Where will the conference be held?

The conference will take place in Tangier, MAR.

What is the primary focus of this conference?

The conference focuses on international law, global security, and human rights, exploring their interconnectedness and contemporary challenges.

International Conference on International Law, Global Security, and Human Rights

Name: International Conference on International Law, Global Security, and Human Rights
Start: 2026-09-05T00:00:00Z
End: 2026-09-05T00:00:00Z
Location: Tangier

Sep 5, 2026Tangier, MoroccoIn-person

Starts in 28 daysRegistration open

The International Conference on International Law, Global Security, and Human Rights, held in Tangier, MAR, serves as a critical forum for examining the intricate connections between these three pillars of global governance. It brings together academics, practitioners, and policymakers to discuss contemporary challenges and propose solutions for a more just and secure world order. The conference aims to foster dialogue on the evolving nature of international law, its application in addressing global security threats, and its role in upholding human rights.

Committees & topics

United Nations Human Rights Council
International Law and Global Security Challenges · Human Rights Violations in Conflict Zones · The Role of International Courts in the Pursuit of Justice · Global Governance and Human Rights Frameworks · The Role of International Law in Human Rights Protection · Global Security Challenges and Their Human Rights Implications · International Humanitarian Law and Armed Conflicts · War Crimes and Accountability Mechanisms

Why it matters

This conference is particularly relevant in an era marked by complex geopolitical shifts, persistent armed conflicts, and evolving human rights challenges. The discussions will likely delve into how international legal frameworks can adapt to new forms of warfare, cyber threats, and the impact of climate change on human security. The intersection of international law, global security, and human rights is not merely theoretical; it directly impacts the lives of individuals and the stability of nations.

For instance, the ongoing conflicts in regions such as UKR, SYR, and SDN highlight the urgent need for effective international legal mechanisms to protect civilians and ensure accountability. Similarly, the challenges faced by countries like MMR in transitioning towards democratic governance underscore the importance of human rights principles in fostering lasting peace. The conference provides a platform for experts to analyze these situations and propose actionable strategies.

Furthermore, the event's location in MAR, a country with significant geopolitical importance, offers a unique perspective on regional security dynamics and the role of international law in addressing them. The insights generated from this conference can contribute to strengthening international cooperation and developing more robust policies to address global challenges.

How to prepare

Attendees should prepare by thoroughly researching current events and ongoing debates related to international law, global security, and human rights. Familiarity with key international conventions, treaties, and the jurisprudence of international courts will be essential. Participants should be ready to engage in discussions on complex legal and ethical dilemmas, such as the principle of humanitarian intervention versus state sovereignty, or the balance between national security and individual liberties.

For those interested in global security, a deep understanding of contemporary conflict resolution mechanisms, arms control treaties, and the role of international organizations is crucial. Similarly, human rights advocates should be prepared to discuss the challenges of implementing human rights standards in diverse cultural and political contexts, as well as emerging human rights issues like digital rights and environmental justice. Engaging with the diverse perspectives presented at the conference will require a nuanced understanding of these interconnected fields.

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 5 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

Morocco

As the host nation, MAR is likely to emphasize regional security concerns, counter-terrorism efforts, and the role of international law in fostering stability in North Africa and the broader Mediterranean.

Role in topic

MAR plays a significant role in regional security and has actively participated in international efforts to combat terrorism and promote human rights. Its perspective will be valuable in discussions on cross-border cooperation and the application of international law in diverse geopolitical contexts.

United States

The USA will likely focus on the enforcement of international law, counter-terrorism strategies, and the protection of human rights globally, often through the lens of its national security interests.

Role in topic

The USA is a major global actor with a significant influence on international law and security. Its perspective will be crucial in discussions on the effectiveness of international institutions and the challenges of global governance.

China

CHN is expected to highlight principles of state sovereignty and non-interference in internal affairs, while also engaging in discussions on global security and human rights from its unique developmental and geopolitical standpoint.

Role in topic

CHN's growing influence on the international stage makes its perspective on international law, global security, and human rights particularly important, especially concerning issues of economic development and multilateralism.

Russia

RUS will likely emphasize the importance of national interests and the principle of non-interference, while also engaging in discussions on international security, particularly concerning its perceived spheres of influence.

Role in topic

RUS is a permanent member of the UN Security Council and a key player in global security. Its views on international law and the use of force will be central to many discussions.

France

FRA will likely advocate for a strong multilateral system, the protection of human rights, and robust international legal frameworks to address global challenges, reflecting its commitment to European and international cooperation.

