Forum for International Criminal Justice Newsletter: November 2014
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Forum for International Criminal Justice Newsletter: November 2014 Welcome to the IAP’s Forum for International Criminal Justice (FICJ) November 2014 Newsletter which focuses on the prosecution of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, including a roundup of video highlights, announcements, events, reports and the major news developments from October. Please note that the items included in this publication do not automatically carry any endorsement from the IAP. Some domestic legal news covered in this Newsletter include: Argentina sentenced 15 former officials to life for genocide; Italy’s Constitutional Court has ruled that victims may sue Germany for Nazi War Crimes; and Rwanda’s Prosecutor General has appealed to his counterparts in Africa to respect the duty to extradite or prosecute all suspects of the 1994 Genocide in their countries. *Please have a look at the FICJ forum page on the IAP website and feel free to contribute: the Forum provides individual prosecutors with a password protected space to post news, announcements, etc. and to pose questions to fellow prosecutors from around the world. Your contributions will also be posted in this monthly newsletter. Danya Chaikel – FICJ Coordinator | email: [email protected] Video Highlights Click here to watch a trailer of the new documentary Watchers of the Sky on Raphael Click here to watch a brief video clip on the free Lemkin, a Polish-born lawyer who coined the online course on International Criminal Law term “genocide”, inspired by Join Samantha the FICJ Power community: WWW.IAPoffered -byASSOCIATION.ORG/FICJ Western Reserve University/HOME, and instructed by Professor Michael Scharf. The next1 and featuring former international prosecutors Follow us on twitter: @iaprosecutors Benjamin Ferencz and Luis Moreno Ocampo. session runs from 3 November – 26 January. Announcements: UN War Crimes Court to Close in 2017 The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia will completely shut down in 2017 after delivering its last war crimes ruling, said the court’s president Theodor Meron. (Marija Ristic, BIRN, 14 October 2014) Presenting his annual report to the Security Council in New York on Monday, the Hague-based war crimes court’s president said that “fewer than ten trials and appeals remain unfinished”. “By the end of 2015, based on current forecasts, we expect that only one trial and one appeal, in the Mladic and Prlic et al. cases, will still be ongoing, concluding in 2017,” Meron said. Meron said the verdict in the case of former Bosnian ICTY President, Judge Theodor Meron Army commander Ratko Mladic is expected to be rendered in July 2016, while the court’s ruling in the appeal by former Bosnian Croat leader Jadranko Prlic and five others is due next year. The Tribunal is preparing to close for good in 2017, after which the court’s so-called ‘residual mechanism’ will take over any remaining appeals, he said. In the other high-profile trials at the UN- backed court, the verdict in the case of former Bosnian Serb president Radovan Karadzic is expected in October 2015, while a judgement on former Croatian Serb leader Goran Hadzic will be delivered in December 2015. However Meron did not name a date for the verdict in the case of Vojislav Seselj, the leader of Serbian Radical Party, because the trial has been disrupted after one of the judges was disqualified for alleged bias. For more information click here Since its establishment in 1993, the ICTY has indicted 161 people, 20 of whom are still on trial. In the 141 completed cases, 74 people were convicted and 18 were acquitted, while in 36 cases, the indictments were either withdrawn or the defendants died, and cases against 13 others were referred to prosecutors in their home countries. Join the FICJ community: WWW.IAP-ASSOCIATION.ORG/FICJ/HOME 2 Follow us on twitter: @iaprosecutors Justice plays a “crucial role” in maintaining international peace and security: ICC Prosecutor briefs the United Nations Security Council On Thursday, 23 October 2014, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC or the Court), Mrs. Fatou Bensouda, briefed the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in New York, in an open debate on the constructive role the Council can play in support of the exercise of the Office of the Prosecutor's independent mandate, organized by the Argentine presidency of the UNSC. "We believe that the rights of women ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda briefing UN Security Council and children, indeed the rights of all civilians in times of conflict; the protection of peacekeeping missions and the rule of law are topics of common importance for both of our respective institutions. The same holds true for the crucial role justice plays in relation to the maintenance of international peace and security," said the Prosecutor. Focussed on the working methods of the UNSC, the open debate took place almost exactly two years after a similar session was organized by Guatemala, and provided a unique opportunity