Pages

Monday 31 December 2012

News Round-Up - 31 December 2012


  • Syria's special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi has said that if there is no political solution to Syria it will be "transformed into hell," likening the potential situation to Somalia.
  • After meeting with AU chairman Thomas Boni Yayi over the weekend, CAR's President Francois Bozize has said he is ready to form a national unity government with the Seleka rebels that have taken much of the country in recent days.The Seleka alliance has accused Bozize of failing to honour the 2007 peace agreement.
  • The Pakistani Taliban have executed 21 of the 23 policemen kidnapped last week in Waziristan in a dawn raid.  The policemen were government-allied paramilitaries recruited from local tribes.  For more on the reprisals carried out in Waziristan in response to drone attacks by the US in the region, see Declan Walsh's piece in the New York Times.
  • Israel has allowed building materials for private sector into Gaza for the first time in five years.  Up until now many private contractors had been relying on smuggled materials from Egypt.
  • In the blogosphere, an interesting debate has started on comparisons between the Newtown bombings and drone strikes.  See here for Kevin Jon Heller's piece at Opiniojuris, and here for Benjamin Wittes's piece over at Lawfare.

Friday 28 December 2012

Crisis Group Louise Arbour's Top 10 Conflicts for 2013

In an article over at Foreignpolicy.com Louise Arbour of International Crisis Group sets out 10 conflicts which Crisis Group believes are the biggest coming threats for 2013. The list does not claim to be exhaustive or even prioritised. 

Many that could credibly have made their way onto the list - like the "drug-related violence in Mexico and the "ongoing trauma in Somalia" - have been left off.  Rather the list seeks to highlight "a mix of the obvious risks and those we believe are bubbling beneath the surface."  

Those are:  Sudan, Turkey/PKK, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria & Lebanon, the Sahel, Central Asia, DRC, and Kenya.  

The full article can be found here.


News Round-Up - 28 December 2012



  • The NY Times carries a piece on life under Islamist rule in Northern Mali, where at least 14 people have had their feet cut off since the takeover last Spring.  Last week the UNSC passed a resolution authorising military intervention in Mali.  
  • The Washington post has published an interesting report on the CIA's little-known Global Response Staff, which employs contractors to provide an "unobtrusive layer of security for CIA officers in high-risk outposts."
  • It is reported that UN Secretary General and the UN Security Council have issued statements condemning armed attacks in several towns in the Central African Republic by the Sedeka coalition rebels
  • Hamas has banned Palestinian journalists in Gaza from working with or giving interviews to the Israeli media.  Israeli journalists have been banned by their own government from entering Gaza since 2006, purportedly for security reasons. In the West Bank, President Abbas has said he will disband the Palestinian Authority and hand over authority to Netanyahu if there is no move to renewing peace talks after the forthcoming Israeli elections in January.


Thursday 27 December 2012

News Round-Up - 27 December 2012


  • At the ECCC, Florence Ndepele Mwachande Mumba of Zambia has been appointed as the sitting judge of the Supreme Court Chamber. She formerly served as a trial chamber judge at the ICTY and as an appeals chamber judge in the joint ICTY-ICTR appeals chamber. Phillip Rapoza of the USA, who served as a judge on the Special Panels for Serious Crimes in Timor-Leste, has been appointed as the Supreme Court Chamber's reserve judge. 
  • In Syria, the Assad regime's military police chief has defected. Maj. Gen. Abdul Aziz Jassem al-Shallal was reported as saying that he decided to leave when the regime deviated from its mission to protect the country and turned into “a gang for killing and destruction.”
  • Three people have been killed and six more injured in a suicide bomb attack outside a US Base in Khost in eastern Afghanistan. The base is known to host CIA operatives tracking terror suspects in Pakistan. The Taliban have claimed credit for the attack.
  • In Pakistan, there have been attacks on police stations in the town of Darra Adam Khel in the north-western part of Pakistan, in which two policemen have been killed and a further 22 are missing. The Pakistani Taliban, who are believed to be responsible, also announced today their conditions for a ceasefire with the Pakistani government.
  • It is reported that the European training mission to Mali, mandated by Security Council Resolution 2085, is to be headed up by General François Lecointre who has previously served served in Djibouti, the Central African Republic, Rwanda, Gabon and Bosnia.

Color of War - Richard Mosse

In this series of striking photographs, the extraordinarily talented Richard Mosse uses infrared film to capture the "Hobbesian state of war in Congo." For him, Congo is "the most beautiful place I have been in my life - and I've traveled a lot."

The bitter contrast between war and the breathtaking natural beauty that often forms its backdrop is one that those of us involved in international criminal law are probably all too familiar with.  Mosse manages to convey this juxtaposition - beauty and war - without a word.  

