International Law & Peacebuilding

The Climate-Conflict Nexus examines how climate shocks and environmental strains can aggravate existing tensions, weaken governance, and drive mass displacement and fragility. As resource scarcity, extreme weather events, and ecological degradation reshape political and social landscapes, understanding their security implications becomes essential for effective conflict prevention. The project also considers how critical mineral and textile supply chains as well as energy transitions shape risk and resilience, recognizing that the pathways countries take toward decarbonization carry their own geopolitical and stability consequences. By integrating climate and environmental analysis into conflict assessment, the project offers practical guidance to reduce risks and support stability.

The Rohingya people have been persecuted by their own country and sought uneasy refuge in neighboring countries for decades. Successive governments in Myanmar have violated the Rohingya's rights to identity, nationality, security, and other fundamental human rights, and the military's 2017 clearance operations resulted in more than 700,000 men, women, and children fleeing to Bangladesh. While the international community broadly condemned the genocide and crimes against humanity committed against the Rohingya, the global political response has never been adequate to the crisis's scale and scope. In 2023, New Lines Institute convened the Global Rohingya Initiative to bring together key stakeholders, with a focus on empowering representatives of the Rohingya community to address this crisis in a more holistic and effective way.

This project examines the road to accountability for crimes allegedly committed against Tigrayans during the armed conflict that took place in Ethiopia from November 2020 to at least November 2022. The project scrutinizes the three atrocity crimes of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity perpetrated against Tigrayans, applying international legal standards to assess the conduct of parties to the conflict. The project also examines often overlooked gender based crimes, including conflict related sexual violence, which was used by all parties in the war.

The Hazara are an ethnic and religious minority residing in Afghanistan who have been persecuted for over a century. This project applies the 1948 Genocide Convention to the situation of the Hazaras in Afghanistan, finding reasonable basis to believe that attacks against the Hazaras by various actors since August 2021 satisfy the main elements of genocide. Through rigorous legal analysis, the project documents patterns of violence and persecution targeting the Hazara community and assesses whether these acts meet the threshold of genocidal conduct under international law. The project's findings support efforts to raise awareness of the Hazara's plight and to activate the international community's duty to prevent and respond to genocide.

The Integrating Sustainable Peace project applies conflict prevention to policy areas not traditionally framed as peace work, ensuring that markers of conflict are identified early and addressed before they escalate. By embedding conflict awareness into policy processes, the project helps governments and institutions address root causes of instability before they manifest as violence. The project advances creative, community centered approaches that strengthen peacebuilding at local, national, and international levels, recognizing that durable peace must be built from the ground up as well as supported by enabling policy environments.

The International Aid and Development project examines how humanitarian assistance, refugee protection, and development responses operate in conflict affected regions. Effective international support requires understanding not only immediate needs but also the structural conditions that perpetuate instability and displacement. This work analyzes aid access, displacement dynamics, public health crises, and ethnic pressures to identify how international interventions can better protect civilians and reduce long term drivers of instability. By assessing the effectiveness of current approaches and identifying gaps, the project offers practical guidance for donors, implementing organizations, and policymakers seeking to align humanitarian and development efforts with conflict prevention objectives.

Almost three years into Russia's illegal full scale invasion of Ukraine, approximately $300 billion in frozen Russian assets remain immobilized around the world, and no definitive public accounting of them exists. A culture of secrecy has developed around matters related to Russian state assets, complicating efforts to secure meaningful reparations for victims of the invasion. This project seeks to dispel that secrecy and improve the prospects of obtaining effective reparations for Russia's victims. Through rigorous legal analysis, the project has developed the Multilateral Asset Transfer model, which illuminates the legal power that nation states can exercise through their own domestic law to not only freeze but transfer Russian state assets to a global fund for Ukraine's reconstruction, using the international law of state countermeasures.

The Political Violence and Public Unrest project examines the causes of political violence, extremist mobilization, and mass unrest, and how these factors build over time. Understanding the pathways through which grievances transform into collective action and violence is essential for effective prevention and response. The project focuses on how protests, elections, policing, and polarization can escalate risk, analyzing the conditions under which political tensions tip into violence and the interventions that can reduce that likelihood. By offering practical analysis grounded in evidence, the project equips policymakers and practitioners with tools to reduce violence while protecting fundamental rights and democratic participation.

The Preventing Violent Extremism project focuses on how radicalization happens and what reduces the cycle of recruitment and violence before it begins. Effective prevention requires understanding the social, political, and psychological pathways through which individuals and communities become vulnerable to extremist messaging and mobilization. The project emphasizes community based prevention, safe and humane reintegration, and counterterrorism approaches that address root causes rather than symptoms alone. By examining what works in disrupting radicalization and supporting those seeking to exit extremist movements, the project offers practical guidance for governments, civil society, and international partners committed to reducing violence while upholding human rights and dignity.

Rebuilding a country's physical and social infrastructure after conflict lays the foundation for durable peace and prevents a return to violence. Post-conflict environments are characterized by destroyed infrastructure, weakened institutions, displaced populations, and fractured social trust, all of which must be addressed to consolidate stability. Investing in reconstruction, inclusive governance, and social reconciliation helps restore trust in institutions and address the grievances that fuel instability. This project examines how reconstruction efforts can be designed and implemented to maximize their contribution to sustainable peace while avoiding pitfalls that risk reigniting conflict.

In 2014, Russia invaded Crimea, and in 2022 began its full scale invasion of Ukraine. This project examines the Russian Federation's state responsibility for breaches of the Genocide Convention in Ukraine, beginning in 2022. Through rigorous legal analysis, the project documents evidence of genocidal acts and intent, applying the standards established under international law to assess Russia's conduct. The project has produced foundational independent legal analyses that have informed policy discussions and legal proceedings concerning Russia's actions in Ukraine, contributing to international efforts to establish accountability for atrocity crimes.

This project explores the past, present, and future of international law in the context of atrocity prevention. With the UN system under increasing strain, international law increasingly politicized, and mass atrocities rising globally, the project seeks to identify where international legal and institutional frameworks have succeeded, where they are failing, and how they must adapt to remain effective in the 21st century.

The Transnational Repression Working Group brings together respected experts and scholars to produce rigorous, policy-relevant research on how authoritarian states commit transnational repression and how host countries can effectively respond. The Working Group focuses its research on both the tactics employed by repressive regimes and the legal, institutional, and diplomatic tools available to counter them. Through in-depth reports and analyses, the Working Group addresses critical gaps in current policy responses and identifies practical reforms that can strengthen the ability of democratic governments to protect vulnerable communities within their borders.

This project examines the Chinese Communist Party's ongoing treatment of the Uyghur minority in China. In 2020, New Lines established the Uyghur Scholars Working Group to enhance situational awareness on the conditions that millions of ethnic Turkic Muslims face in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Since then, New Lines has been a leading voice on the Uyghur genocide, bringing together dozens of experts in international law, genocide studies, Chinese ethnic policies, and the region to examine all available evidence. The project's work has addressed issues including China's breaches of the Genocide Convention, the CCP's coercive mobilization of ethnic minorities to pick cotton, and the need to establish a UN Mechanism to gather evidence in Xinjiang.