War Crimes

Notorious Rwandan war criminal Callixte Mbarushimana was arrested today in Paris after sixteen years of impunity. He was arrested after a sealed arrest warrant was issued by the ICC in late September. French authorities cooperated fully. Mbarushimana faces five counts of crimes against humanity (murder, torture, rape, inhumane acts and persecution) and six counts of […]

Four former heads of the Khmer Rouge were indicted today by the U.N. sanctioned Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. The four charged with crimes of Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity, and Genocide among others, ranged in age from 78 to 85 years, and have managed to escape justice for at least 31 years. This […]

Judge Baltasar Garzon, a pioneer of universal jurisdiction against heads of state, was offered a job by the International Criminal Court today. This comes as Baltasar is being persecuted by far right groups in his home country of Spain. From the Office of the Prosecutor: “The Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) of the International Criminal […]

A version of this article appears at the website atlantic-community.org. The Atlantic Community is a foreign policy think tank based in Berlin and Washington D.C. International Humanitarian Law (IHL) is at a crossroads. Though first implemented to reduce war casualties and prevent atrocities, over the course of the last fifty years the nature of armed […]

A campaign has launched to get the U.N. to adopt a new crime, ‘ecocide’, into the Rome Statute as the fifth crime under its jurisdiction in addition to genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and aggression. The campaign is being run by a British U.N. activist, Polly Higgins that had a minor recent success with […]

The Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation is holding a conference in Buenos Aires next week from April 12-14. The conference, titled ‘Memory, Justice, Truth and Reparations as Tools for Genocide Prevention’, has been co-organized by the government of Argentina. It will host government officials and policymakers from 40 nations. I spoke today with AIPR’s […]

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 […]