The following Declaration is the final statement of the 19th Congress of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, “The Role of Democratic Lawyers in Promoting and Defending Peoples’ Rights, Peace and International Law in the Face of Fascism, Genocide, Militarization and Wars of Aggression,” concluded in Kathmandu, Nepal, on 20 July 2025, with key priorities for the coming period.

Kathmandu Declaration 20 July 2025

  1. End the genocide in Palestine, especially in Gaza, and defend the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination
  2. Oppose the onslaught on international law and defend all achievements of peoples’ struggles against fascism and colonialism enshrined in international law
  3. Fight contemporary fascism
  4. Defend world peace and security; oppose militarization and a new arms race
  5. Support efforts to create multilateral initiatives for political and economic cooperation such as BRICS and the Group of Friends in Defence of the Charter of the United Nations
  6. Oppose unilateral coercive measures and their extraterritorial effects, including the blockade on Cuba
  7. Accountability for international crimes
  8. Globalisation, economic, social and cultural rights
  9. Development and environmental rights
  10. Gender equality
  11. Oppose the criminalisation of legal defence

The 19th Congress of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL) held in Kathmandu on the theme: “The Role of Democratic Lawyers in Promoting and Defending Peoples’ Rights, Peace and International Law in the Face of Fascism, Genocide, Militarization and Wars of Aggression” has been a vibrant forum for lawyers and jurists from around the world to come together in mutual understanding and collective work towards full implementation of the principles of the United Nations Charter.

Together we reaffirm our commitment to work for a world with peace; without wars, conflicts, oppression or repression, poverty and hunger; and with full respect for justice, equality and human dignity. We reiterate our support for the creation of a just international economic order based on the interest of the whole people and not of the few.

IADL has a unique position which we fully reaffirm.

We believe that

  • Human rights and peoples’ rights are inseparable.
  • Individual and collective rights are intertwined.
  • Political, civil, economic, social and cultural rights are indivisible.

We oppose all forms of instrumentalization of any of these rights to undermine any other of these rights.

We meet at a time of

  • Growing aggressiveness of Western imperialism and reactionary forces, in particular US imperialism.
  • The rise of fascist forces in various forms on all continents.
  • A genocide committed by Israel with the complicity of the US, EU, UK and Canada against the Palestinian people.
  • A profound and continuous international economic crisis which illustrates the unsustainable and unjust character of the present world economic order. Millions of workers and their families across the globe face loss of jobs and incomes, leading to poverty, hunger, forced migration and other social evils.
  • A climate crisis which threatens the living conditions of the peoples and therefor the future and survival of humanity and the alarming growth and influence of forces that deny the climate crisis.

We pledge to defend the right to self-determination and the right of states to sovereign equality; to defend the rights of the Palestinian people and to oppose genocide; to oppose fascism in all its forms; and to work in solidarity and cooperation for the full realization of peoples’ legitimate aspirations to full social, economic and cultural rights, including the human right to a clean and healthy environment. The IADL recognizes the persistent scourge of racism, its profound impacts on individuals and society, and how it creates and perpetuates widespread social and economic inequalities.

We greet with hope the emergence of states which are developing powerful independent economies, and we are strengthened by the growing spirit of independence among peoples and countries that are seeking their own path towards independent economic and political development, including by creating bilateral and multilateral horizontal cooperation partnerships and organizations.

As democratic lawyers, we stand together with fighters against injustice and oppression. We defend the right to struggle for self- determination and against exploitation, aggression and foreign occupation, in accordance with fundamental principles of international law.

Our Congress in Kathmandu has highlighted the following priorities:

1. End the genocide in Palestine; defend the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people: Gaza should not be the graveyard of international law!

The colonial Zionist occupation of Palestine has resulted in a denial of the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people for almost 8 decades.

According to the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on “The Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem” of 19 July 2024, Israel must end the illegal occupation immediately. An obligation to do whatever possible to end the occupation binds all UN member states.

