Pre-Trial Chamber II Issues Confirmation of Charges Decisions in the Kenya Situation

Pre-Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court composed of Judges Hans-Peter Kaul, Cuno Tarfusser and Ekaterina Trendafilova (presiding), presented an oral summary of the decisions on confirmation charges pursuant to Article 61(7)(a) and (b) of the Rome Statute in the Kenya situation. The decisions issued concern the charges of the Prosecutor against William Samoei [...]

The Assembly of States Parties Requests the International Criminal Court to Establish Coherent Principles Relating to Reparations for Victims

The important issues dealt with during the Tenth Session of the Assembly of States Parties in New York in late December 2011 include not only the election of the ICC Prosecutor and six judges (see here), but also the adoption of a few important resolutions. This post will discuss Resolution ICC-ASP/10/Res.3 on reparations, adopted by [...]

The ICTY Residual Mechanism

In December 2011 the ICTY Registry launched a dedicated web feature (within the ICTY website) to provide a better understanding of the role and functions of the future Residual Mechanism of the Tribunal. The Residual Mechanism of the ICTY is meant to continue the important work which needs to be carried out once the Tribunal completes [...]

Callixte Mbarushimana Released from ICC Custody

Callixte Mbarushimana was surrendered to the custody of the ICC by French authorities on 25 January 2011, in accordance with the warrant of arrest delivered against him on 28 September 2010 by Pre-Trial Chamber I. In the document containing the charges, the Prosecutor charged Mr Mbarushimana with five counts of crimes against humanity (murder, inhumane [...]

Newest elections at the ICC and the ICJ

Two great international lawyers from Africa, Ms. Fatou Bensuda (Gambia) and Ms. Julia Sebutinde (Uganda), have been elected respectively as Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and as Judge of the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Both these African women have had a distinguished career in the area of international legal practice (for their [...]

ICTY Global Legacy Conference

Introduction The ICTY Global Legacy Conference took place in The Hague on 15 and 16 November. It brought together over 350 leading academics, international judges and practitioners, state representatives and members of civil society (see ICTY press release here). The event was nicely organized by the outgoing President Robinson and his team with the financial [...]

Judge Antonio Cassese, RIP

Judge Antonio Cassese, a great international lawyer who gave the tone to developments in international criminal justice since his election as an international judge and the first President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in 1993, has passed away yesterday in his house in Florence, Italy. A few days ago when I [...]

Closing Statements in the Lubanga Case

The closing statements in the case Prosecutor v. Thomas Lubanga Dyilo started today, 25 August 2011, before Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court (ICC). They will continue tomorrow with the closing statements of the Defence. Thomas Lubanga Dyilo is accused of having committed, as a co-perpetrator, war crimes of enlisting and conscripting children under the [...]

Mladic’s arrest and the ICTY completion strategy

It is all over the news that one of two remaining ICTY fugitives, Ratko Mladic,  was arrested today in Serbia. It is expected that the legal procedures concerning his transferral to The Hague will take about a week. The first indictment against him was confirmed by Judge Jorda on 25 July 1995, so his arrest [...]

India Army Major Avtar Singh- Perpetrator of Extrajudicial Killing – Roaming Free in California

On 13th May 2011 I read a news item in Kashmiri local newspaper Greater Kashmir captioned ‘File status report on Major Avtar’s Extradition’.  The news stated that Court directed police to file a status report on the progress made in the extradition of Major Avtar Singh, accused in the killing of prominent lawyer and human [...]

A Critique of ‘Humanitarian’ Interventionism in Libya

Following the questions raised about the discharge of the responsibility to protect by Gentian Zyberi in his recent post on the situation in Libya, and the remarks I previously made on the situation in Egypt and the responsibility of the international community, I would like to draw our readers’ attention to a revealing and insightful [...]

Taylor trial comes to an end – verdict expected in the coming months

Charles Ghankay Taylor, the former President of Liberia, was indicted under seal on 7 March 2003 while in office. The indictment was announced on 4 June 2003 on his first trip outside of Liberia. In August 2003 Taylor resigned as president and went into exile in Nigeria. He was transferred to the Special Court for [...]

Functional Immunity for Defence Counsel

On 6 October 2010 the ICTR Appeals Chamber  released its decision on the request of Aloys Ntabakuze regarding the arrest of his lead counsel, Peter Erlinder. Erlinder was arrested on 28 May 2010 in Kigali, Rwanda, on charges of ‘genocide denial’. At the time of arrest Erlinder was in Rwanda on reasons unrelated to his [...]

