General Assembly Distr.: General 23 January 2017
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United Nations A/CN.4/704* General Assembly Distr.: General 23 January 2017 Original: English International Law Commission Sixty-ninth Session Geneva, 1 May-2 June and 3 July-4 August 2017 Third report on crimes against humanity By Sean D. Murphy, Special Rapporteur** Contents Page Introduction .............................................................................. 4 A. Work to date on this topic ....................................................... 4 B. Debate in 2016 in the Sixth Committee ............................................ 4 C. Purpose and structure of the present report ......................................... 6 Chapter I Extradition .............................................................................. 9 A. Extradition and crimes against humanity .......................................... 9 B. Extradition provisions in treaties addressing specific crimes .......................... 14 1. Dual criminality .......................................................... 14 2. Inclusion as an extraditable offence in existing and future treaties ................. 16 3. Exclusion of the “political offence” exception to extradition ...................... 18 __________________ * Reissued for technical reasons on 11 April 2017. ** The Special Rapporteur wishes to thank Anees Ahmed, Tae-Ung Baik, Robert Beckman, Robert Behlen, Joanna Buckley, Marta Bylica, Arturo Carrillo, Silvia Cartwright, Wen-Chen Chang, Sabin Chung, Julia Currie, Steven Freeland, Sarah Freuden, Sarah Fulton, Richard Goldstone, Hurst Hannum, Garrett Henderson, Yasushi Higashizawa, Nina Jørgensen, Nazhat Shameem Khan, Huna Kamir, Claus Kreß, Rena Lee, Amy Lindsay, Liu Daqun, Nora Mbagathi, Juan Mendez, Rahmat Mohamad, Nikhil Narayan, Lucy Reed, Hugo Relva, Eleanor Ross, Jason Ross, Leila Sadat, William Schabas, Kristin Shaulis, Kristin Smith, Jessica Sparano, Herb Somers, Kelisiana Thynne, Erin Torres, Edmund Wong and the George Washington University Law School International Human Rights Clinic for their invaluable assistance in the preparation of the present report. 17-00990* (E) 110417 *1700990* A/CN.4/704 4. States requiring a treaty to extradite can use the present draft articles ............... 21 5. States not requiring a treaty to extradite shall use the present draft articles .......... 24 6. Satisfying other requirements of the requested State’s national law ................. 24 7. Deeming the offence to have occurred in the requesting State ..................... 26 8. Extradition of a requested State’s own nationals ................................ 29 9. Refusal to extradite due to possible persecution ................................ 29 10. Consultation and cooperation ................................................ 32 C. Draft article 11. Extradition ..................................................... 32 Chapter II Non-refoulement ........................................................................... 36 A. Principle of non-refoulement .................................................... 36 B. Draft article 12. Non-refoulement ................................................ 41 Chapter III Mutual legal assistance ..................................................................... 43 A. Short-form mutual legal assistance article ......................................... 45 B. Long-form mutual legal assistance article .......................................... 46 1. General obligation to afford mutual legal assistance ............................. 53 2. Cooperation when a mutual legal assistance treaty exists between the States concerned ................................................................ 58 3. Cooperation when a mutual legal assistance treaty does not exist between the States concerned ................................................................ 60 C. Draft article 13. Mutual legal assistance ........................................... 67 Chapter IV Victims, witnesses and other affected persons ................................................... 75 A. Overview .................................................................... 75 B. Complaints by and protection of victims and others ................................. 78 C. Participation of victims in criminal proceedings .................................... 83 D. Reparation for victims.......................................................... 85 E. Draft article 14. Victims, witnesses and others ...................................... 90 Chapter V Relationship to competent international criminal tribunals ........................................ 92 A. Potential for conflicts .......................................................... 92 B. Draft article 15. Relationship to competent international criminal tribunals .............. 96 2/165 17-00990 A/CN.4/704 Chapter VI Federal State obligations .................................................................... 97 A. Overview .................................................................... 97 B. Draft article 16. Federal State obligations .......................................... 99 Chapter VII Monitoring mechanisms and dispute settlement ................................................. 100 A. Existing monitoring mechanisms ................................................. 100 B. Potential monitoring mechanisms under a convention ................................ 105 1. Types of institutions ....................................................... 105 2. Types of procedures ....................................................... 109 C. Inter-State dispute settlement .................................................... 113 1. Negotiation .............................................................. 116 2. Arbitration ............................................................... 118 3. Judicial settlement ........................................................ 119 4. Opting out of inter-State dispute settlement .................................... 120 D. Draft article 17. Inter-State dispute settlement ...................................... 122 Chapter VIII Remaining issues .......................................................................... 124 A. Concealment of crimes against humanity .......................................... 124 B. Immunity .................................................................... 128 C. Amnesty ..................................................................... 131 Chapter IX Preamble ................................................................................. 137 Chapter X Final clauses of a convention ................................................................ 139 A. Final clauses in the work of the Commission ....................................... 139 B. Balancing of interests with respect to reservations to a treaty .......................... 140 C. Approaches taken in existing treaties to reservations ................................. 142 D. Reservations in the context of a convention on crimes against humanity ................. 149 Chapter XI Future programme of work .................................................................. 151 Annex I Draft articles provisionally adopted by the Commission to date ........................ 152 Annex II Draft articles and preamble proposed in the third report .............................. 157 17-00990 3/165 A/CN.4/704 Introduction A. Work to date on this topic 1. At its sixty-sixth session in 2014, the International Law Commission decided to include the topic “Crimes against humanity” in its current programme of work and appointed a Special Rapporteur.1 At its sixty-seventh session in 2015, the Commission held a general debate concerning the Special Rapporteur ’s first report and provisionally adopted four draft articles and commentaries thereto. 2 2. At its sixty-eighth session in 2016, the Commission held a general debate on the Special Rapporteur’s second report and provisionally adopted six additional draft articles and commentaries thereto. 3 B. Debate in 2016 in the Sixth Committee 3. During the debate in the Sixth Committee in 2016, thirty-nine States (including one on behalf of the Nordic States) commented on the topic of “Crimes against humanity”,4 with views that generally favoured the Commission’s work to date, stressing the overall importance of the topic 5 and welcoming the draft articles adopted during the sixty-eighth session.6 Numerous States again expressed appreciation of the steps taken to ensure that the Commission’s work does not conflict with existing instruments, in particular the 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.7 Along these lines, several States expressed support for the Commission’s use in certain instances of language similar to that of the __________________ 1 See the Report of the International Law Commission on the work of its sixty-sixth session, Official Records of the General Assembly, Sixty-ninth session, Supplement No. 10 (A/69/10), paragraph 266. 2 See the Report of the International Law Commission on the work of its sixty-seventh session, Official Records of the General Assembly, Seventieth session, Supplement No. 10 (A/70/10), paragraph 113. 3 See the Report of the International Law Commission on the work of its sixty-eighth session, Official Records of the General Assembly, Seventy-first session, Supplement No. 10 (A/71/10), paragraphs 79–83. 4 Presentations to the Sixth Committee on this topic were made by: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belarus, Brazil, Chile, China, Croatia, Cuba, Czechia, El Salvador, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece,