@amnesty legal adviser on racial justice & international criminal law | she/her. All views my own.
Johannesburg, South Africa
Joined May 2012
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Melissa Hendrickse retweeted
La esclavitud no es solo historia. Sus consecuencias siguen marcando desigualdades, racismo y exclusión hoy, en todo el mundo.
Importante leer este reportaje de @el_pais, que muestra cómo Europa sigue resistiéndose a la reparación frente a una de las mayores injusticias y crímenes contra la humanidad de la historia. Destaco las poderosas reflexiones de mi querida colega @melhendrickse, una voz imprescindible en este debate. elpais.com/internacional/202…
Melissa Hendrickse retweeted
We welcome the UN committee’s affirmation that States have a duty to provide reparatory justice for the continuing harms of transatlantic chattel slavery. The human rights of Africans and people of African descent are continually impacted by the legacies of the slave trade, colonialism and chattel enslavement. States responsible for these injustices must repair the past and its enduring legacy as soon as possible.
Melissa Hendrickse retweeted
South Africa submits dossier to the ICJ on Israel’s non-compliance with Provisional Measures Orders - DIRCO dirco.gov.za/south-africa-su…
Melissa Hendrickse retweeted
Israeli authorities have deliberately accelerated formal annexation of the occupied West Bank through a state-driven ethnic cleansing campaign targeting Palestinian Bedouin and herding communities in Area C of the West Bank, while committing the crime against humanity of forcible transfer.
Our new report, out now.
amn.st/6015B8Fr6Z
Melissa Hendrickse retweeted
Video after video shows Israeli settlers violently harassing and attacking Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, seizing their livestock, bulldozing their schools, setting fire to their property and even killing Palestinians as part of a brutal campaign to forcibly displace Palestinians and expand control over the land – with full political and financial backing from the highest authorities of the Israeli state.
This is what a policy of state-led ethnic cleansing looks like.
Watch. Share. Demand action.
Melissa Hendrickse retweeted
The @UN General Assembly has finally taken a historic step: 122 nations have recognized the transatlantic slave trade as the gravest crime against humanity, a truth long demanded by survivors’ descendants and advocates across the world.
This resolution, led by #Ghana, matters because the legacy of slavery is not past; it continues to shape racial injustice, inequality, and discrimination today. It acknowledges the brutal abduction, exploitation, and systemic dehumanization of more than 12.5 million Africans, and affirms that the world can no longer look away from the enduring consequences of this atrocity.
By calling for reparations, accountability, and a global commitment to truth and healing, this vote is a powerful reminder that justice delayed is not justice denied.
This resolution is more than symbolic. It is a demand for moral clarity, historical truth, and global responsibility. The world must not only remember, it must act.
Melissa Hendrickse retweeted
Over the past 29 months the devastating, multilayered impact of Israel’s ongoing genocide has pushed Palestinian women and girls in the occupied Gaza Strip to the brink.
Women in Gaza are being denied the conditions needed to live and to give life safely.
Read more 👇 amn.st/6011B61WAb
Melissa Hendrickse retweeted
Call for Consultants: Research Case Studies on Climate Reparations and Green Colonialism in Africa
Deadline: Jan 15
afalab.org/about-us/job-offe…
Melissa Hendrickse retweeted
Sixty years ago, the world tried to stop racial discrimination and failed.
Read my colleagues @RymKh and @melhendrickse on the impact of the UN convention on the elimination of discrimination, and how systemic racism is still rampant.
aljazeera.com/opinions/2025/…
Melissa Hendrickse retweeted
Namibia: Germany must deliver reparatory justice for its brutal colonial past amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2…
Melissa Hendrickse retweeted
"Figures from a classified Israeli military intelligence database indicate five out of six Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in Gaza have been civilians, an extreme rate of slaughter rarely matched in recent decades of warfare."
An abomination.
Melissa Hendrickse retweeted
“Not only has the international community failed to stop this genocide, but it has also allowed Israel to constantly reinvent new ways to destroy Palestinian lives in Gaza and trample on their human dignity” @AgnesCallamard amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2…
Melissa Hendrickse retweeted
This is not business as usual.
My new UN report, From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide, is out today.
It shows how corporations have fueled and legitimised the destruction of Palestine.
Genocide, it would seem, is profitable. This cannot continue, accountability must follow.
ohchr.org/sites/default/file…
#EconomyofOccupation #EconomyofGenocide
Melissa Hendrickse retweeted
Let's be clear: Israel's attack on Iran is not simply a violation of the UN Charter. It is a manifest violation of it. Few acts are more unequivocally illegal than preventive (non-imminent) self-defence. So Israel's attack is both unlawful and criminal -- the crime of aggression.
Melissa Hendrickse retweeted
A reminder that:
Israel’s presence in Gaza is unlawful (including its waters).
the flotilla is subject to ICC jurisdiction.
the flotilla is *not* participating in hostilities and has no belligerent nexus, so the applicable rules are human rights, not the law of armed conflict
Melissa Hendrickse retweeted
Essential reading for the Gaza genocide debate
Genocidal Intent in Armed Conflict: Unpacking the ICJ’s “Only Reasonable Inference” Standard
opiniojuris.org/2025/05/26/g…
Melissa Hendrickse retweeted
..@amnesty 's @melhendrickse @VitoTodeschini and Natasha Barigye : Genocidal Intent in Armed Conflict: Unpacking the ICJ’s “Only Reasonable Inference” Standard opiniojuris.org/2025/05/26/g… via @opiniojuris
Melissa Hendrickse retweeted
A reading list of 14 important reports by the leading Palestinian human rights organisations, published between October 2023 - May 2025:
@pchrgaza @alhaq_org @Addameer @AlMezanCenter @DCIPalestine: 🧵
Melissa Hendrickse retweeted
We’re back at the High Court to intervene in the case brought by @alhaq_org & @GLAN_LAW to demand the UK Government end ALL arms exports to Israel.
Not a few.
Not thirty.
ALL.
The UK has a legal obligation to prevent genocide - and right now @KeirStarmer’s government is failing miserably.
#StopArmingIsrael #EndGazaGenocide
