Upholding IHL in the use of ICTs during armed conflict – key legal and humanitarian considerations: Interview with Kubo Mačák, Mariana Salazar Albornoz and Mohamed Helal

Dr Kubo Mačák is Professor of International Law at the University of Exeter, United Kingdom. He is the author of Internationalized Armed Conflicts in International Law (Oxford University Press, 2018) and co-author of the Handbook on Developing a National Position on International Law and Cyber Activities: A Practical Guide for States (University of Exeter and NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence, 2025), and has published widely in leading journals such as the International and Comparative Law Quarterly, International Review of the Red Cross and Journal of Conflict and Security Law. He serves as the General Editor of the Cyber Law Toolkit, an award-winning online resource on the international law of cyber operations. From 2019 to 2023, he was a Legal Adviser at the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva. Mariana Salazar Albornoz is Adjunct Professor of Public International Law and of International Human Rights, Criminal and Humanitarian Law at IE University in MadridandatUniversidadIberoamericana in MexicoCity. Since 2023, she has been a member of the Board of the United Nations Register of Damages. Between 2019 to 2022 she was a Member of the Inter-American Juridical Committee, serving as Rapporteur on International Law Applicable to Cyberspace and on Privacy and Data Protection. She recently concluded her membership on the Editorial Board of the International Review of the Red Cross (2020–25). Among her previous roles, she was Coordinator of International Law and Director of IHL, ICL and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights at the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as Regional Manager of the Latin American Internet Association and Associate of the Auschwitz Institute for the Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities. Mohamed Helal is a Professor of Law at the Moritz College of Law, Ohio State University, and a member of the African Union Commission of International Law, where he served as Special Rapporteur for the Application of International Law in Cyberspace and oversaw the drafting of the Common African Position on the Application of International Law in Cyberspace. He is also a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration. His scholarly work has appeared in the European Journal of International Law, Global Constitutionalism, Climate Law, the American Journal of International Law, the Harvard National Security Journal, the NYU Journal of International Law and Politics, the Fordham International Law Journal, and the Emory International Law Review.