Tag: ICC

HOW THE U.S. DERAILED AN EFFORT TO PROSECUTE ITS CRIMES IN AFGHANISTAN

October 7, 2021

“This just proves one more time to Afghans that international mechanisms do not value their life when foreigners are involved and international forces are involved,” Shaharzad Akbar, who chaired Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission until the Taliban took control of the country in August, told The Intercept. “This decision reinforces the perception that these institutions set up in the West and by the West are just instruments for the West’s political agenda.”

https://theintercept.com/2021/10/05/afghanistan-icc-war-crimes/

Top international court rejects Uighur calls to investigate China for alleged genocide

August 10, 2021

The office of prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said the ICC couldn’t act because China is not a signatory to the court.

The Uighurs had argued that even though the alleged deportations did not happen on Chinese soil, the ICC could act because they happened on Tajik and Cambodian territory, and both of them are ICC members.

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/top-international-court-rejects-uighur-calls-to-investigate-china-for-alleged-genocide/e20763c3-33be-48fc-8941-1a07945b5a96

An Old Legal Doctrine That Puts War Criminals in the Reach of Justice

March 1, 2021

Universal jurisdiction, the idea that any nation’s courts can try people for atrocities committed anywhere, has gained as a tool of human rights lawyers battling impunity.

Why is universal jurisdiction needed?

Some countries lack adequate judicial systems to prosecute crimes of this magnitude committed on their own soil. And some nations simply don’t want to prosecute them — especially if their leaders or other powerful figures would be implicated.

That poses a threat to a core tenet of the rule of law everywhere, legal advocates say.

 

The Extraordinary Trial of the Child Soldier Who Became a Brutal Rebel Commander

February 18, 2021

Kidnapped at 9 by Joseph Kony’s notorious guerilla army, Dominic Ongwen was groomed to kill. Is he a lost soul deserving of mercy, or a cold-blooded war criminal who must face justice?

He didn’t look at her for a long time. He stared at the edge of the table in front of him, holding his hands in his lap as if he was praying, visibly tense as this small woman with dark blonde hair spoke in a confident, cool, posh English accent. It was March 19, 2018, as Gillian Mezey testified before the International Criminal Court in The Hague in the trial of Dominic Ongwen, a former commander of the Ugandan Lord’s Resistance Army, the LRA, one of Africa’s oldest and cruelest rebel groups. Mezey, a professor of psychiatry in London, was testifying because nothing was more important and more controversial in this trial than the mental state of the accused, a former child soldier.

The Extraordinary Trial of the Child Soldier Who Became a Brutal Rebel Commander

The International Criminal Court’s new chief prosecutor is controversial ($)

February 16, 2021

The ICC badly needs such a champion. Victims of human-rights abuses around the world have been ill-served since the court began operating in 2002. Mr Khan’s two predecessors, Luis Moreno Ocampo and Fatou Bensouda, managed to secure just five significant convictions between them in 18 years. 

https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2021/02/16/the-international-criminal-courts-new-chief-prosecutor-is-controversial

 

Israel and the International Criminal Court (ICC)

February 7, 2021

Interesting discussions and implications around international law, war crimes, human rights, jurisdiction of international bodies (ICC), sovereignty, among others.

 

Israel originally supported the establishment of the international court in 2002, but it did not ratify the Rome Statute, in part out of fear of ending up on trial over the issue of settlements.

As a nonmember, it cannot appeal Friday’s ruling. But Israel’s attorney general has argued all along that only a sovereign state can delegate authority to the I.C.C., and that the areas in question were not a Palestinian sovereign state.

 

Response by Benjamin Netanyahu

 

Lastly, a pretty great discussion (10 minutes) regarding the issue of the ICC’s decision. The discussion gets to the heart of the nature of the ICC and why the issue is controversial.

Afghan conflict: Top court backs war crimes probe

March 16, 2020

But US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the ruling was “reckless” and vowed to protect Americans from it.

“This is a truly breathtaking action by an unaccountable, political institution masquerading as a legal body”, he said.

“All the more reckless for this ruling to come just days after the United States signed a historic peace deal on Afghanistan, which is the best chance for peace in a generation.”

The deal was signed with the Taliban last Saturday after more than 18 years of conflict.

The US is not a signatory of the ICC and does not recognise its authority over American citizens.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-51751717