In the same Advisory Opinion, the ICJ states that Israel practices systematic discrimination, and therefor Apartheid, against the Palestinian people. Apartheid is a crime against humanity.

The only reason the criminal colonial occupation has survived for so long is the support given to Israel by the Western countries, in particular the United States of America, in blatant violation of their obligations under international law. Without Western weapons, financial, economic, military, diplomatic, and political support, the Zionist colonial project in Palestine could not survive for one day. The illegal Israeli occupation must immediately come to an end.

IADL demands the full, unconditional and complete implementation of UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution A/RES/ES-10/24 adopted by an overwhelming majority of 124 member states on 18 September 2024, implementing the Advisory Opinion of the ICJ. The resolution calls for concrete measures, including sanctions and an end to any military cooperation. IADL is aware that the main enforcement mechanism of international law, and especially of the right to self-determination, is peoples’ struggles, both those of the people affected and those of the other people of the world acting in solidarity. IADL commits to support any initiative of any country in the world to implement the UNGA resolution. When states do not abide by their obligations under international law towards the Palestinian people (including in countries that voted for the resolution but take no concrete action to implement it), IADL commits to organize peoples’ solidarity actions.

IADL also suggests that the UN Committee against Apartheid be reconvened. This Committee played an important role in the international campaign to bring down the Apartheid regime in South Africa. It can play a similar role regarding the Israeli apartheid regime.

The priority at the time of this IADL Congress is to stop the barbaric genocidal campaign conducted by the Israeli regime against the Palestinian inhabitants of Gaza, which has extended to the inhabitants of the West Bank. Israel must be compelled to an immediate ceasefire. We emphasize that the United States and the European Union are full partners in this genocide in occupied Palestine.

IADL demands an immediate and unconditional end to the genocide and calls for urgent action to end the forced starvation and imposed famine of Palestinians in Gaza. This is a humanitarian crisis caused solely by the refusal of the Israeli occupation to allow the entry of food and basic human needs and must be met by concerted international action to immediately enter massive amounts of aid into Gaza.

IADL further emphasizes the importance of the UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees) in Gaza, throughout occupied Palestine, and in the refugee camps in the countries surrounding Palestine. It plays a vital role in safeguarding Palestinian refugees’ right to return as well as providing necessary, lifesaving services, including food aid, education and healthcare; the UNRWA is currently under severe attack by the United States and Israel, which threatens not only its future as an agency but the lives of Palestinian refugees. To that end, IADL calls upon all states to defend and fully fund UNRWA and its operations.

IADL fully supports the courageous legal action taken by the Republic of South Africa before the International Court of Justice to hold Israel accountable for genocide. IADL will campaign in every country in which it is active for the governments of those countries to join South Africa in this effort. IADL further calls for the immediate application of the three provisional measures decided by the ICJ judges in South Africa v. Israel.

IADL welcomes the creation of The Hague Group, created at the initiative of 9 countries from the South to stop the genocide committed by the Israeli regime; to hold accountable all those responsible for these heinous acts; and ultimately to realize the right of self-determination of the Palestinian people. IADL participates in the coalition of Civil Society organisations that have been supporting the Hague Group and in the foundation of the Friends of the Hague Group.

IADL’s national member organizations have been instrumental in supporting the worldwide mass movement that has developed in support of the Palestinian people. This movement has attained degrees of intensity not seen since the Oslo agreements. National organizations affiliated with IADL have been instrumental in launching and supporting legal actions in various parts of the world to halt export of weapons, and to hold governments and corporations accountable for their support of the Israeli genocidal campaign, by bringing perpetrators of genocidal action to national courts and in fighting the criminalization of the Palestine solidarity movement and the limitation of the freedom of expression of Palestine solidarity activists.

IADL will continue these efforts until Palestine is free, from the river to the sea. As IADL President Emeritus Nelson Mandela said, no people can really be free until the Palestinian people are free.

