Posts filed under 'International Humanitarian Law (Laws of War)'
April 11th, 2008 at 12:01am
Last week, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) acquitted former Kosovo prime minister Ramush Haradinaj of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Haradinaj was also a commander in the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) during the late 1990s. Although he was charged with crimes such as murder, rape, and torture, the ICTY found that these crimes, if committed, may have been targeted against individuals rather than against groups. Because the victims may have been targeted for individual reasons, the ICTY could not find that Haradinaj had targeted entire civilian groups.
Although one of Haradinaj’s co-defendants, Idriz Balaj, was also acquitted, a third co-defendant, Lahi Brahimaj, was convicted and sentenced to six years in jail for cruel treatment and torture.
Judge Alphonsus Orie stated that the court has had difficulty in obtaining testimony from a significant number of witnesses. Orie remarked that “The Chamber gained a strong impression that the trial was being held in an atmosphere where witnesses felt unsafe.”
More on the story here.
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March 19th, 2008 at 06:04pm
On March 6, infamous weapons dealer Viktor Bout was arrested in Bangkok. Bout’s role in supplying weapons to some of the world’s deadliest conflicts had earned him the nickname “Merchant of Death,” and he is believed to have inspired Nicholas Cage’s character in the film “Lord of War.”
While praising Bout’s capture, Antonio Maria Costa, the Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, called on Thailand to ratify the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime. According to Costa, ratifying this treaty would “make it easier to bring criminals of [Bout’s] ilk to justice, for example through mutual legal assistance and extradition.” Costa also encouraged states to ratify the Protocol against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Their Parts, and Components and Ammunition, known as the UN Firearms Protocol.
According to the UNODC, nearly 1 billion guns are in circulation throughout the world, and three fourths of them are in civilian hands. Every year, 8 million guns are manufactured, along with twice the amount of ammunition that would be needed to kill the world’s entire population.
The story is available here.
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February 29th, 2008 at 01:27pm
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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November 14th, 2007 at 07:27am
Ieng Sary, former Foreign Minister and Deputy-Prime Minister of the Khmer Rouge, and his wife, former Social Affairs Minister Ieng Thirith, were arrested Monday by Cambodian police on charges of crimes against humanity. Sary was also charged with war crimes.Sary is alleged to have promoted policies of forcible transfer, forced labor, and unlawful killings while a member of the Khmer Rouge’s ruling inner circle. Ieng Thirith, Pol Pot’s sister-in-law, is accused of planning, directing, coordinating, and ordering widespread purges and of unlawfully killing members of the ministry that she once ran.
An estimated 1.7 million people died as a result of the regime’s 1975-1978 reign.
The pair will be tried by a special war crimes tribunal convened by the Cambodian government and the United Nations. The panel will consists of five judges, two foreign and three Cambodian.
The Tribunal’s press release can be found here.
The full story can be found here
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November 13th, 2007 at 08:20pm
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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November 6th, 2007 at 10:04pm
The UN Working Group on the use of mercenaries will report to the General Assembly on November 7 that a number of private security firms operating in conflict zones, particularly Afghanistan and Iraq, are engaging in new forms of mercenary activity. The Group’s report characterizes the personnel employed by such companies as a new form of mercenaries, similar to “irregular combatants.”
The report also warns that States employing such private companies could be liable for human rights violations committed by them, especially if governments are directing the companies or have authorized them to exercise elements of governmental authority. The report further discourages States from granting immunity to such companies and their personnel.
The full story on the report is available here.
More on the Working Group can be found here.
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May 10th, 2007 at 05:20am
The Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia reversed the conviction of Bosnian Serb Officer Vidoje Blagojević for complicity in genocide, affirmed his other convictions, and reduced his sentence to 15 years imprisonment.
The Chamber also affirmed the convictions of Bosnian Serb Officer Dragan Jokić and his sentence of 9 years imprisonment.
The ICTY press release can be found here.
The full text of the summary of the judgment is here.
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April 4th, 2007 at 08:05am
The trial chamber of the ICTY today sentenced Dragan Zelenovic to fifteen years imprisonment, based on seven counts of torture and rape as crimes against humanity. Zelenovic pled guilty to these crimes as part of a plea deal. The chamber gave mitigating weight to his guilty plea, noting that it would help to establish truth and contribute to reconciliation in the region.
The summary of judgment, as read out by Judge Orie, is here: http://www.un.org/icty/pressreal/2007/pr1152e-summary.htm
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April 4th, 2007 at 07:48am
Today being International Mine Action Day, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has renewed the call for states to accede to the Ottawa Convention and other treaties that promote the elimination of landmines. He also urged member states to continue to eliminate mines and to provide assistance to the millions of people who are affected by landmines.
A United Nations press release is here:
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=22121&Cr=landmine&Cr1=
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April 3rd, 2007 at 11:58pm
The appeals chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia has reduced Radoslav Brdanin’s sentence from 32 years to 30 years. Although upholding most of the trial chamber’s original findings, the appeals chamber overturned the findings that Brdanin’s conduct had a substantial effect on the commission of torture in detention camps run by Bosnian Serbs in north-western Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992 and that Brdanin was responsible for the wanton destruction of Bosanska Krupa.
The full text of the summary of the judgment, as read out by Judge Meron, is here: http://www.un.org/icty/pressreal/2007/pr1151e-summary.htm
In other news, the appeals chamber dismissed all of the appeals of Croatian Defense Council member Miroslav Bralo. Bralo had previously been sentenced to 20 years after pleading guilty. The summary of the judgment is here: http://www.un.org/icty/pressreal/2007/pr1150e-summary.htm
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