Measures for the Enforceability of State Obligations under the ICCPR: The Case of Israel

In mid July 20210, Israel underwent its third periodic review by the Human Rights Committee as a State party to the ICCPR. As in previous reviews, one of the main issues that came up in Israel’s reporting to the Human Rights Committee is the fact that Israel continues to refuse the application of the Covenant in [...]

UN Reports on Israel Highlight a Manifest Culture of Impunity

On 21st and 22nd September, 2010, respectively, two reports were issued by two separate but circumstantially related missions appointed and mandated by the Human Rights Council to investigate violations of international law in the context of the Palestine-Israel conflict. The reports were submitted in the course of the Council’s 15th session, which recently took place [...]

Corrigendums to the Haradinaj Appeal Judgment

On 23 September 2010 the Appeals Chamber (AC) issued a third corrigendum of its Appeals Judgment in the Haradinaj case (probably alerted about that error by my previous post). The material part of that last corrigendum reads as follows: ‘the fourth sentence of paragraph 43 of the Appeal Judgement shall be amended as follows: The [...]

A Critical Assessment of the Appeals Judgment in the Haradinaj Case

Introduction On 21 July 2010 the ICTY Appeals Chamber partially quashed the acquittals of Ramush Haradinaj (Kosovo’s ex-Prime Minister and former commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) for the Dukagjin zone), Idriz Balaj (former KLA member, commander of the Black Eagles unit), and Lahi Brahimaj (former deputy commander of the KLA Dukagjin Operative Staff, [...]

Diamonds, Celebrities and the Charles Taylor trial

The courtroom used by the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) in The Hague (Leidschendam) has rarely, if ever, been so busy with journalists from all over the world following the Charles Taylor trial. The eagerly awaited testimonies of Naomi Campbell and Mia Farrow have been widely broadcast by the international media. Unfortunately however, with [...]

New FIDH Report and the Prospects of International Justice

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), a major umbrella NGO for over 160 different organisations, recently (July 2010) launched “Corporate Accountability for Human Rights Abuses: A Guide for Victims and NGOs on Recourse Mechanisms“. The guide is comprised of five sections. Each examines a different type of instrument, including intergovernmental mechanisms, legal options, mediation [...]

Book Review: Solon Solomon, The Justiciability of International Disputes – The Advisory Opinion of Israel’s Security Fence as a Case Study

Solon Solomon, The Justiciability of International Disputes – The Advisory Opinion of Israel’s Security Fence as a Case Study (Jerusalem: Wolf Legal Publishers, 2009) ISBN: 978-90-5850-437-1 By Dr. Fozia Nazir Lone Assistant Professor, City University of Hong Kong, fnlone@cityu.edu.hk Solon Solomon, in this book presents a comprehensive legal description on the justiciability of international disputes. [...]

New Bottle, Old Wine: Israel Forms an Investigation Committee on the Gaza Flotilla Attacks

On 13th June 2010, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office published its draft resolution on “The Appointment of an Independent Public Commission, Headed by Former Supreme Court Justice, Jacob Turkel, to Examine the Maritime Incident of 31 May 2010″ (available here). This is Israel’s response to the calls by the international community, including the UN and [...]

ICC’s Review Conference: Will Two Weeks Be Enough?

Dominik’s earlier post calls attention to a very important event, the ICC’s Review Conference which starts today in Kampala, Uganda. The agenda for the conference includes a stocktaking exercise, including discussion of the impact of the Rome Statute system on victims and affected communities; and, issues of peace and justice, including managing the challenges of integrating [...]

The Kosovo Issue: What Should Kosovo and Serbia Discuss?

The dispute between Serbia and Kosovo is among the most complex and yet to be resolved political issues in Europe. Kosovo, an independent country for over two years, is formally recognized by 69 UN countries, which include 22 of the 27 EU countries and all of its neighbors. It joined the International Monetary Fund and [...]

Is there a need to establish new international courts?

New initiatives have been aired recently in high political circles about creating two new courts to deal respectively with piracy off the Horn of Africa (stemming from Somalia), which continues to make headlines, and nuclear security issues. Not long ago, there was a Dutch proposal that the UN should support the establishment of a tribunal [...]

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 60 other followers