IADL thinks it is up to the Palestinian people to decide the means to be used in opposing the occupation and the genocide. Under international law, the Palestinian people have the right to use armed force to end the occupation and to resist their oppressors. We further underline that Israel has no “right to defend itself”, as an occupying power, from the people it holds under criminal belligerent colonial occupation. Furthermore, it is also up to the Palestinian people, not to the US administration, the EU Commission or any European or other head of state, to decide how to exercise the right to self-determination, as long as the solution is compatible with international law.

We further call for the liberation of all Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails, as well as the Lebanese, Syrian and Jordanian prisoners held there; we also call for the liberation of prisoners of the Palestinian cause imprisoned in the United States, Europe and Arab countries. We denounce the designation by the US, Europe, Britain and Canada of Palestinian, Lebanese, Yemeni and other regional resistance organizations as “terrorists” when they are in fact practicing their legitimate right to resist occupation and their legitimate right to national self-defence, and we call for the immediate de-listing of these organizations from “terrorist” lists. We further note the dangerous trend of designating as “terrorists”, banning, proscribing or dissolving solidarity, advocacy and human rights organizations, which has recently been pursued by Britain, France, the United States, Canada and Germany, and demand the immediate rescission of such decisions. We support and encourage all efforts by lawyers and legal professionals to pursue the de-listing and deproscription of resistance, solidarity and advocacy organizations from such “terror lists.”

We support all efforts to expel Israeli embassies and ambassadors from the countries of the world opposed to genocide, to impose an arms embargo on Israel, to end all trade, military and diplomatic agreements with Israel, and to expel Israel from the United Nations and international bodies. If the Genocide Convention is to have meaning, it must also have teeth, including the international isolation of the Israeli entity.

IADL condemns the sanctions imposed by the US against Francecsa Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories and against the Judges of ICJ and ICC and the Prosecutor of the ICC as egregious violations of international law and inadmissible forms of harassment. IADL demands the immediate revocation of those sanctions and asks all states to take all necessary measures to exempt the sanctioned persons from any negative effect of the sanctions

Finally, IADL notes that the Israeli regime has also perpetrated criminal aggressions against various countries of the region including Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iran. This includes not only ongoing bombings, occupations, and the targeting of civilian infrastructure, but ongoing and flagrant extrajudicial killings, often in blatant violation of ceasefire agreements. And in these criminal aggressions, the Israeli regime once again benefits from the active support of the United States. IADL stands with the resistance of the people of these countries to end these criminal aggressions.

2. Oppose the onslaught on International Law and defend all achievements of peoples’ struggles against fascism and colonialism enshrined in international law.

In the aftermath of World War II, the achievements of the global peoples’ struggle against fascism and aggression were enshrined in instruments of international law.

The UN Charter established the prohibition of the use of force in international relations, except in very exceptional circumstances of self-defence, and even then only for a limited period of time. The principle of the sovereign equality of states was diametrically opposed to the doctrine and practice of fascist states, which appropriated the right to subjugate other nations under various pretexts.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirmed fundamental human rights that had been egregiously violated by fascist countries.

The next important development in international law flowed directly from the struggle of the peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America against colonialism.

The right to self-determination of peoples was enshrined as the first and most important human right in the two UN Covenants of 1966, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).

As always, the application of these progressive developments in international law has been and remains a matter of a balance of power to exercised primarily by peoples’ struggles.

For a long time, the West paid lip service to these principles while at the same time attempting to manipulate and exploit them to secure Western interests around the world. Countries that pursued policies deemed “inappropriate” by the West and peoples fighting for their independence were accused of human rights violations or violations of international law. The principle of self-determination was used to create internal strife.

But since the war in Yugoslavia and the Iraq war, launched in 2003, the United States has maintained a transparent attack on progressive achievements in international law. That attack has been growing exponentially ever since. Forcible regime change violates international law, and wars, intimidation and sanctions aimed at bringing about regime change are incompatible with the UN Charter.