For more on Mosse's work in Congo, see here.



Sunday 23 December 2012

Syria: Cluster Bombs and the Threat of Chemical Weapons

This short video from the NY Times shows the effects that Russian-made cluster bombs are having on the civilian population in Syria:  





In the video, one rebel warns that the regime will soon resort to chemical weapons.  Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov has reportedly stated that Syria's chemical weapons have been consolidated at one or two locations and are under control "at the moment."

Syria is one of just six states recognised by the UN that has not signed the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) (the others being Angola, North Korea, Egypt, South Sudan and Somalia).  Nor is Syria a party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM), which  currently has seventy-seven state parties. 

Friday 21 December 2012

ICL News - 21 December 2012




  • The ICC Appeals Chamber rejected the OTP's request for a suspensive order regarding Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui's release from detention following his acquittal earlier this week, finding that in the absence of any strong reasons in support of the ordering of suspensive effect, Mr Ngudjolo's liberty interest must prevail.  
  • Vladimir Putin has stated that Russia is "not preoccupied" with the fate of the Assad regime, signalling Russia's waning support.
  • The NY Times has reported on the Syrian regime's  use of cluster bombs against civilians.  Cluster bombs are the subject of an international ban on account of their inherent imprecision, though neither Syria nor the US are party to the treaty in question. 
  • Salam Fayaad, Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, has called for a boycott of Israeli goods in response to Israel's refusal to transfer tax revenue to the West Bank.  Israel's refusal came after Palestine successfully bid for observer state status at the UN last month.  


Thursday 20 December 2012

Jens Iverson on Prosecutorial Discretion at the ICC

In this interesting piece over at Dov Jacob's blog Spreading the Jam, Iverson raises the idea of admitting explanations other than "law" or "politics" for why the OTP exercises its discretion in the ways that it does.  He suggests that we move beyond the law/political dichotomy and admit of other rationales for Prosecutorial decision-making.  He writes: 

In order for these [debates between the OTP's representatives, apologists and critics] to be less painful, for the OTP to use its discretion in the best possible manner, and for international criminal law to best address the terrible issues necessarily in its portfolio, we must have a richer, franker discussion over what to do with limited resources.  Discussing directly the implication that addressing crimes in Kenya, Côte d’Ivoire, and Libya may mean that crimes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo may go uninvestigated by the OTP, and doing so without unfounded allegations of politicization, may not only promote the values behind each of the options, enrich our understanding of them, and help us come to better decisions, they may ultimately result in greater support and financial backing for the project of international criminal law in general. 

At the moment, he argues, the Prosecution is inhibited from discussing their policy choices in a meaningful way because any admission that the decision was not a strictly legal one is tantamount to admitting the politicization of the ICC.  If not one, then the other.  He argues that by purposefully avoiding the binary approach of law v. politics, things might be a lot better.  And franker.  I'd certainly be a big fan of that - I think we all would.  

Iverson has really struck a chord with me in this post regarding the need to move beyond the law/politics framework.  The way I normally resolve it, however, (in casual, not very well thought out conversation) is to say there is law, there is political politics, and then there is legal politics.  Political politics, for me, is when for example ICTY prosecutors used EU membership as a carrot for Serbian cooperation. I did not think this was ok, effective as it may have been.  Legal politics is the decision to put on a witness you suspect to be unreliable because of certain institutional pressures and considerations - such as the absence of other witnesses to fill the void, the hope that maybe the mud just might stick,  and the calculation that the risk to the institution's integrity posed by dropping the witness is greater than the risk of the witness not performing on the stand.  It might blow up in your face, but there is enough legal cover for you defend your choice if it does.  What do you do? That to me is legal politicking, and it's generally ok (but perhaps not in that particular example!)

True legal decisions - or at least, the legal decisions that we can be sure really are legal decisions - are those rare things that happen when the court applies the right legal test to the facts and draws the right conclusion.  I suspect that one of the reasons we see so few of those is not because judges and prosecutors are so busy with their politicking but rather because there is still so little agreement on what the law is and how it is supposed to be applied (see for instance the reactions to, and differing opinions within, the Gotovina Appeals Judgment issued last month).  This, I submit, is what gives rise to the WTF reaction so commonly experienced upon the issuance of an ICL judgment or OTP indictment, as opposed to judges and prosecutors actually entertaining improper considerations all of the time - though of course, that does happen too...








