Madagascar Ratifies Rome Statute

On March 14, Madagascar’s Malagasy Government ratified the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, bringing the total number of States Parties to the Court to 106. The statute will enter into force in the island nation on June 1, 2008.

The Rome Statute was adopted in July of 1998. Last year, the President of the ICC, Judge Philippe Kirsch, called for the ratification of the Rome Statute by countries that had not yet done so. Judge Kirsch emphasized that the Court was already having an effect in deterring crimes and building peace in some countries.

See here for story.

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Ugandan Tribunals To Try Rebels

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni declared that rebel leaders of the Lord’s Resistance Army will be tried by local Ugandan tribunals rather than handed over to the International Criminal Court.  The local court system emphasizes compensation and apologies, rather than punishment.

The ICC issued arrest warrants for the five Ugandan rebel leaders after President Museveni requested the body investigate their crimes, leading some to claim that Museveni used ICC indictments as a mechanism for exerting pressure on the rebels to agree to a peace settlement.  Uganda is obliged under international law to send the accused men to the Hague for trial. The decision to try the rebels locally has “opened a rift” between African governments that believe ICC trials should be subordinate to local peace deals and reconciliation and countries which trumpet the ICC as responsible for international justice.  Museveni, asserting Uganda’s right to withdraw from the ICC process, contends that his decision is driven by the desires of the victims and the leaders of those areas affected by the conflict to use “traditional justice.”  Critics respond that Museveni’s actions undermine the credibility of the ICC and the international criminal justice system.

For the full story click here and here.

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Rwanda Agrees to Enforce Sentences

Last week, Rwanda agreed to enforce a jail sentence imposed by the United Nations war crimes tribunal set up to address the atrocities of the country’s 1994 genocide. Under the agreement, which has also been signed by six other countries, anyone convicted and given a prison term by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) can now serve that sentence in a Rwandan jail. The agreement is important in part because in signifies a milestone in cooperation between ICTR and Rwanda. For more on this story, click here.

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Convictions for Sierra Leone Rebel Leaders Upheld

The Appeals Chamber of the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) upheld the convictions and sentences of three rebel leaders on February 22. The defendants were former leaders of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), a military group that supported Revolutionary United Front (RUF) during Sierra Leone’s civil war in the 1990s. The three men, Alex Tamba Brima, Brima Bazzy Kamara, and Santigie Sorbor Kanu, were given sentences of 45 to 50 years for war crimes and crimes against humanity. They were found guilty of 11 charges, including acts of terrorism, murder, rape, enslavement, and military conscription of children under the age of fifteen. The full text of the decision can be found here.

On a separate note, the Court is currently convening a conference to address issues related to the cessation of its judicial activities. The Court’s press release can be found here.

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Judges Added to ICTY

In an effort to meet its goal to try all defendants by the end of 2008, the Security Council has agreed to temporarily add four judges to the UN Tribunal set up after the Balkan wars of the 1990s. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), which proposed the appointment of the additional judges, now may have up to 16 ad litem (or temporary) judges serving on it at any one time, in addition to the 16 permanent judges on the court. Though the new judges cannot serve past the end of the year, the resolution states that they should help the ICTY “conduct additional trials…in order to meet completion strategy objectives.”

In a related story, the ICTY granted temporary leave to five former Bosnian Croat leaders, accused of, among other war crimes, murder, rape, and the wanton destruction of cities. The crimes were committed in 1992 and 1993 against Bosnian Muslims and other non-Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The decision to grant leave means that the accused will reside in Croatia until May 4th, the day before the defense case in their collective trial is to begin. However, just two days later, the ICTY stayed the release, fearing that the men could be flight risks. As a result, the accused will remain in ICTY custody until the appeals chamber has a chance to rule on the merits of the prosecution’s appeal of the order granting the temporary leave.
For more information on the new judges, please click here. To read more about the decision to grant the temporary leave, please click here. To read more about decision to the stay the leave, please click here.

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Former Rwanda Official Arrested

Callixte Nzabonimana was arrested February 18, 2008 in Kigoma, Tanzania. He is charged with six counts before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, including counts of Genocide, Conspiracy to commit genocide, Complicity in genocide, Incitements to commit genocide, Crimes against humanity and violation of the Geneva Convention. The 2001 indictment under which he is charged also listed six other men, Augustin Bizimana, Edouard Karemera, Andre Rwamakuba, Mathieu Ngirumpatse, Joseph Nzirorera and Felicien Kabuga. Nzabonimana is alleged to have participated in the planning of mass killings of Rwanda’s Tutsi population while serving as Minister of Youth and Sports.

Refer to the original UN Press release here and the ICTR press release here.

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Trial of Charles Taylor Resumes

The Special Court for Sierra Leone has resumed the trial of Charles Taylor, the former President of Liberia, on eleven counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes. This is the first time that an African head of state has been tried before an international tribunal.

Due to security concerns, the trial was transferred from Freetown, Sierra Leone to The Hague, The Netherlands after a six-month delay.

The charges against Mr. Taylor emanate from his alleged support for the Revolutionary United Front, the Sierra Leone rebel group notorious for its conscription of tens of thousands of child soldiers and its practice of severing the limbs of its victims.

The whole story can be viewed here.

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African Union Monitors “Arche de Zoe” Affair

The African Union continues to take cognizance of the “Arche de Zoe” affair two weeks after condemning it as unjustifiable, scandalous, and an abuse of humanitarian interference. The incident refers to a case in which sixteen Europeans (including nine French citizens) who claimed to be on a mission to save war orphans from Darfur could be facing stiff sentences and hard labor after attempting to airlift 103 children out of Chad. Members of the group, which is linked to a French charity called l’Arche de Zoé (Zoe’s Ark), are charged in Chad with extortion and child abduction. Amid evidence that the 103 children in question were not necessarily sick, orphaned, or even from Darfur, the failed mercy mission has grown into a diplomatic scandal that could jeopardize international plans to deploy peacekeepers in the borderlands of the troubled Sudanese region.

The full text of the press release is available here.

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UN Expert Calls for Fair Trial for Those Charged With Attempt to Abduct Children in Chad

Juan Miguel Petit, UN Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution, and child pornography, called for a full investigation into the alleged attempt by a French NGO to abduct 103 children from Chad and fly them to France. Mr. Petit has urged the Chadian and French authorities to investigate the attempted abduction, insisting that those responsible must be brought to justice and “tried in accordance with international fair trial standards.”

Mr. Petit’s statement comes in the wake of the October 25 arrest of some members of an NGO called “Arche de Zoé/Child Rescue.” The full press release is available here.

Other UN officials have condemned the act as well.

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Special Court for Sierra Leone Appeals for Funding

Officials from the Special Court for Sierra Leone have asked for an additional $60 million so that they may complete their mandate to try “those who bear greatest responsibility” for war crimes in the country.  Current funds are expected to be exhausted in November of this year.  Four trials are currently before the Court, including that of Charles Taylor.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=22839&Cr=sierra&Cr1=leone

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