The United States has also launched an open attack on the United Nations. The US is abusing its position in the Security Council to enable, among other things, Israel’s genocidal campaign against the Palestinians and to prevent any condemnation of Israel. At the same time, however, the US is also maintaining that there is a “crisis of international law.”  The theory of the “rules-based order” as an alternative to international law enshrined in the Charter aims to discredit the progressive achievements of international law. The difficulty of building an international balance of power to enforce compliance with international law is exacerbated by the US’s discrediting of international law.

The alternatives are to apply international law or the law of the jungle.

IADL is therefore committed to vigorously defending the progressive achievements of international law against all attempts to replace it with the law of the most powerful.

IADL is also committed to enshrining further achievements of the peoples’ struggles in international law. The right to development was proclaimed in a UN Declaration, partly thanks to the activities of IADL. The protection of the right to a clean and healthy environment and the right to peace are also on IADL’s agenda. But new positive developments in international law are only possible if they result from the struggles of the peoples. They must be able to rely on the foundations of international law developed as a result of the past peoples’ struggles. That is why progressive and democratic forces around the world must mobilise against the onslaught on international law that we are witnessing at this moment.

3. Fight contemporary fascism

In the recent years, fascism has reared its head again around the world, and fascist or fascist-like movements have taken power in some countries. Fascism develops in various forms, but it often includes the exacerbation of divisions (religious, ethnic, etc.) in the majority of the population in order to perpetuate the domination of the elites. In the name of religion or national identity, fascism does not hesitate to use terror against sections of the population.

Contemporary fascism does not necessarily take the same forms as historical fascism. In many cases it distances itself from historical fascism, which has been discredited in the eyes of the peoples of the world. But the goal remains the same: to sow division among the people in order to perpetuate the domination of the powerful, if necessary by terrorist violence.

When it is necessary to confront the resistance and struggle of peoples for their rights and sovereignty, when it is necessary to try to halt the relative decline of the main imperialist powers and prevent the affirmation of sovereignty and the right to development of other countries the ruling classes will resort to fascism, But history teaches that they do so, it is not a sign of their strength but rather of their strategic weakness. When no other means remain except brute force, it is evidence of a deep crisis.

At the same time, the international capitalist system is prepared to commit unspeakable crimes to perpetuate its existence. In such circumstances, the rule of law is no longer determinative, and arbitrariness and ultimately terror result.

Attacks on freedoms and rights, on democratic peoples’ rights are spreading everywhere. Legitimate protests in solidarity with Palestine are criminalized, collective workers’ rights such as trade union rights are under attack. Such policies at the same time prepare the ground for further development of fascist forces and can only be seriously aggravated by that development.

That pernicious spiral can only be broken by anti-fascist unity of the people and of all democratic forces

The IADL was born in the aftermath of the peoples’ struggle against fascism. This confers on us a historical responsibility to combat contemporary fascism in its new guise, in all its manifestations and forms.

4. Defend world peace and security. Oppose militarization and a new arms race.

Capitalism and imperialism in crisis are inherently prone to war. When the production of diverse goods and commodities no longer yields sufficient profit margins, the system switches to financialization and militarization. Military spending siphons taxpayers’ money to multinational corporations, an integral part of the Military-Industrial Complex. This leads to an arms race that inevitably ends in war.

In Europe, the war in Ukraine is being used as a pretext for transfer of massive amounts of money to the arms industry.

The only alternative to end the war in which hundreds of thousands are being killed, is to urgently begin the peace process. IADL calls upon all belligerent parties to the conflict, to commence negotiations for a lasting peace, and by reviving the mechanism to ensure collective security of all countries in the region. The countries of the South must associate themselves with this peace process, as the war in Ukraine threatens world peace.

The ruling establishment in the United States does not present a unified position on Ukraine. The Trump administration wavers between promoting US strategic interests based on the Atlantic axis, at the same time by attempting to prevent further rapprochement and cooperation between non-Western countries, primarily the People’s Republic of China, the Russian Federation and the Islamic Republic of Iran, by intimidating and threatening Russia and Iran.