Role in topic

FRA is a strong proponent of international law and multilateralism, often taking a leading role in advocating for human rights and international justice within European and global forums.

Topics & background

The background behind each topic and the actors that shape it.

United Nations Human Rights Council

International Law and Global Security Challenges

The post-1945 international legal order, anchored by the UN Charter, was designed to constrain inter-state aggression and protect fundamental rights. Yet successive crises — from Kosovo and Iraq to Crimea, Syria, Ukraine, and Gaza — have exposed deep fissures between the prohibition on the use of force in Article 2(4), evolving doctrines such as the Responsibility to Protect (R2P), and the political realities of great-power competition. The Security Council's frequent paralysis through the veto has pushed normative debates increasingly into the General Assembly, the Human Rights Council, and the International Court of Justice. For the HRC, the question is how human rights law intersects with hard security threats: counter-terrorism measures that erode due process, sanctions regimes with humanitarian spillovers, mass surveillance justified by national security, and the militarisation of borders. The 2006 founding resolution (60/251) gave the Council a mandate to address situations of violations 'including gross and systematic' ones, but its tools — Universal Periodic Review, Special Procedures, and Commissions of Inquiry — remain non-binding. Today the Council debates how to reconcile state security prerogatives with non-derogable rights under the ICCPR, how to respond to hybrid threats and cyber operations, and how to ensure that emerging security doctrines do not hollow out core protections. The challenge is making rights-based approaches central, rather than incidental, to global security policy.

Key players

United Nations Human Rights Council

Human Rights Violations in Conflict Zones

Armed conflicts remain the single greatest driver of mass human rights violations. From the Syrian civil war (2011–) to Yemen, Tigray, Myanmar, Ukraine, Sudan, and Gaza, civilians have borne the brunt of indiscriminate attacks, sexual violence, forced displacement, starvation as a method of warfare, and attacks on hospitals and schools. UNHCR records over 120 million forcibly displaced persons globally — the highest figure since World War II. The HRC has responded by establishing some of its most consequential investigative mechanisms: the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria (2011), the Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar (2017), the Group of Eminent Experts on Yemen, the Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine (2022), and the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel. These bodies document abuses, preserve evidence for future prosecutions, and name perpetrators, but they rely on state cooperation that is often withheld. The contemporary debate centres on the gap between documentation and accountability: how to ensure that evidence collected by HRC mechanisms feeds into national, hybrid, or international courts; how to protect humanitarian workers and journalists; and how to address the weaponisation of aid. Disputes over which conflicts receive dedicated mechanisms — and which do not — also raise persistent charges of selectivity.

Key players

United Nations Human Rights Council

The Role of International Courts in the Pursuit of Justice

International judicial institutions have expanded dramatically since the Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals. The ad hoc tribunals for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY, 1993) and Rwanda (ICTR, 1994) demonstrated that individual accountability for atrocity crimes was possible, paving the way for the Rome Statute and the establishment of the International Criminal Court in 2002. Alongside the ICC, the International Court of Justice adjudicates inter-state disputes, including landmark Genocide Convention cases (Bosnia v. Serbia, The Gambia v. Myanmar, South Africa v. Israel), while hybrid courts in Sierra Leone, Cambodia, Lebanon, and Kosovo have addressed specific contexts. These courts now face a credibility test. ICC arrest warrants against sitting leaders — Omar al-Bashir, Vladimir Putin, and Benjamin Netanyahu — have triggered backlash, non-cooperation, and sanctions threats against ICC officials. The ICJ's provisional measures orders in South Africa v. Israel reignited debates over enforcement, while African Union concerns about perceived selectivity led to past withdrawal threats. Universal jurisdiction prosecutions in national courts (Germany, France, Argentina) have partially filled enforcement gaps. For the HRC, the question is how its findings, evidence-preservation mechanisms (such as the IIIM for Syria and IIMM for Myanmar), and Special Procedures can strengthen — rather than duplicate — judicial processes, and how the Council can defend the independence of international judges from political pressure.

