa joined WILPF in 2011 when she was selected as a Delegate to the Commission on the Status of Women as part of the WILPF US’ Practicum in Advocacy Programme at the United Nations, which she later led. She holds a PhD in Social Work and is a professor and Global Health Scholar at Baylor College of Medicine and research lead at BCM Anti-Human Trafficking Program. Of Mexican descent and a native of the US/Mexico border, Melissa is mostly concerned with the protection of displaced Latinxs in the Americas. Her work includes training, research, and service provision with the American Red Cross, the National Human Trafficking Training and Technical Assistance Centre, and refugee resettlement programs in the U.S. Some of her goals as Vice-President are to highlight intersectionality and increase diversity by fostering inclusive spaces for mentorship and leadership. She also contributes to WILPF’s emerging work on the topic of displacement and migration.

Jamila Afghani

VICE-PRESIDENT

Jamila Afghani is the President of WILPF Afghanistan which she started in 2015. She is also an active member and founder of several organisations including the Noor Educational and Capacity Development Organisation (NECDO). Elected in 2018 as South Asia Regional Representative to WILPF’s International Board, WILPF benefits from Jamila’s work experience in education, migration, gender, including gender-based violence and democratic governance in post-conflict and transitional countries.

A woman in a blue, black, and white dress smiles radiantly in front of a leafy green background.

Sylvie Jacqueline Ndongmo

PRESIDENT

Sylvie Jacqueline NDONGMO is a human rights and peace leader with over 27 years experience including ten within WILPF. She has a multi-disciplinary background with a track record of multiple socio-economic development projects implemented to improve policies, practices and peace-oriented actions. Sylvie is the founder of WILPF Cameroon and was the Section’s president until 2022. She co-coordinated the African Working Group before her election as Africa Representative to WILPF’s International Board in 2018. A teacher by profession and an African Union Trainer in peace support operations, Sylvie has extensive experience advocating for the political and social rights of women in Africa and worldwide.

WILPF Afghanistan

In response to the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban and its targeted attacks on civil society members, WILPF Afghanistan issued several statements calling on the international community to stand in solidarity with Afghan people and ensure that their rights be upheld, including access to aid. The Section also published 100 Untold Stories of War and Peace, a compilation of true stories that highlight the effects of war and militarisation on the region. 

IPB Congress Barcelona

WILPF Germany (+Young WILPF network), WILPF Spain and MENA Regional Representative

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Mauris facilisis luctus rhoncus. Praesent eget tellus sit amet enim consectetur condimentum et vel ante. Nulla facilisi. Suspendisse et nunc sem. Vivamus ullamcorper vestibulum neque, a interdum nisl accumsan ac. Cras ut condimentum turpis. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia curae; Curabitur efficitur gravida ipsum, quis ultricies erat iaculis pellentesque. Nulla congue iaculis feugiat. Suspendisse euismod congue ultricies. Sed blandit neque in libero ultricies aliquam. Donec euismod eget diam vitae vehicula. Fusce hendrerit purus leo. Aenean malesuada, ante eu aliquet mollis, diam erat suscipit eros, in.

Demilitarisation

WILPF uses feminist analysis to argue that militarisation is a counter-productive and ill-conceived response to establishing security in the world. The more society becomes militarised, the more violence and injustice are likely to grow locally and worldwide.

Sixteen states are believed to have supplied weapons to Afghanistan from 2001 to 2020 with the US supplying 74 % of weapons, followed by Russia. Much of this equipment was left behind by the US military and is being used to inflate Taliban’s arsenal. WILPF is calling for better oversight on arms movement, for compensating affected Afghan people and for an end to all militarised systems.

Militarised masculinity

Mobilising men and boys around feminist peace has been one way of deconstructing and redefining masculinities. WILPF shares a feminist analysis on the links between militarism, masculinities, peace and security. We explore opportunities for strengthening activists’ action to build equal partnerships among women and men for gender equality.

WILPF has been working on challenging the prevailing notion of masculinity based on men’s physical and social superiority to, and dominance of, women in Afghanistan. It recognizes that these notions are not representative of all Afghan men, contrary to the publicly prevailing notion.

Feminist peace​

In WILPF’s view, any process towards establishing peace that has not been partly designed by women remains deficient. Beyond bringing perspectives that encapsulate the views of half of the society and unlike the men only designed processes, women’s true and meaningful participation allows the situation to improve.

In Afghanistan, WILPF has been demanding that women occupy the front seats at the negotiating tables. The experience of the past 20 has shown that women’s presence produces more sustainable solutions when they are empowered and enabled to play a role.