This strategy is entirely consistent with the policy initiated by the Barack Obama administration, singling out China as the only strategic “competitor.”

The intensification of anti-Chinese provocation regarding Taiwan and the increasingly open military and political support of the US for the de facto authorities in Taiwan are clear symptoms of this phenomenon. Under international law, Taiwan is undoubtedly part of China.

Whatever path the United States ultimately chooses – relying on the Atlantic Axis or attempting to isolate China, or a combination of the two – poses dangers to world peace which constitutes an existential threat to the very survival of humanity. This situation increases the risk of nuclear war.

The struggle for peace and against war, aggression and armament is therefore more relevant and necessary than ever.

The IADL continues to commit itself to uphold the prohibition of the use of force enshrined in the UN Charter, to the recognition of the right to peace of all peoples as an international legal norm, against the arms race and for the dissolution of NATO.

IADL reaffirms the position taken at previous congresses that an aggressive military alliance such as NATO violates the prohibition of the use of force in international relations and is therefore illegal under international law. We fully support all efforts to close all extraterritorial US and NATO bases in the countries of the world, which serve as a threat to both host countries and the peace and security of the world.

5. Support the efforts to create multilateral initiatives for political and economic cooperation such as BRICS and the Group of Friends in Defence of the Charter of the United Nations

 

Faced with the growing aggressiveness of the West and the systematic abuse of power, particularly by the US, in international relations, more and more countries around the world are organising forms of horizontal bilateral and multilateral cooperation. They explicitly refer to the UN Charter and the principle of the sovereign equality of states and the right of peoples to self-determination. These alliances offer the prospect of greater economic cooperation on an equal footing, with prospects for better development and thus a better response to the basic needs of the peoples of the South. They also promise respectful political cooperation without interference, intimidation and threats.

In this sense, initiatives such as the BRICS and the Group of Friends in Defence of the Charter of the United Nations are, to a certain extent, an extension of the principles formulated by the Bandung Conference in 1955 which was at the origin of the Non-Aligned Movement.

IADL supports these efforts aimed at peaceful and mutually beneficial cooperation between countries of the South.

These developments make an essential contribution to the struggle for a multipolar world in which the domination and exploitation of the vast majority of the world by a minority of Western countries is brought to an end.

IADL will, without compromising its independence, seek structural cooperation with these initiatives.

6. Oppose unilateral coercive measures and their extraterritorial effects. Oppose the blockade on Cuba

The United States of America has been using unilateral coercive measures for decades as a weapon against peoples and states that oppose US and Western imperialist domination.

For example, since 1959, the Cuban people have laboured under an illegal blockade imposed by the US. Through its domination of the worldwide SWIFT system that regulates bank transfers, the US has been trying to financially asphyxiate the Cubans by imposing huge penalties on banks around the world that accept transfers from and to Cuba. Companies trading with Cuba have also been sanctioned. IADL has consistently opposed the blockade of Cuba.

At least 39 countries were placed under unilateral coercive measures by the US and the EU under various pretexts such as the fight against terrorism or (often undocumented allegations of) human rights violations.

The use of such unilateral coercive measures as a weapon to force peoples and countries to accept US dictates is contrary to the principle of the sovereign equality of nations enshrined in the UN Charter and the right to determine freely their political and economic system enshrined in common Article 1 of the UN Covenants, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).

A state cannot be forced to develop political or economic relations with any other state. IADL urges peaceful cooperation in good faith between all states. All unilateral coercive measures should be abolished and banned in international relations. Their extraterritorial effects are not only violations of the sovereignty of the sanctioned state or people but also of all other states who must be able to choose freely to cooperate with other countries.