Key players

United Nations Human Rights Council

Global Governance and Human Rights Frameworks

The modern human rights architecture grew from the 1948 Universal Declaration into a dense web of treaties: the two 1966 Covenants (ICCPR and ICESCR), the conventions against torture, racial discrimination, and discrimination against women, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The treaty-body system, OHCHR, the Special Procedures, and — since 2006 — the Human Rights Council with its Universal Periodic Review form the institutional core. This framework is under unprecedented strain. Funding shortfalls at OHCHR, treaty-body backlogs, and politicisation of country mandates have eroded efficiency. Competing normative visions — Western emphasis on civil and political rights, Chinese and Russian emphasis on sovereignty and development, and Global South demands for the right to development and reparatory justice — fragment the consensus that underpinned earlier decades. The 2023 commemoration of UDHR75 and the Pact for the Future (2024) sought to revitalise the system but exposed these divides. Key current debates include the long-running negotiation of a binding treaty on business and human rights, reform of the treaty-body system, the proposed third Optional Protocol pathways, and how to integrate new rights claims — to a healthy environment, to privacy in the digital age, to development — into existing frameworks without diluting them.

Key players

United Nations Human Rights Council

The Role of International Law in Human Rights Protection

International human rights law is built on the premise that the way a state treats those within its jurisdiction is a legitimate matter of international concern. From the UDHR (1948) through the core nine human rights treaties, customary norms, and jus cogens prohibitions on genocide, torture, slavery, and apartheid, the legal framework has expanded to cover virtually every aspect of state conduct. Regional systems — the European, Inter-American, and African human rights courts and commissions — have added enforceable layers. Yet the protective function of international law depends on implementation. Reservations to treaties, non-ratification of complaints procedures, and the absence of a global human rights court mean that most enforcement still relies on domestic incorporation, diplomatic pressure, and monitoring mechanisms. Doctrines such as the responsibility to protect, erga omnes obligations, and universal jurisdiction have expanded the legal toolkit, while invocations of cultural relativism and national security have narrowed it. The contemporary frontier involves applying established norms to new contexts: extraterritorial obligations of states for actions abroad, corporate responsibility along global supply chains, the digital rights implications of the ICCPR, and the climate-rights nexus following the 2022 General Assembly recognition of the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment.

Key players

United Nations Human Rights Council

Global Security Challenges and Their Human Rights Implications

Since 9/11, a sprawling counter-terrorism architecture — Security Council resolutions 1373 and 1624, the Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, and FATF financial controls — has reshaped state practice worldwide. Successive Special Rapporteurs on counter-terrorism and human rights have documented how vague terrorism definitions, prolonged administrative detention, broad surveillance powers, and restrictions on civil society have eroded rights protections far beyond legitimate security needs. The 'shrinking civic space' phenomenon is closely tied to these trends. New security challenges compound the problem. Cyber operations and state surveillance technologies (Pegasus and similar tools) threaten privacy, association, and expression rights. Climate-induced instability drives forced displacement that existing refugee law accommodates poorly. Pandemic responses revealed both the necessity and the abuse potential of emergency powers under ICCPR Article 4 derogations. Transnational repression — states pursuing dissidents across borders — has emerged as a distinct rights violation. The HRC's task is to articulate how human rights serve as a foundation, not an obstacle, to durable security. Special Procedures on counter-terrorism, on privacy, and on freedom of expression have produced detailed guidance; the question is whether member states will integrate it into national security legislation and operational practice.

Key players

United Nations Human Rights Council

International Humanitarian Law and Armed Conflicts

International humanitarian law (IHL) — codified principally in the four Geneva Conventions of 1949, their three Additional Protocols, the Hague Regulations, and the customary IHL identified by the ICRC — governs the conduct of hostilities and the protection of civilians, the wounded, prisoners of war, and other vulnerable persons. Its core principles of distinction, proportionality, precaution, and humanity bind all parties to armed conflict, whether international or non-international, state or non-state. Contemporary conflicts test these rules in profound ways. Urban warfare in Gaza, Mariupol, and Khartoum has produced civilian casualty figures that have triggered scrutiny under proportionality analysis. Sieges and starvation tactics revive debates last seen in Srebrenica and Aleppo. New technologies — armed drones, autonomous weapons, cyber operations targeting hospitals, and AI-enabled targeting systems — raise questions the 1949 drafters could not have anticipated. The proliferation of non-state armed groups and private military companies further complicates the bindingness and enforcement of IHL. While IHL is traditionally distinct from human rights law, the two now apply in parallel during armed conflict, as confirmed by ICJ jurisprudence. The HRC's Commissions of Inquiry routinely apply both bodies of law, generating jurisprudence that informs accountability efforts and operational doctrine.

