Disappointing Outcome but Glimmers of Hope at the U.N. Sixth Committee in 2021

Crimes Against Humanity Initiative Director Leila Nadya Sadat, James Carr Professor of International Criminal Law, carefully followed the meetings of the U.N. Sixth Committee in Fall 2021 and the discussions of the International Law Commission’s Draft Articles on Crimes Against Humanity. Her analysis of the negotiations and the tabulation of State responses, conducted by the Lowenstein Project of the Schell Center on Human Rights at Yale Law School where she was a Senior Research Scholar,  suggests that the disappointing outcome of this year’s meetings was largely due to the power of a handful of States to block the overwhelming majority of governments wishing to advance this important project through their invocation of the “consensus rule” in the Sixth Committee. Along with Akila Radkrishnan of the Global Justice Center, she concludes that next year, States and members of civil society must work assiduously to avoid another disappointing repeat performance.