Ecuador Files Application Against Colombia at the ICJ

On March 31, Ecuador filed an application against Colombia in the UN’s International Court of Justice in The Hague regarding the aerial spraying of toxic herbicides by Colombia along the border the two countries share.

Ecuador asserts that the spraying by Colombia has “caused serious damage to people, to crops, to animals, and to the natural environment on the Ecuadorian side of the frontier, and poses a grave risk of further damage over time.”

The application comes after Ecuador’s claim that efforts at negotiation with Colombia were unsuccessful.  Ecuador asks the ICJ to declare that Colombia is in violation of international law, that it take steps to prevent the depositing of toxic herbicides on Ecuador’s territory, and that it indemnify Ecuador for any damages.  Ecuador believes that the 1948 Pact of Bogotá the 1988 UN Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances should apply to the case.  Colombia has not yet formally responded to the application.
See here for more information.

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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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Limited Liability for Pollution

In Commune de Mesquer v Total France SA and Total International Ltd, the European Court of Justice opined in favor of limiting liability under the polluter pays principle where the waste is not caused intentionally or recklessly. The plaintiff brought the suit for the costs of cleaning oil waste from beaches that resulted from the sinking of a defendant-owned ship. In practice, under the Waste Framework Directive, the financial burden of the disposal operation is on the persons who caused the waste, so long as there is an accusation that they contributed personally to the heavy oil leakage. The opinion relied on the International Liability Convention and the Convention on International Fund for Compensation for Oil Pollution Damage to limit liability of oil producers, sellers, carriers while still meeting the ‘polluter pays’ principle.   

For further details on this case, click here.

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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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ECHR Finds Violations

The European Court of Human Rights recently decided Stoica v. Romania in favor of a minority applicant, finding violations of Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment) and Article 13 (right to an effective remedy) of the European Convention on Human Rights. The applicant, of Roma origin, alleged that he had been racially discriminated against and then brutally beaten by state police officials. He also alleged that at the domestic level, the case had been insufficiently investigated and racial prejudice resulted the decision of state authorities to not prosecute the police official who beat him. Consequently, the applicant approached the European Court for remedy. Considering factors such as insufficiency of evidence and investigation, minority and severe disability of the applicant, and possible lack of good faith of the prosecutor, the Court held that there was a violation of article 3 and article 14 of the Convention.

For further details on this case, click here.

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Prison Guards Found Guilty by Bosnian Court

The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina has found two Bosnian Serbs guilty of crimes against humanity for mistreatment of non-Serb detainees at a detention center in the Bosnian town of Foča.  Mitar Rašević and Savo Todović, prison guards at the Foča correctional facility during the Balkan wars in the mid-1990s, were sentenced prison terms of 8.5 years and 12.5 years, respectively.

Rašević and Todović were indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), then transferred to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s national court system for trial.  Although the ICTY still tries the most senior leaders, the ICTY has begun transferring lower-ranking defendants to national courts.  This is seen as significant progress in the ICTY’s attempts to strengthen rule of law by forging a partnership with the national judiciary.  So far, the ICTY has transferred ten defendants in six cases to Bosnia and Herzigovina’s national courts.

More information can be found here.

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Uphold Human Rights in Anti-Terrorism Operations

The European Court of Human Rights, in Mansuroglu v. Turkey, recently ruled that Turkey had violated Articles 2 and 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights during a 1996 anti-terrorism operation conducted against the Workers Party of Kurdistan (PKK). The incident, during which the applicants’ son was killed and the applicant was “inhumanely treated,” violated the Convention’s right to life and prohibition against inhumane treatment. While the Court accepted that Turkey had a general right to conduct the operation, it was not convinced that the operation had been planned so as to minimize the risk to human life. The Court emphasized the lack of an effective investigation, noting that the Turkish government neglected to examine the weapon that was used in the shooting and did not interview the police officers involved in the incident.

For more information, please click here.

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Parmesan Cheese Defined

In a recent decision, the European Court of Justice opined that only cheeses bearing the protected denomination of origin (PDO) ‘Parmigiano-Reggiano’ could be sold under the denomination ‘Parmesan’. The decision has set a valuable precedent in the EU for numerous other cases where European geographical indications, worth billions of Euros and having cultural and historic value are threatened by counterfeiters around the world. In reaching this decision the court interpreted and elaborated the concept of ex officio protection of geographical indications in Europe.

For more information, 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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