International Justice

South African Decision to Quit the ICC Draws Critics in Africa and Beyond

• October 24, 2016

South Africa’s announcement on Oct. 21 that it intends to withdraw from the International Criminal Court, which has jurisdiction over war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, has met strong opposition from civil society groups in that country and other African and international human-rights organizations. Africa has played major roles in the independent court, …

Africa, ICC, International Justice

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China to Reject Ruling by Tribunal on South China Sea, Official Says

Dulcie Leimbach

• June 30, 2016

China plans to reject a ruling that is due on July 12 from a Hague arbitration court regarding a long-simmering territorial dispute between China and the Philippines over the South China Sea. In an exclusive interview with an official from the Chinese mission to the United Nations, the official said that China would “never …

Asia, International Justice

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Khmer Rouge Leaders, Recently Sentenced to Life Imprisonment, Face New Genocide Charges

Barbara Crossette

• August 8, 2014

The highest panel of judges on the joint United Nations-Cambodian government tribunal on crimes of the Khmer Rouge regime have cleared the way for a second trial of two top leaders of the Communist movement that devastated the country almost four decades ago. The new trial, completely separate from the earlier proceedings against …

Asia, International Justice

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Helpless Bosnia and Its Women, 20 Years After Ethnic War

Barbara Crossette

• July 6, 2014

SARAJEVO, Bosnia and Herzegovina — “Please don’t let the world forget us again.” The plea is heard everywhere by men as well as by women in the picturesque Balkan city of Sarajevo, the site of Europe’s most destructive and sadistic conflict in more than half a century. Sarajevo was briefly in the news …

Gender Violence, Human Rights, International Justice, Women

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New Protocols and Policies Tackle Sexual Violence in War

Dulcie Leimbach

• June 19, 2014

As Sunni Muslim extremists first seized strategic cities in Iraq last week, and a United Nations spokesman for the human-rights high commissioner, Navi Pillay, said that rapes had been part of the mayhem, leaving four female victims dead from suicide, the first global conference to end such heinous crimes took place in London. There, …

Child Soldiers, Gender Violence, ICC, International Justice, Women

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Khmer Rouge Practiced Widespread Sexual Attacks on Minorities

Clothilde Le Coz

• June 11, 2014

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Until now, sexual violence against ethnic minorities during the Khmer Rouge era in this country went largely ignored. Now for the first time, the Cambodian Defenders Project, one of the oldest legal aid organizations here, has published first-person accounts of interviews with 105 men and women from ethnic Vietnamese, Khmer …

Asia, Gender Violence, International Justice, Women

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Cambodian Tribunal Confronts New Hurdles

Barbara Crossette

• March 2, 2014

The tangled process of bringing even partial accounting and sentencing to a close in a United Nations-Cambodian joint tribunal judging the leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime that decimated the country’s population in the late 1970s and destroyed all civic and economic life, is on full display again in a purpose-built courtroom near Phnom …

Asia, International Justice

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Congolese Rebel Leader Faces Broad Charges of Sex Crimes

Dulcie Leimbach

• February 13, 2014

The first step to possibly try Bosco Ntaganda, a Congolese warlord born in Rwanda, for war crimes and crimes against humanity, began recently at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Ntaganda, who turned himself in to the court last year by going to the United States Embassy in Rwanda, allegedly committed the crimes …

Africa, Child Soldiers, Gender Violence, ICC, International Justice, Women

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ICC Prosecutor Asks to Postpone Trial Against Kenyan President

Dulcie Leimbach

• December 19, 2013

Fatou Bensouda, the chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court, based in The Hague, has asked for a three-month postponement in the trial for the case against the president of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta. The trial, already postponed several times, was to have started on Feb. 5, 2014. Kenyatta was accused of being an indirect …

Africa, ICC, International Justice

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Top Khmer Rouge Case Ends, With Future Trials Uncertain

Barbara Crossette

• November 20, 2013

Almost four decades after the ideologically crazed communist movement known as the Khmer Rouge fought its way to power in Cambodia, vowing to create a new society but instead leaving up to two million people dead in its wake, arguments in the cases of two top leaders have closed. The verdict of the court …

Asia, International Justice

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Signs of Transformation From the ‘Pink Ghetto of Gender’

Dulcie Leimbach

• October 31, 2013

One question about women’s rights that may never go away is how to ensure that women are represented fairly in large organizations, like the United Nations. For now, work on “gender mainstreaming” may suffice by concentrating on small steps as opposed to devising wholesale solutions. As one expert has described the process, it is …

Gender Violence, International Justice, Peace and Security, Women

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The International Criminal Court Fends Off ‘Ferocious’ Attack, Prosecutor Says

Alice Speri

• September 28, 2013

The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor – Fatou Bensouda – was busy in New York this week, rallying support for the court on the sidelines of the 68th United Nations General Assembly annual debate. The Gambia native, who succeeded Luis Moreno-Ocampo, an Argentine, to head the prosecutor’s office, talked exclusively to PassBlue about her …

Africa, Human Rights, ICC, International Justice, Middle East, Security Council

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Nobody Wants This Bosnian Serb War Criminal

Sierra Ortega

• September 17, 2013

Radislav Krstic was indicted on Oct. 30, 1998, by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia for his role in the July 1995 Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Krstic was the deputy commander and chief of staff of the Bosnian Serb Army from October 1994 to July 1995, when he was promoted to major …

ICC, International Justice

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UN War Crimes Archives Trove Released to International Court

Sierra Ortega

• July 24, 2013

The International Criminal Court has just acquired a huge trove of nearly all the unrestricted records of the United Nations War Crimes Commission and is now making them available to the public. The records include more than 2,240 documents, totaling about 22,000 pages of meeting minutes, working documents, research documents and war crimes trial …

Asia, ICC, International Justice, Women

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Rape as a Weapon of War? It’s Still in Business

Dulcie Leimbach

• July 8, 2013

The newest United Nations Security Council resolution that continues to build a stronger framework to prevent and end sexual violence in conflict and post-conflict situations sends a strong signal that such offenses will be punished as war crimes under international law. The resolution, agreed by a unanimous vote after difficult negotiations, passed on June …