This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Portfolios
Explore our Portfolios
Mass Atrocities and International Law
The New Lines Institute’s Mass Atrocities and International Law portfolio focuses on global issues of interest to policymakers. Projects include the Global Rohingya Initiative, the persecution of China’s Uyghur and other Turkic Muslim minorities, the Russian Federation’s breaches of the Genocide Convention in Ukraine, and the Multilateral Asset Transfer Model for Reparations for Ukraine. Our projects produce research and analysis that is timely, targeted, and designed to be highly impactful from a policy perspective.
The Mass Atrocities and International Law portfolio is directed by Dr. Azeem Ibrahim.
Mass Atrocities and International Law Initiatives
Multilateral Action Model on Reparations
Developing an effective system for reparation and compensation for Ukraine and Ukrainians for damage caused by the Russian Federation.
Russian Breaches of Genocide Convention in Ukraine
These reports are the first to address one of the more contentious and consequential questions of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine: whether the war is genocidal in character. With fighting still ongoing, modern tools have made it vital that this question be examined and its truth made known.
Global Rohingya Initiative
The New Lines Institute seeks to re-energize international efforts to address this crisis in a more holistic and effective way through the Global Rohingya Initiative (GRI), crafted in cooperation with and centered on the Rohingya community. GRI is facilitated by the New Lines Institute in support of the Rohingya community.
Background
For decades, the Rohingya people have been persecuted by their own country and sought uneasy refuge in neighboring countries. Successive Burmese governments have violated their rights to identity, nationality, security, and other fundamental human rights. The Burmese military, which again seized power from a nominally civilian government in a February 2021 coup, has committed atrocities against the Rohingya as part of its systematic denial of their right to live in peace and dignity as full citizens of Myanmar. While the international community, including the recent U.S. determination of genocide, has loudly condemned the violence against the Rohingya and provided substantial humanitarian assistance, long-term, sustainable solutions to the crisis remain elusive.
Uyghur Scholars Working Group
In an effort to deal with the international crisis stemming from China’s industrial-scale repression of its Uyghur and other Turkic Muslim minorities, the New Lines Institute established the Uyghur Scholars Working Group (USWG) in 2020.
The USWG brings together experts to enhance situational awareness on the conditions that millions of ethnic Turkic Muslims face in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. The group engages in research and analysis on how the U.S. government and its allies and partners can best deal with Beijing’s efforts to erase Uyghur identity and culture.
The USWG also publishes the Uyghur Series, an occasional series presenting research, analysis, and policy recommendations on the events unfolding in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the People’s Republic of China. Additionally, we host occasional events and workshops.
Sign up for our newsletter to receive our Uyghur-related content, including the latest research and analysis, and information on public events and webinars.
Rohingya Legal Forum
A Special Initiative of New Lines Institute, the Rohingya Legal Forum (RLF) brings together a global group of prominent jurists with a specialization on what has been described as a “slow-burning genocide” of the minority community in Myanmar. The RLF was formed to map out strategies, develop applications of international law, and offer advice on how to address the situation of the Rohingya people. The Forum coordinates and collaborates, where necessary, with international organizations such as the United Nations, International Court of Justice, International Criminal Court, Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and governments.
The Rohingya Legal Forum is Chaired by New Lines Institute’s Dr. Azeem Ibrahim and is convened by Professor John Packer, Director of the Human Rights Resource and Education Center at the University of Ottawa.
The forum is expected to convene as much as possible and exist for as long as it is useful. The group anticipates collaborating with international bodies like the United Nations, the International Court of Justice, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the International Criminal Court, and relevant governments and NGOs.
In addition, the forum anticipates producing periodic research that will be published as memos, special reports, essays, op-eds and journal articles. Publications will discuss research and develop innovative mechanisms for legal recourse for the Rohingya genocide.
Mass Atrocities and International Law Latest
Submissions
The New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy publishes work that combines geopolitical insight with subject-matter expertise. New Lines Institute publications examine tactical developments involving regimes, nonstate actors, local politics, ideologies, etc. Our work situates them in the strategic context of macro-level factors such as geography, populations, economics, military power, history, and culture. All our content must demonstrate analytical empathy and is geared toward advancing the cause of human security and stabilization and development on our planet. That said, we do not publish “op-ed” pieces, polemical content, or activist/advocacy work.
We welcome contributions from diverse experts with various sub-specialties to ensure that we consistently produce the highest-quality product. Our team firmly believes that expertise exists across the political spectrum and disciplinary fields; the key is to help our authors showcase it without indulging in partisan discussions. We expect our authors to focus on the how, why and (most importantly) the what next because our audience is already very familiar with the who, what, where, and when of the subjects we tackle.