Law on the frontlines: A reflection from the front row at the IBA War Crimes Committee Conference 2025

Paola Fudakowska
IBA War Crimes Committee member and Officer of the IBA Forum for Government and Public Lawyers
Paola.Fudakowska@gmail.com

What a privilege to be hosted by Leiden University in the Hague at this year’s IBA War Crimes Committee Conference on 5 April 2025, expertly organised by Kirsty Sutherland and Elsa Wyllie. This formidable duo brought together an inspiring group of international law experts to consider the challenges and opportunities for international law in a world of intense and evolving conflicts.

Each session was carefully curated with exceptional speakers offering their insights on the central idea that international norms are a critical tool operating on the frontlines of armed conflict, with lawyers, humanitarians, investigators, journalists and civil society playing a crucial role. The discussions moved beyond traditional legal frameworks to address the realities of modern warfare, including technology, disinformation and the resilience of post-conflict societies.

The first panel, ‘When norms fail: impunity’s impact on international law’, focused on the existential threat to international humanitarian law (IHL) when states and individuals are not held accountable for egregious violations. The panelists discussed whether the core principles of IHL – humanity, distinction, proportionality and military necessity – can survive in an environment where mass violence is met with impunity or even tacit support. The dangers of the failure to hold perpetrators accountable raises the prospect of total war with no rules. The role of the international legal community in fighting to uphold these hard-won principles was a central point of discussion.

Moving to the heart of the role of law on the frontlines, the second panel, ‘Law on the frontlines: documenting and defending humanity in hostilities’, looked at the extraordinary efforts of civil society and journalists who are documenting war crimes in real time. Discussions explored how evidence is being gathered in conflict zones by those living through the events and how lawyers can ensure this high-risk work is not wasted. A key focus was on how to safely and securely preserve evidence in a survivor-centered and trauma-informed way, while also ensuring it meets the rigorous standards for admission at trial. Leela Jadhav from Forensic Architecture gave the audience a real-time demonstration of how the organisation uses cutting edge techniques in spatial analysis and digital modelling to reconstruct incidents of state violence and human rights violations.

The third panel, ‘Disinformation: truth-seeking in the digital age’, moved to address the challenge of distinguishing fact from fiction in an era of deepfakes, manipulated content and algorithm-controlled information. Panelists discussed how age-old tactics of propaganda and false flag operations are amplified by new digital mediums. They shared methods developed to scrutinise, verify and use vast volumes of digital material to establish truth in legal proceedings. Hadi Al Khatib from Mnemonic shared his organisation's tremendous efforts to build archives on Syria, Yemen, Sudan and Ukraine containing over 10 million records, with the objective to establish searchable verified databases of human rights violations which offer potential evidence for legal case building.

The day closed with a look at ‘The day after: building resilient post-conflict societies’.  Panellists looked beyond the immediate conflict to the long-term work of rebuilding and lessons learnt from South Africa, Ireland, Colombia, Iraq and Rwanda. The focus was on the legal frameworks and practical strategies needed to support post-conflict societies, ensuring accountability is not just a punitive measure but a cornerstone of rebuilding and reconciliation. Ambassador Stephen Rapp shared some closing reflections on the first few months since the collapse of Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria. Ambassador Rapp was in Syria in December 2024 with the Commission for International Justice and Accountability and the Syrian Emergency Task Force helping to uncover evidence of mass graves. He reflected on the challenge of securing and analysing the immense trove of evidence – some millions of documents – and using those documents to establish the truth and as evidence in trials, ideally in Syria, of those that bear the greatest criminal responsibility.

So how did this event make an impact? It offered an opportunity for those seeking accountability for impunity to come together at a critical moment when challenges to a rules-based international order seem to be coming thick and fast. Nevertheless, the discussions conveyed a shared belief that the work of those upholding international norms remains essential to ride the storm, with the ultimate goal of building a more just and resilient world.