7. Accountability for international crimes

IADL opposes impunity for international crimes and stresses the increasing importance of holding perpetrators of international crimes accountable. This task is all the more urgent in light of the genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Palestine. Ad hoc tribunals, such as those for Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia and Lebanon, have proved susceptible to instrumentalization by Western powers and not independent and impartial, as international law requires. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has been rightly criticized for its bias against investigating crimes committed by powerful states in the Northern Hemisphere and an excessive focus on the African continent.

IADL calls for strict adherence to and enforcement of international humanitarian law. IADL condemns and notes with particular concern the ICC prosecutor’s decision to seek arrest warrants against Palestinian leaders Ismail Haniyeh, Mohammed Deif and Yahya Sinwar; especially as the three Palestinians were targeted for one more charge than Israeli officials, and as those charges included “extermination,” not applied to the officials directing the Israeli genocide. We further caution against any potential future indictment of Palestinian leaders for exercising their internationally recognized right to resist occupation.

The ICC has taken some positive and courageous steps by opening an investigation into the crimes committed since 2014 by Israel in Palestine, and more recently by issuing arrest warrants against Israeli leaders Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant. The IADL salutes the work of the Palestinian legal team that has worked tirelessly in pursuit of accountability, emphasizes the importance of this step forward in confronting Israeli and Western impunity, and, urges the ICC to aggressively pursue the arrest of Netanyahu and Gallant and to pursue further investigations, charges and warrants against additional Israeli political and military officials openly directing the ongoing genocide.

The reaction of the United States, imposing sanctions on the ICC judges and prosecutor, is a blatant violation of international law and an expression of the US’ intention to maintain its imperialist domination by force. IADL firmly opposes such sanctions and will join every effort to see them cancelled and their effects annulled.

Whatever the outcome of the unacceptable pressure exerted by the US on the ICC, the IADL also notes that European countries are playing a problematic role and applying double standards. While loudly demanding that countries of the South enforce the arrest warrant against President Vladimir Putin, they welcome Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to dine with them or allow him to fly over their territory.

It is clear that in light of the massive nature of the international crimes committed by Israel in Palestine, which necessitate the participation of hundreds and even thousands of people, the ICC alone does not have the capacity to bring even a fraction of the perpetrators to justice.

IADL therefore firmly supports all efforts throughout the world to bring perpetrators to justice before national jurisdictions either on the basis of the competence of national courts for bi-nationals or on the basis of the well-established principle of universal jurisdiction. IADL condemns unlawful pressure that has been brought to bear by the United States and Israel on states whose courts have received complaints of crimes committed by their citizens. Universal jurisdiction requires that all international crimes be investigated independently and impartially, without fear of repression. National courts are more effective when they act under the direct control of the public.

A particular problem in relation to the international crimes committed in Palestine is that of the complicity of third states, international organizations such as the EU, and multinational corporations providing political, material, and other support and equipment to Israel without which the genocide would not be possible. Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on Occupied Palestine has analysed corporate responsibility for Israel’s genocide in her new report, From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide.

8. Globalisation, economic, social and cultural rights

A protracted economic crisis has resulted from unregulated greed and irresponsible financial mismanagement by wealthy and developed states. This crisis has a life-threatening impact on people in developing countries, as well as the poor and marginalised in the industrialised world. Many developing countries are burdened with crippling debt, frequently the result of unreasonable conditions imposed upon them by international financial institutions.

The rights of workers, already under attack by corporate hostility towards trade unions, are increasingly compromised by labour deregulation and policies of importing cheap migrant labour, leading to gross exploitation of workers and undermining their family life and social structures. Such policies also have the most negative effects on the goals of multiculturalism and lead to increased racism and hostility between ethnic and social groups.

Women are victims of double exploitation and vitally important gender empowerment is increasingly under threat. The inhuman treatment of children as cheap labour is an international scandal. IADL affirms its determination to strengthen the fight against the exploitation of women and children and for the rights of workers to organise through trade unions.

