Structured profiles of landmark international proceedings — summary, parties, legal issues, timeline, and strategic significance — compiled for scholars, practitioners, and policymakers.
Live docket · 6 current proceedings before the ICJ and ICC · updated as rulings are issuedEach profile below draws on the public record of the relevant court or tribunal. Case Intelligence Center profiles are reference material and do not constitute legal advice.
South Africa instituted proceedings alleging that Israel's conduct in Gaza breaches its obligations under the Genocide Convention, and has repeatedly returned to the Court to request further provisional measures as the situation on the ground evolved. The Court has issued successive provisional-measures orders directing Israel to take steps to prevent acts falling within the Convention and to ensure humanitarian access, without yet ruling on the merits. A large number of states — including Belgium, Brazil, Comoros, and Paraguay — have filed declarations of intervention, an unusually high number for a contentious case.
The case has become a central test of the Genocide Convention's provisional-measures machinery and of the scope for third-state intervention under Article 63. HILC's Legal Observatory tracks each order and pleading deadline as they are issued.
Ukraine argued that Russia's invocation of genocide as a pretext for its 2022 invasion had no basis under the Genocide Convention. The Court found jurisdiction over most of Ukraine's claims in 2024, and has since ruled that counter-claims filed by the Russian Federation are admissible, directing both parties to complete a further round of written pleadings before the case can proceed to the merits.
A live test of the Genocide Convention as a jurisdictional hook for disputes concerning the use of force, and of how the Court manages counter-claims in a highly politicised case. Tracked in HILC's Legal Observatory as an active proceeding.
Guyana asks the Court to confirm the validity and binding character of the 1899 Arbitral Award that established its boundary with Venezuela, and to declare Venezuela's continued reliance on the 1966 Geneva Agreement to reopen the frontier unlawful. Venezuela contests the Award's validity. The Court concluded merits hearings in May 2026 and has begun deliberation, with judgment expected in due course.
One of the most closely watched active territorial disputes before the Court, with direct implications for sovereignty over the oil-rich Essequibo region and for the stability of a colonial-era boundary award more than a century old.
The Gambia, acting without having suffered direct injury itself, brought proceedings alleging that Myanmar's military campaign against the Rohingya population breached the Genocide Convention. Eleven states, including Canada, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, have filed declarations of intervention. Merits hearings concluded in January 2026 and the Court is now deliberating.
A landmark test of erga omnes partes standing under the Genocide Convention — the principle that any contracting state may bring a claim even without direct injury — with the highest number of third-state interventions in the Court's history.
Trial Chamber I unanimously found Mr Abd-Al-Rahman guilty on 27 counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Darfur, Sudan, between August 2003 and April 2004, following a trial spanning 134 hearing days over two and a half years. The Defence filed notice of appeal against the conviction the following month. On 9 December 2025, the Chamber sentenced him to 20 years' imprisonment — below the Prosecution's request for a life sentence — with time in detention since his June 2020 surrender deducted from the term. Appeal proceedings against both conviction and sentence are ongoing.
One of the ICC's most significant convictions arising from the Darfur situation, and a live test of the Court's sentencing practice and appellate procedure. Directly relevant to the pending related case of Sudan v. United Arab Emirates before the ICJ.
Sudan has instituted proceedings against the United Arab Emirates alleging complicity in genocide in Darfur through alleged support to the Rapid Support Forces. The case is at an early procedural stage, and jurisdictional questions — including the effect of the UAE's reservation to the Genocide Convention's compromissory clause — are expected to be contested.
Raises novel questions on state responsibility for genocide committed by non-state actors receiving external support, and sits alongside the ICC's Abd-Al-Rahman conviction as part of the broader Darfur accountability docket that HILC's Legal Observatory is following closely.