international criminal law Archives - Page 5 of 18 - Center for Global Law and Justice

August 11, 2020

AfCHPR Assesses Compliance, Withdrawal in Judgment on Côte d’Ivoire Electoral Commission

In a judgment issued on July 15, 2020, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (AfCHPR) again analyzed the independence and impartiality of Côte d’Ivoire’s election oversight body, in the context of an increasingly tense election year. The Court determined that it had competence to decide whether the State had complied with its 2016 judgment regarding the Independent Electoral Commission, and decided that the State had complied by legislating changes to the Commission’s composition. [AfCHPR Press Release: Judgment Summary] However, the AfCHPR found violations in the fact that the local electoral commissions’ membership has not been changed to reflect […]

May 27, 2020

Rwandan Genocide Suspect Félicien Kabuga Arrested, Leaving Six Fugitives

French authorities have arrested Félicien Kabuga, long wanted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) for his alleged role in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. [Guardian] Using his fortune and his radio station, Kabuga is accused of funding, logistically supporting, and inciting anti-Tutsi violence. [OHCHR Press Release; ACHPR Press Release] He was indicted by the ICTR in 1997 on genocide charges. [ACHPR Press Release] A French court will decide on May 27, 2020 whether his trial will be handled by the United Nations International Residual Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) – which is concluding the remaining work of […]

April 02, 2020

Sri Lanka Pardons War Criminal, Rejects Human Rights Council Commitments

Efforts to secure accountability for the atrocities of Sri Lanka’s civil war faced another setback in March 2020 when Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa pardoned one of very few individuals convicted of committing atrocities during the conflict. [OHCHR Press Release: Pardon] President Rajapaksa, himself an accused war criminal, ordered the immediate release of former army Sergeant Sunil Ratnayake, convicted in 2015 for the murder of eight Tamil civilians (commonly referred to as the Mirusuvil massacre) in 2000. [NYTimes] A spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) condemned the pardon as “an affront to victims and yet […]

January 29, 2020

Ongoing Atrocities in Myanmar Highlighted by ICJ Ruling, UN Expert

Evidence of past and ongoing mass atrocities against the Rohingya in Myanmar took central focus in two significant developments last week, as the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered the government to act to prevent genocide and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Myanmar issued her final end-of-mission statement. [UN News: ICJ; OHCHR Press Release: Statement] Also last week, the controversial government-created Independent Commission of Enquiry (ICOE) released the executive summary of its final report, in which it found evidence of possible war crimes but not genocide against the Rohingya. [Al Jazeera] Meanwhile, the International Criminal Court (ICC) is proceeding […]

January 16, 2020

UN Finds Evidence of Crimes Against Humanity in Ituri, DRC

In a new report, a United Nations entity asserts that violent attacks, including sexual violence, between members of the Lendu and Hema community in the Democratic Republic of Congo since late 2017 may constitute crimes against humanity and war crimes. In January 2020, the Human Rights Division of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), which together make up the UN Joint Human Rights Office (UNJHRO) in the DRC, published a report assessing violence in the DRC’s northeastern Ituri province in […]

December 12, 2019

International Criminal Court Prosecutor’s Annual Report Previews Eight Possible Investigations

On December 5, 2019, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) published the 2019 Report on Preliminary Examination Activities, detailing the status of nine initial assessments by her office of possible war crimes, crimes against humanity, and acts of genocide around the world. See ICC, Report on Preliminary Examination Activities (2019), para. 14. The ninth annual Report covers the Office of the Prosecutor’s (OTP) activities and findings with respect to the status of situations in the preliminary examination stage during the period between December 1, 2018 and November 30, 2019. See id. at para. 17. In that time, the […]

September 19, 2019

Special Tribunal for Lebanon Announces New Terrorism Charges Against Ayyash

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) announced new charges on September 16, 2019 against Salim Jamil Ayyash relating to his alleged involvement in the 2004 and 2005 attacks targeting Lebanese politicians Marwan Mohammed Hamade, Georges Anis Hawi, and Elias Miche El-Murr. [STL Press Release] The new charges are separate from the pending charges against Ayyash, and three other defendants, in connection with the February 14, 2005 attack that killed former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 21 others. [STL Press Release] While Ayyash’s whereabouts are unknown, the Pre-Trial Judge issued both domestic and international warrants to be executed by Lebanese […]

August 08, 2019

Former Khmer Rouge Leader Dies as Cambodia Tribunal Cases Continue

Nuon Chea, a former high-ranking official in the Khmer Rouge, died on August 4, 2019 while serving a life sentence imposed by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC). [ECCC Press Release: Chea; HRW] In 2014, the ECCC convicted Chea, also known as “Brother No. 2,” of orchestrating the forced removal of approximately two million people and directing the torture and killing of more than 14,000 people at a Cambodian detention center. [HRW] His death has prompted renewed scrutiny of the search for justice in Cambodia and the role of the ECCC, a United Nations-backed tribunal tasked with […]

May 10, 2019

ICC Reverses Jordan Non-Cooperation Referral for Failure to Arrest Al-Bashir

On May 6, 2019, the International Criminal Court (ICC) reversed an earlier decision seeking intergovernmental follow-up on Jordan’s failure, in March 2017, to arrest then-Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir, whom the ICC seeks to prosecute for alleged crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide in Darfur. In a split decision, the Appeals Chamber confirmed that Jordan had violated its international obligations when it failed to arrest Al-Bashir, but concluded that the Pre-Trial Chamber II had improperly exercised its discretion in referring Jordan for non-cooperation because it had not treated South Africa in the same way and because Jordan had sought to […]

April 18, 2019

ICC Decides Not to Investigate War Crimes in Afghanistan Conflict

On April 12, 2019, the three judges of the Pre-Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court (ICC) unanimously declined to authorize the Prosecutor’s request to conduct an investigation into the situation in Afghanistan. [ICC Press Release] The investigation was set to examine alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity related to the conflict in Afghanistan, and to examine the responsibility of the Taliban and other armed groups, and of Afghan and United States armed forces. See ICC, Situation in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, ICC-02/17-33, Decision Pursuant to Article 15 of the Rome Statute on the Authorisation of an […]

April 08, 2019

U.S. Resists International Oversight, Reduces IACHR Funding over Reproductive Rights

In another effort to both curtail international human rights oversight and advance a regressive view of reproductive rights, the United States Department of State indicated in late March 2019 that it would reduce its financial support for the region’s human rights bodies, which have urged States to repeal laws that criminalize abortion without any exceptions. [Washington Post; PAI] U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo announced that the U.S. would reduce its regular contribution to the Organization of American States (OAS), a regional intergovernmental organization with 35 Member States, in an effort to target the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) […]

March 07, 2019

U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Absolute Immunity For International Organizations

On February 27, 2019, the United States Supreme Court held by a vote of seven to one that international organizations do not have absolute immunity from suit in U.S. courts. See Jam v. International Finance Corp., No. 17-1011, slip op. at 2 (U.S. Feb. 27, 2019). Rejecting the International Finance Corporation’s (IFC) argument that international organizations like the IFC maintain absolute immunity from suit in U.S. courts, the Court allowed a case alleging injuries from environmental pollution caused by a power plant that was funded and supervised by the IFC to proceed in a U.S. federal court. See id. at […]