to exchange on how the Council can support the work of the Court and propose concrete solutions to the specific challenges that will make a difference to the victims of mass atrocities. At the meeting, Prosecutor Bensouda emphasized the continued need for cooperation and follow-up to UNSC referrals and the need for mechanisms to ensure timely and coordinated support. She underscored the importance of States Parties within and outside the Council working together and in one voice, as well as the need to think proactively about how the Council, the Assembly of States Parties and the ICC can work in concert within their respective mandates, to advance the crucially important goals of ending impunity for mass crimes and promoting the international rule of law. Calling for the appointment of a single focal point for interaction between the UNSC and the ICC, the Prosecutor outlined a number of areas where enhanced coordination could provide greater follow- up to relevant Council resolutions. Lack of adequate and effective follow-up on referrals to the ICC is a matter of continuing concern, shared with the Council, said the Prosecutor. Citing the Darfur situation, the failure to implement aspects of resolutions referring situations to the ICC, she said, can Join the FICJ community: WWW.IAP-ASSOCIATION.ORG/FICJ/HOME 3 Follow us on twitter: @iaprosecutors reflect a much deeper problem. Prosecutor Bensouda noted that of the fifty-five resolutions on the Sudan, very few had been implemented, suggesting the need to review them collectively as well as individually. The Prosecutor also invited the Council to use clearer language in its referrals, in particular concerning the obligation of all States to cooperate with the ICC and to uphold its judicial rulings. Prosecutor Bensouda called for serious discussion on effective arrest strategies, expressing her sincere hope that the UNSC "can definitively call on all UN Member States to provide the necessary assistance." She proposed that a focal point for interaction between the UNSC and the ICC could be of practical assistance on this issue and in a number of other helpful ways, including the question of the outstanding response of the Council to the ICC's findings of non-cooperation. "It is not only a question of focusing on non-cooperation of specific States," said the Prosecutor, "but of looking more positively and proactively at how to encourage cooperation as specific challenges arise.'' For more information click here The Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC conducts independent and impartial investigations and prosecution of the crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The Office of the Prosecutor is currently conducting eight investigations: in Uganda; Democratic Republic of the Congo; Darfur, Sudan; Central African Republic; Kenya; Libya; Côte d'Ivoire and Mali. The Office is also conducting preliminary examinations relating to the situations in Afghanistan, Colombia, Georgia, Guinea, Honduras, Iraq, Nigeria, Ukraine and the situation referred by the Union of the Comoros. Reports: REDRESS-FIDH-ECCHR-TRIAL are publishing a report entitled "Driving Forward Justice: Victims of Serious International Crimes in the European Union (EU)" Concerns over impunity and safe havens have led to increased efforts, in Europe and elsewhere, to strengthen systems to hold to account those accused of serious international crimes including genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, torture and enforced disappearance. As states have begun to incorporate serious international crimes into their domestic criminal laws, and strengthened their capacity to investigate and prosecute these crimes, the number of investigations and prosecutions of these acts has slowly increased. This is a positive development, and a sign that countries are slowly committing to the goal of ending impunity. However, this developing practice has not been matched by the effective exercise of victims’ rights in these proceedings. Join the FICJ community: WWW.IAP-ASSOCIATION.ORG/FICJ/HOME 4 Follow us on twitter: @iaprosecutors Victims of crime are entitled to be treated with dignity and respect, to have access to justice and to obtain reparation. They have a right to be protected from reprisals, to receive information about the progress of cases that concern them and to engage with the legal process. Despite these rights, all victims – regardless of the type of crime they were subjected to - face serious hurdles to exercise their rights. These hurdles, steep as they already are, are accentuated for victims of serious international crimes. Many of those who fall within this category suffer from severe trauma, face stigmatisation in their communities, may not speak the language of the country where the investigation is taking place, frequently preventing them from accessing information about their rights, filing complaints and triggering investigations. To date, few of these victims have been able to play an active role in criminal proceedings particularly when they take place abroad; even fewer have succeeded in obtaining compensation or other forms of reparation.