Hamid Karzai and George W. Bush - Photo Credit: Paul Morse
A member of the court since 2003, there is ample evidence that serious crimes have been committed in Afghanistan by all sides of the conflict. But the prospect of opening a formal investigation there also means that US forces and officials could come under scrutiny by the ICC, a development that could have major ramifications for the court.
Read More
Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi at the opening of his trial © ICC-CPI
Yesterday saw the trial of Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi at the International Criminal Court for the intentional destruction of world heritage shrines in Timbuktu during the 2012 occupation of the city by the Islamic rebel group Ansar Dine. The trial marks two important milestones for the court: this is the first time a suspect plead guilty, and also the first case of cultural destruction as a war crime.
Read More
More than 20 years after the Bosnian war ended, the International Criminal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) convicted Radovan Karadžić on 10 counts of genocide, crimes against humanity and violations of the customs of war. There are hopes that the verdict will serve as an important step for Bosnians to move on from a war that ended more than two decades ago.
Read More
Photo Credit: ICC-CPI/Armin Taslaman
Today the International Criminal Court reached an historic decision, finding former Congolese vice president Jean-Pierre Bemba guilty of murder, rape and pillaging. This verdict marks the first ICC conviction for rape and gender based violence.
Read More
News broke this week of the surrender of Dominic Ongwen, a top commander in the Lord’s Resistance Army, to US forces in the Central African Republic. One of the five LRA commanders indicted by the ICC in 2005, Ongwen is also the most controversial of the Uganda indictments. While his surrender deals a serious blow to the LRA, whether the LRA’s victims will see justice remains unclear. Ongwen was a child when he was abducted by the LRA and grew up to become a notorious killer. But what are the legal and moral implications of trying a man for crimes against humanity when that man was conscripted as a child?
Read More
The International Criminal Court’s Assembly of State Parties (ASP) is meeting this week in New York. The annual meeting brings together members of the court to elect judges, decide on the next year’s budget and debate possible amendments to procedure and the Rome Statute. But this year’s meeting comes in the wake of the ICC prosecutor withdrawing charges against Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta last week. The current conclusion of the case may end a particularly contentious chapter in the ICC’s short history, but also leaves a lot of unanswered questions about what it means for the court.
Read More
Nearly nine years after a car bomb killed former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in Beirut, the UN-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) is starting court proceedings today in The Hague. As the first international tribunal to prosecute terrorism the STL has a lot of potential, but will face potentially debilitating challenges as it seeks to bring a modicum of justice to a politically fragile country.
Read More