This week we take a look back at some of our most thought-provoking episodes from the year and play you some of the highlights.

Up first we hear from Professor Kim-Thuy Seelinger and Professor Valerie Oosterveld from Episode 72 – Sex Crimes Education. In the podcast we discussed conflict-related sexual violence and what has changed in the understanding of gendered crimes in the last five to ten years.

We then look back at Episode 75 – Failures of Justice and our chat with Kate Gibson, who is representing Prosper Mugiraneza, one of seven Rwandan men stuck under house arrest in Niger. The men were all former detainees of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, who had either been acquitted or released. The men had agreed to go to Niger voluntarily but once there, were detained and stripped of their rights. 

This year we also had quite a few updates on the situation in Ukraine, including the reports of forcible transfers of Ukrainian children to Russia. In Episode 78 – Ukraine’s Taken Children we spoke with Yulia Ioffe, who argued that the alleged war crimes could legally be classified as genocide.

In June we sat down with Lucy Gaynor for Episode 79 – Kabuga’s Alternative Procedure to discuss the trial of Felicien Kabuga and the court’s controversial suggestion of an ‘alternative findings procedure’. Something similar to a trial, but without Kabuga present and with no possibility of conviction. Since that episode, UN appeal judges have ordered that Kabuga’s war crimes trial be indefinitely suspended.

We also spoke to Dr Melanie O’Brien about what was happening in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh in Episode 83 – Armenia wages ‘lawfare’. It was a timely episode, as only a few days after we aired the episode in September, Azerbaijani troops launched a military offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh, seizing the region. 

And in the last part of this year, we have been intently following events in Gaza and the conflict between Israel and Hamas. In one of these discussions in our Justice Update episode – Israel, Hamas and the laws of war, we got hold of Margaret Satterthwaite, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, who stressed the importance of International Humanitarian Law in conflict.

Events and news surrounding international law and justice have kept us busy all year and things look set to continue in 2024. So until then, we want to thank you for listening and for all your support. Tune in again in 2024!