The economic, ecological and military crises generated by imperialism and global capitalism have produced unprecedented levels of forced migration and displacement. Instead of addressing the root causes, Western powers respond by militarising borders, criminalising migrants, and outsourcing violations to private security actors and proxy regimes.

IADL condemns the systemic dehumanisation and criminalisation of migrants and refugees, particularly in the Mediterranean, on the US–Mexico border, and across Asia and Africa. IADL also condemns the discriminatory policies specifically targeting Palestinian refugees. We support the full recognition of the rights of all displaced people — including economic migrants, climate refugees, and stateless persons — and oppose policies that subordinate their rights to geopolitical or economic interests. The right to migrate must be treated as a matter of justice, not as a threat to be managed.

The IADL remains committed to fighting racism and racial discrimination in its various manifestations in all parts of the world.

The IADL Congress pledges its continuing support for the struggle for human dignity, health and well-being and against poverty, hunger and homelessness; and to help cope with natural disasters and to prevent epidemics and diseases that disproportionately afflict peoples in poor and developing countries.

9. Development and environmental rights

The current environmental crisis is not a natural phenomenon but a direct consequence of the exploitative nature of capitalism and imperialism. Extractivist economic models, developed and maintained by transnational corporations and supported by imperialist states, have devastated ecosystems, dispossessed Indigenous communities, and triggered displacement and disease. Climate change is the outcome of a global system that puts profit above life, and yet those least responsible — peoples of the Global South — bear its heaviest burdens. Climate change is a threat to the survival of humanity

IADL affirms that the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment is inseparable from the broader struggle for economic and social justice. We oppose “green colonialism” and false solutions promoted by financial elites, such as carbon markets, geoengineering, and corporate-controlled climate finance. We call instead for climate reparations, ecological debt cancellation, and the democratic control of natural resources. The struggle for environmental rights must be grounded in peoples’ sovereignty, ecological justice, and the decommodification of nature.

10. Gender Equality

Gender inequality remains a structural component of global injustice, sustained by intersecting systems of patriarchy, capitalism, colonialism and militarism. Women and gender and sexual minorities face systemic violence and discrimination in every region of the world, both in times of conflict and in so-called peacetime. This includes not only economic exploitation and social exclusion, but also widespread and often normalized gender-based violence: femicide, domestic violence, sexual violence in war, and institutional abuses by police, military and judicial systems

Women, especially in colonised and conflict-affected societies, bear the compounded burdens of war, displacement, unpaid labour and poverty. Global capitalist structures continue to profit from their exploitation, while political and legal systems fail to offer adequate protection or redress

Despite the existence of various legal frameworks and monitoring bodies under international law, there is a serious normative and implementation gap. Existing mechanisms are fragmented, often non-binding, and lack enforcement capacity—leaving survivors without real access to justice. This exposes the need for a coherent, binding international mechanism dedicated specifically to preventing and addressing gender-based violence as a violation of international law, such as an additional protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

The IADL calls for the elimination of all forms of gender-based violence and the full protection of the rights of women and gender and sexual minorities. We support efforts to dismantle the global structures of domination that produce and perpetuate gender inequality and discrimination.

11. Oppose the criminalisation of legal defence

In many parts of the world, lawyers who defend political prisoners, represent victims of state violence, or stand in solidarity with peoples’ struggles are themselves subjected to persecution, arbitrary detention, surveillance, disbarment and even physical attacks. This targeting of lawyers is a direct assault on the right to defence, the principle of due process, and the broader struggle for justice. It is especially severe in countries where repressive regimes use the judiciary as a tool of political control.

The IADL expresses its unwavering solidarity with imprisoned and persecuted lawyers worldwide. We call for the immediate release of all lawyers detained for their professional activities or political beliefs, and we denounce the abuse of anti-terrorism and national security laws to criminalise legal defence work. The independence of the legal profession is an essential pillar of any democratic society, and IADL will continue to expose and oppose any effort to undermine it.

In Kathmandu we rededicate ourselves to the unremitting struggle for all of these aims.

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