More than 100 US legal experts condemn Iran strikes as possible war crimes
A picture released by the Iranian government's foreign media department shows graves being prepared for victims, mostly children, of a United States attack on a girls' primary school in Minab, Iran [Iranian Foreign Media Department via AP]
Friday April 3, 2026
A picture released by the Iranian government’s foreign media department shows graves being prepared for victims, mostly children, of a United States attack on a girls’ primary school in Minab, Iran [Iranian Foreign Media Department via AP]
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More than 100 international law scholars based in the United States have issued a sharp open letter condemning US and Israeli strikes on Iran, saying the attacks violate the United Nations Charter and could amount to “war crimes”.
Published on Thursday, the letter says the conduct of US forces and remarks by senior American officials “raise serious concerns about violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law”.
The academics said the US-Israeli campaign, which began on February 28, was carried out without authorisation from the UN Security Council and without credible proof of an imminent threat from Iran.
“Force against another state is only permitted in self-defense against an actual or imminent armed attack or where authorized by the UN Security Council. The Security Council did not authorize the attack. Iran did not attack Israel or the United States,” the letter said.
The experts said their concerns fall into four broad categories: the legality of deciding to wage war, the way hostilities were conducted, threatening language from senior officials, and what they described as the erosion of civilian protection systems inside the US government under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s “gloves off” approach to warfare.
They pointed to a strike on a primary school in Minab, Iran, on the opening day of the war that killed at least 175 people, most of them children. The letter also cited attacks on hospitals, water facilities and energy infrastructure.
“We are seriously concerned about strikes that have hit schools, health facilities, and homes,” the letter said.
‘Alarming disrespect’ for international law
The letter also took aim at public comments from senior US officials, among them President Donald Trump.
It specifically referred to a mid-March remark in which Trump said the US might launch strikes on Iran “just for fun”. The letter also pointed to comments from Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth in early March, when he said the US does not fight with “stupid rules of engagement”.
“Public statements by senior officials indicate an alarming disrespect for the rules of international humanitarian law accepted by states, and which protect both civilians and members of the armed forces,” the letter said.
It added that the war is costing US taxpayers up to $2bn a day.
The letter was co-authored by leading legal scholars including Yale Law School’s Oona Hathaway and Harold Koh, Philip Alston of NYU, and former Human Rights Watch chief Kenneth Roth.
The experts said that because of their ties to the US, their principal concern was the conduct of the American government, though they “remain concerned about the risk of atrocities across the region”.
They also stressed the “importance of equal application of international law to all, including countries that hold themselves out as global leaders”, warning that the war is undermining the international legal order and the broader system of international law.
The signatories are calling on Washington to reverse course, writing: “We urge US government officials to uphold the UN Charter, international humanitarian law, and human rights law at all times, and to publicly make clear US commitment to and respect for norms of international law.”