The I.C.C. decided this week to allow the Office of the Prosecutor to move ahead in pursuing charges against Kenyan leaders. From the Office of the Prosecutor: The judges decided. There will be justice in Kenya. To contribute to the prevention of crimes during the next election we must proceed promptly. We will. There is […]
Early this month the International Tribunal on Crimes Against Women of Burma convened in New York City. At the Tribunal the testimonies of twelve women outlined atrocities committed by Burmese officials against women during the longest ongoing conflict in the world. Representatives of the witnesses recounted brutal gang rapes, torture and murder committed by Burmese […]
Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo responded this week to the Pre-Trial Chamber II request for clarification of information regarding the situation in Kenya. Ocampo alleged that senior political and business leaders affiliated with the two major political parties involved in the marred 2007 election, the Party of National Unity and the Orange Democratic Movement, were responsible […]
The Pre-Trial Chamber II of the I.C.C. asked for clarification and additional information regarding the situation in Kenya this past week. The bloody aftermath of the 2007 Kenyan elections resulted in the deaths of around 1,000 people. Following a preliminary investigation, I.C.C. Chief Prosecutor asked to The Chamber to conduct an official investigation proprio motu […]
The Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court declined to confirm charges of War Crimes against Abu Garda today, less than a week after the Appeals Chamber reversed the decision to exclude the charge of Genocide against Omar Al-Bashir. The Court stressed that the incident related to the charges – an attack on African […]
From the I.C.C. Situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: In this situation, three cases are being heard before the relevant Chambers: The Prosecutor v. Thomas Lubanga Dyilo; The Prosecutor v. Bosco Ntaganda; and The Prosecutor v. Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui. The accused Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui […]
Year in Review: This year in War Crimes began with two historical events that will change the shape of War Crimes and International Law for years to come. The first of those events: The beginning of trials at the International Criminal Court. This marks the beginning of International Criminal Justice on a truly global level. […]
(Angola Press) Kigali – The UN Security Council has given the tribunal for Rwanda’s genocide until 2012 to finish all its cases. The court, set up to try those most responsible for the genocide, was originally due to close in 2008 but some key suspects remain at large. Rwanda has long complained that the tribunal […]
(AFP) KIGALI — The acquittal by the UN court for Rwanda of a brother-in-law of former president Juvenal Habyarimana, an alleged planner of the Rwandan genocide, “shocked” Rwanda, the justice minister said Friday. Tharcisse Karugarama was speaking on national radio following the announcement of the extension to December 31, 2012 of the International Criminal Tribunal […]
The following is a statement from Dr. Michael Gressman of the German Federal Ministry of Justice to War Crimes on the arrest of the two FDLR leaders in late November: German Federal Police arrested Dr Ignace M. and Straton M. upon orders of the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office in Germany on Wednesday, 17 November 2009, on […]
Two leaders of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), Ignace Murwanashyaka and his aide Straton Musoni, were arrested in Germany last Tuesday. While the arrests were praised by human rights groups and the international community, many questions still remain regarding the timing, motivation, jurisdiction and even the charges being brought against the […]
Radovan Karadzic stopped boycotting his prosecution for war crimes at The Hague this week adding legitimacy to the trial seen as “seen as key to … closure” for the survivors and victims’ families of the Balkans genocide of the 1990s. Karadzic also asked this week for time to prepare his defense. The U.K.’s Channel 4 […]
The following is an interview with Professor M. Cherif Bassiouni. Professor Bassiouni has held many positions with the United Nations including Chairman of the Drafting Committee for the Establishment of an International Criminal Court, and Chairman of the Security Council’s Commission to Investigate Violations of International Humanitarian Law in the Former Yugoslavia. He is currently […]
Charles Taylor took the stand again this week at the Special Court for Sierra Leone and decried a vast conspiracy against him calling witness testimony against him “lies” and accusing the prosecution of racism. Taylor made these impassioned assertions even as hundreds of civilian victims of Liberia’s civil war were buried just this week, fifteen […]
(UN) A high-level Rwandan rebel indicted by the United Nations war crimes tribunal for his role in the 1994 genocide in the tiny Central African country has been handed over to the court after being arrested in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).Grégoire Ndahimana, a high-level figure in the Forces démocratiques de libération […]