ICC

Guatemala’s Role on the Security Council, as Viewed by Its Ambassador

• March 5, 2013

Gert Rosenthal does not sound like a Spanish name, but the mother of Rosenthal, the Guatemalan ambassador to the United Nations, was born there and his father was German. To complicate matters, “a little accident happened,” he said, as his parents, Florence and Ludwig, left Germany in the 1930s, and Rosenthal was born in …

ICC, Security Council, UN Diplomats

3 Comments

The International Court Judge’s Fight for Justice

Lorraine Boissoneault

• February 21, 2013

The president of the International Criminal Court, Judge Sang-Hyun Song, told a Columbia University audience recently that a major challenge facing the court is what he called a steady lack of political support from the United Nations Security Council and UN member states. “We need a far more consistent and vigilant approach by …

ICC, International Justice, Security Council

3 Comments

Rape in War: It’s Not a Given Any Longer

Dulcie Leimbach

• January 9, 2013

One of Fatou Bensouda‘s missions as the new chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court is to make rape during conflicts a thing of the past. Until 20 years ago, she said in a speech at the United Nations recently, sexual violence and other sexual attacks were “all but ignored and dismissed as regrettable …

Africa, Child Soldiers, Human Rights, ICC, International Justice, Women

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A Rerun of History in Eastern Congo Threatens Kinshasa Again

Barbara Crossette

• November 26, 2012

Less than two decades ago, this is what happened to a huge African country once known as Zaire: Rebels backed by Rwanda’s recently installed, ethnic Tutsi-led government moved out of their strongholds in the eastern flank of the country and advanced toward the Zairian national capital, Kinshasa, and overthrew the central government. To Rwandan …

Africa, Child Soldiers, ICC

3 Comments

Congo Miners See Hope While Rebels Sow Unrest

Dulcie Leimbach

• October 17, 2012

Important progress in controlling the mining of tin, tantalum and tungsten in the troubled eastern region of Democratic Republic of Congo has been achieved, says a report from the Enough Project, a Washington nonprofit group focused on Africa. Yet renewed fighting that began in the spring between regional militias and Congolese national troops, who …

Africa, Child Soldiers, ICC, Peace and Security

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Can Making Amends to Victims of Atrocities Actually Help?

Nomvuyo Nolutshungu

• October 16, 2012

The conclusion of the International Criminal Court’s first trial this summer was duly noted in global media and political circles. Yet little attention was paid to the equally landmark move by the court mandating reparations for victims of the atrocities committed by the man who was sentenced for the war crimes case, Thomas Lubanga …

Child Soldiers, ICC, International Justice

3 Comments

The ICC’s New Gender Adviser Knows the Court Well

Dulcie Leimbach

• August 22, 2012

Brigid Inder has been named the special gender adviser to Fatou Bensouda, the prosecutor for the International Criminal Court, or the ICC. With more than two decades of working in international and domestic justice, women’s human rights and as a political adviser in United Nations negotiations, Inder’s new role is to advise Bensouda’s …

GOINGS-ON, ICC

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UN WOMEN'S CONFERENCE 2012

Thomas Lubanga, Congolese Warlord, Sentenced to 14 Years

Dulcie Leimbach

• July 10, 2012

Thomas Lubanga, the 52-year-old Congolese militant convicted by the International Criminal Court in March for the war crimes of conscripting and enlisting child soldiers under age 15 and using them in hostilities, was sentenced today to 14 years’ imprisonment. The children were forced to fight a conflict in northeastern Congo from Sept. …

Africa, Child Soldiers, ICC

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ICC Staff Members Released in Libya

Dulcie Leimbach

• July 2, 2012

Libyan authorities have released the four International Criminal Court staff members who have been held in Zintan after their visit on June 7, 2012, to Seif al-Islam el-Qaddafi, the son of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, to notify him of his legal rights. Qaddafi, in custody by Zintan militias, has been charged with crimes against humanity …

ICC, Libya

3 Comments

A Top Libyan Visits The Hague to Discuss Detainees

Dulcie Leimbach

• June 22, 2012

The International Criminal Court has announced that Libya’s attorney general, Abdelaziz al-Hassadi, and other top Libyans have visited its headquarters in The Hague, saying that Hassadi brought information on the status of the four court staff members imprisoned by militias in Zintan, Libya. The court did not release further news on the detainees, who …

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Swiss UN Mission Asks Others to Help Refer Syria to The Hague

Dulcie Leimbach

• June 17, 2012

As the 300-member United Nations unarmed observer mission in Syria suspends its work because of intensifying violence in the country, Britain and Switzerland are beginning efforts to refer the Syrian situation to the International Criminal Court. The British foreign secretary, William Hague, announced recently that his office is preparing a case against the Syrian …

ICC, Middle East, Security Council

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A New Leader, Defying the African Union, Bans Bashir of Sudan

Barbara Crossette

• June 12, 2012

The African Union, whose members decided three years ago not to honor an arrest warrant for Sudan’s president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, has been forced to find a new site for its regional summit in July after the small southern African nation of Malawi said it would refuse entry to the Sudanese leader. Bashir is …

Africa, ICC

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The International Court Names the Officials Being Held in Libya

Dulcie Leimbach

• June 9, 2012

Four staff members of the International Criminal Court have been detained in Libya since June 7, the court announced today from its base in The Hague. Sang-Hyun Song, the court’s president, has asked for the staffers’ immediate release, saying: “We are very concerned about the safety of our staff in the absence of any …

3 Comments

Defending the International Criminal Court From the Outside

Dulcie Leimbach

• April 30, 2012

The International Criminal Court‘s judgment against the warlord Thomas Lubanga for conscripting child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo has confirmed that “a permanent international criminal court is on the job,” Stephen Rapp, ambassador at large for the US State Department, said at Columbia University Law School this month. The Lubanga guilty verdict …

Child Soldiers, ICC, International Justice

6 Comments

BOOKS

The Ultimate War Crimes Expert, Back in the Game

Barbara Crossette

• April 1, 2012

No American diplomat or scholar of international law has been more deeply involved than David Scheffer in the creation of virtually every war crimes court from the catastrophic implosion of Yugoslavia to the long-overdue reckoning for the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. Now, in a new book, “All the Missing Souls: A Personal History of …