Key players

United Nations Human Rights Council

War Crimes and Accountability Mechanisms

The principle that individuals — including heads of state — can be held criminally responsible for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide was established at Nuremberg and consolidated through the ICTY, ICTR, and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Today, accountability operates through multiple, overlapping channels: the ICC, hybrid tribunals (such as the Kosovo Specialist Chambers and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon), national courts exercising universal jurisdiction, and UN-mandated investigative mechanisms that preserve evidence for future prosecutions (IIIM for Syria, IIMM for Myanmar, UNITAD for ISIL crimes in Iraq, and the Monitoring Mission in Ukraine). The gap between documentation and prosecution remains the central challenge. ICC warrants against Bashir, Putin, and Netanyahu illustrate both the institution's reach and the limits of enforcement absent state cooperation. Universal jurisdiction cases in Germany (the Koblenz trial of Syrian officials), Sweden, and France have shown that national courts can deliver convictions when international ones cannot. Meanwhile, the proposed Ljubljana–The Hague Convention on Mutual Legal Assistance for atrocity crimes (adopted 2023) aims to ease cross-border cooperation. For the HRC, the debate concerns how to strengthen the pipeline from its inquiries to credible prosecutions, how to protect witnesses and investigators, how to address command responsibility and corporate complicity, and how to ensure accountability is not perceived as geographically selective.

Key players

Resources

News, lessons, and country profiles to prep for International Conference on International Law, Global Security, and Human Rights.

Recent reporting to ground your prep

Supreme Court's Voting Rights Impact on 2026

Trump's Federal Election Strategy

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Lessons

Bite-sized lessons to build the basics

Hidden Stakeholders

Engagement Strategies

Dynamic Analysis

Stakeholder Mapping Workshop

Courses

Guided courses that go deeper on the topic

Conflict Resolution

Advanced Negotiation

Multilateral Negotiation

Policy Brief Writing

Morocco September 2026

By committee

Frequently asked questions

International Conference on International Law, Global Security, and Human Rights

Sep 5, 2026Tangier, MoroccoIn-person

Starts in 28 daysRegistration open

Committees & topics

United Nations Human Rights Council
International Law and Global Security Challenges · Human Rights Violations in Conflict Zones · The Role of International Courts in the Pursuit of Justice · Global Governance and Human Rights Frameworks · The Role of International Law in Human Rights Protection · Global Security Challenges and Their Human Rights Implications · International Humanitarian Law and Armed Conflicts · War Crimes and Accountability Mechanisms

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 5 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

Role in topic

Role in topic

Role in topic

Role in topic

RUS is a permanent member of the UN Security Council and a key player in global security. Its views on international law and the use of force will be central to many discussions.

France

Role in topic

FRA is a strong proponent of international law and multilateralism, often taking a leading role in advocating for human rights and international justice within European and global forums.

Topics & background

The background behind each topic and the actors that shape it.

United Nations Human Rights Council

International Law and Global Security Challenges

Key players

United Nations Human Rights Council

Human Rights Violations in Conflict Zones

Key players

United Nations Human Rights Council

The Role of International Courts in the Pursuit of Justice

Key players

United Nations Human Rights Council

Global Governance and Human Rights Frameworks

Key players

United Nations Human Rights Council

The Role of International Law in Human Rights Protection

Key players

United Nations Human Rights Council

Global Security Challenges and Their Human Rights Implications

Key players

United Nations Human Rights Council

International Humanitarian Law and Armed Conflicts

Key players

United Nations Human Rights Council

War Crimes and Accountability Mechanisms

Key players

Resources

News, lessons, and country profiles to prep for International Conference on International Law, Global Security, and Human Rights.

Recent reporting to ground your prep

Supreme Court's Voting Rights Impact on 2026

Trump's Federal Election Strategy

Supreme Court VRA Ruling Empowers GOP 2026

Bhagwant Mann Launches Punjab Campaign Summit

Lessons

Bite-sized lessons to build the basics

Hidden Stakeholders

Engagement Strategies

Dynamic Analysis

Stakeholder Mapping Workshop

Courses

Guided courses that go deeper on the topic

Conflict Resolution

Advanced Negotiation

Multilateral Negotiation

Policy Brief Writing

Morocco September 2026

By committee

Committees & topics

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Topics & background

Resources

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Frequently asked questions

Committees & topics

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Topics & background

Resources

Related conferences

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10th African Peace and Security Annual Conference (APSACO) 2026

International Conference on Violence, Conflict, and Global Governance

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International Conference on Human Rights Education and Peace Advocacy (ICHREPA)

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Frequently asked questions