ICL News - 20 December 2012


  • At the Khmer Rouge Tribunal (ECCC) in Cambodia, Trial Chamber has rejected a request by Ieng Sary to reconsider its earlier decision of 26 Nov in which it found him fit to stand trial. 
  • At the ICC, Trial Chamber II has rejected the OTP's application for the continued detention of Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui following his acquittal earlier this week.  The OTP has appealed.
  • Chair of independent commission of inquiry on Syria Paulo Pinheiro told the Human Rights Council that the fighting in Syria is becoming overtly sectarian and more foreign fighters from the Middle East and Africa are joining the struggle.  The NY Times has largely confirmed this through its own investigation in Syria. 
  • The UN has now suspended its vaccination drive in Pakistan after eight of its workers were killed over a three day period.  Taliban commanders in North Waziristan say the drive can continue when the US stops using drones to kill its comrades.  

Wednesday 19 December 2012

ICL News - 19 December 2012


  • Yesterday, ICC Chamber II acquitted Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui of all charges against him, marking the third acquittal at the international criminal courts in recent months, following the acquittals of Croatian General Gotovina and Kosovar-Albanian Commander Haradinaj at the ICTY.   
  • At the ECCC, the International Co-Investigating Judges have issued a statement regarding additional international crime sites in Case 004. 
  • Gen Salim Idris, military commander of the Syrian rebels has asked again for defensive weapons, claiming that the war would be over in 1-3 months with such assistance being offered.  He warned that Assad's regime can and will use chemical weapons against his people.  And in a move which arguably signals a loss of confidence in Assad's regime, Russia announced that it was sending warships to Syria, apparently to evacuate its citizens.
  • State Dept. spokesperson Victoria Nuland has called Israel's decision to build more settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem "provocative" (whereas William Hague referred to all Israeli settlements as "illegal under international law).  '
  • The US has blacklisted two M23 DRC rebel leaders, freezing any assets in the US and prohibiting any Americans from transacting with the men.  Ms. Nuland stated that they are still considering whether to sanction senior Rwandan officials.
  • A resolution on American-and French-backed intervention in Mali may occur by the end of the week.  Humanitarian organisations have estimated that intervention would displace at least 700,000 persons.  

Monday 17 December 2012

BANGLADESH ICT: Calls for New Trial in Sayedee Case Following Resignation of Justice Nizamul Huq

Bangladesh ICT chair Justice Nizamul Huq resigned on 11 November 2012 after a number of his emails and conversations were leaked to the media.  The economist carried in depth coverage here which it says "raises legitimate questions about due process that the Bangladeshi authorities should now investigate thoroughly".  The leaked material brings to light pressure put on the judges by the government to deliver quick convictions, and Huq's improper reliance on Belgium-based academic, Ahmed Ziauddin, throughout the proceedings:


Of course, judges can take advice. But any adviser is usually given an official role, known to prosecution and defence. Also as a general rule, advisers tend to stick to their areas of expertise—giving advice on knotty points of law, for example.
Mr Ziauddin does not seem to meet these requirements. Before the tribunal’s order on December 6th his role had not been disclosed to the court or the public. And his advice seems to go beyond particular points of law to include, for example, the drafting of charges. The 17 hours of conversations available to The Economist took place between August 28th and October 20th this year—the equivalent of almost 20 minutes every day. The two men also exchanged more than 230 e-mails in the 12 months to September. Many of these contacts suggest that Mr Ziauddin was involved in aspects of the trial that go beyond what would be permitted to a court adviser or anyone else. Each particular accusation might appear to be modest, or might be explained away. Taken together, they suggest a disturbing pattern.
First, Mr Ziauddin appears to have helped prepare documents for the tribunal, which the judge said would be improper. On May 12th the Brussels-based lawyer sent Mr Nizamul a document called “GhulamAzamChargesFinalDraft”; it was a slightly revised version of a charge sheet he had sent six days earlier. The next day, May 13th, the tribunal issued its indictment against Mr Azam, whom the two men usually refer to as “the big one”. It was identical to Mr Ziauddin’s document. In interviews with us, both men denied that Mr Ziauddin helped prepare documents for the court.

Human Rights Watch has called for a new trial because, with Huq resigning now, this will mean that none of the judges deciding the case against the defendant Sayedee will have heard the entire case.  They also call for the new trial to be held in accordance with different procedural rules as the current ones, they argue, unfair.  


Last Friday, the Bar Human Rights Council of England and Wales also issued a statement calling for a new trial.  They underscore the importance of a new trial in these particular circumstances as it is widely expected that the accused will be sentenced to death upon conviction. The full text of the statement can be found here



The Bangladesh ICT was set up to try war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and crimes against peace committed during the 1971 liberation war.  Seven accused face charges before the tribunal for their role in the conflict.