The future of international law - an anchor in a crumbling world order?

The promises of international law and what it can achieve in reality are currently the subject of heated debate. Safeguarding human rights, peacekeeping and the protection of civilians remain among the most pressing tasks of the international community. They are inextricably linked to the development of international humanitarian law and international criminal law.

International institutions are being attacked more and more openly. For example, US President Donald Trump imposed sanctions against the International Criminal Court in February following the arrest warrant against the Israeli Prime Minister. In the EU, Viktor Orbán followed suit in April by announcing Hungary's withdrawal from the Rome Statute. The Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, Trump's territorial plans for Canada, Greenland and Gaza, Israel's warfare and occupation policy are all challenging the basic assumptions of the so-called ‘rules-based’ world order.  The ability of the international community to consistently enforce rules - even against allies if necessary - is increasingly being called into question. The accusation of “double standards” is growing louder, and some countries of the Global South are also concerned with the old demands for a fair world economic order, more participation rights, climate justice, debt relief and compensation for historical injustice.

How can hard-won historical achievements be defended and enforced in an environment in which the ‘law of the strongest’ seems to be increasingly asserting itself? We want to discuss these and other questions with experts from academia, civil society and politics:

• How will and must international law develop further, and what should Germany and Europe do to achieve this?
• What strategies should human rights-oriented politics pursue in order to help shape a more humane and just world order?
• What alliances and partnerships are needed for this? What role does civil society play?

Program

06:00 pm -6:15pm

Welcome: Jan Philipp Albrecht, Co-President of the Heinrich Böll Foundation

Video address: Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

06:15 pm - 08:00 pm Panel discussion 

• Wolfgang Kaleck, Human rights lawyer and Secretary General of the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR)
• Heike Krieger, Professor of Public Law and International Law at the Free University of Berlin
• Boris Mijatović, Member of the Green parliamentary group in the Bundestag
• Janina Dill, Professor of Global Security at the Blavatnik School of Government of the University of Oxford and Co-Director of the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict

Moderated by: Stephan Detjen, head of the Berlin office of Deutschlandfunk

Contact: 
Louisa Reeh
E [email protected]

» Participation on site
at the the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Conference Center, Schumannstr. 8, 10117 Berlin

Please register in advance. Unfortunately, the number of seats for this event are limited. If we are at capacity, the conversation will be transmitted via video to other rooms.

» Towards Greater Accessibility
At the Heinrich Böll Foundation, we are constantly striving to remove barriers. Whether in our building, in the release of publications or at online events. All information on this can be found under the following link: https://www.boell.de/de/auf-dem-weg-zur-barrierefreiheit

» Livestream
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