Minow and Heymann Opinion on Bashir Indictment

Genocide in Darfur? Let the court decide

By Philip Heymann and Martha Minow November 28, 2008 S THERE a legal basis for the International Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant for President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan for genocide?

The crime of genocide has been widely accepted as the most heinous offense against human dignity. Although the term can sometimes be used loosely in political debates, it has a very precise and narrow legal definition. And rightly so.

According to the Genocide Convention of 1948, the crime of genocide is “any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; [and] forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”

These definitional requirements are more than mere legal formalities. If the crime of genocide is deemed to occur, the Convention triggers mandatory prosecution requirements. The particular opprobrium that is attached to genocide should be reserved for those who have unquestionably violated its terms. Meanwhile, mass atrocities that do not satisfy the precise definition of genocide can still be prosecuted as crimes against humanity or war crimes. read more…

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Kenyans Express Doubt Over Post-Election Violence Tribunal

Peter Clottey
Washington, D.C.
28 November 2008

Some Kenyans are doubtful about the effectiveness of a tribunal soon to be established to prosecute those complicit in the country’s post-election violence. They say the move is a calculated attempt by some political leaders to outwit a possible indictment from the international Criminal Court for they roles they played after the December 27 election dispute. This comes after the coalition government agreed yesterday (Thursday) to establish a tribunal to judge senior politicians and businesspersons accused of organizing the bloody ethnic violence that took place after the disputed election. The violence erupted after incumbent President Kibaki and then main opposition leader Raila Odinga both claimed victory in Kenya’s presidential election. From the capital Nairobi, Kenyan political analyst Michael Tiampati tells reporter Peter Clottey that Kenyans have reason to be skeptical. read more…

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Zambia Launches Justice Chibesakunda’s Bid for ICC Judge Position

November 27, 2008

Zambia has kicked off Justice Lombe Chibesakunda’s campaign for election as a judge on the International Criminal Court (ICC) after a series of meetings with diplomats at the United Nations in New York, in the United States of America.

Justice Chibesakunda has been in New York since November 24 where she has attended meetings for the purpose of introducing Zambia’s candidate to the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the elections scheduled for the 7th session of the Assembly of States to be held in New York from 19 to 23 January 2009. read more…

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Congo Suspects Plead Not Guilty to War Crimes

MIKE CORDER – Nov 27, 2008

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) – Two Congolese warlords pleaded not guilty Thursday at the International Criminal Court to charges of murder, rape and using child soldiers during a deadly attack on a village in 2003.

Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo entered their pleas to three counts of crimes against humanity and seven war crimes at a pretrial hearing at the world’s first permanent war crimes tribunal.

No date was set for their trial to start, but it is expected to get under way next year. read more…

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UN Investigating Possible War Crimes in Congo

JOHN HEILPRIN – Nov 26, 2008

UNITED NATIONS (AP) – U.N. officials have opened investigations into whether war crimes have been committed in eastern Congo, saying they have alarming evidence of targeted killings and possibly massacres of civilians.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon raised the possibility of war crimes and crimes against humanity in a report Wednesday to the Security Council that recommends U.N. peacekeepers who make up the world’s largest such contingent should remain in Congo through 2009. read more…

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Uganda: Country to Host Next ICC Conference

24 November 2008

The Hague – The 108 States Parties of the International Criminal Court (ICC) decided that the next revision conference of the Rome Statute will take place in Kampala, Uganda, in the first half of 2010. The central objective of this conference, which should last ten day, will relate to the crime of aggression. The states have been working for more than ten years to write the legal definition of this crime, on which the permanent Court theoretically has jurisdiction.

If the resolution giving Uganda the status of host country was adopted by consensus, it does not have unanimity amongst the non-governmental organizations. Within the debates of the seventh assembly of the States Parties, which was held in The Hague from 14 to 21 November, the Club of the Friends of Law of Congo, a Congolese organization for the defence of human rights, was opposed to the Ugandan proposal. read more…

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Rights group says Myanmar judges should be referred to ICC

Rights group says Myanmar judges should be referred to ICC

[JURIST] President of the Global Justice Center [advocacy website] Janet Benshoof said [press release] Thursday that judges who participated in the trials and convictions of 60 political activists [JURIST report] in Myanmar [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive] last week are co-conspirators of crimes against humanity and should be referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website]. In a statement, Benshoof explained that the circumstances of the hearings – in which many defendants did not have legal representation, those who did were not allowed to meet with their lawyers in private, and in which defendants could not question the prosecution witnesses – justified a referral to the ICC. read more…

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