A recurring criticism of the ICC is that it has little to show for its first 10 years -- just one conviction -- and has cost an inordinate amount of money. Here, for example, are the opening paragraphs of Eric Posner's recent attack on the Court in the Wall Street Journal, entitled "The Absurd International Criminal Court": Ten years ago, on...
Reports say that over 200 civilians have been massacred in execution-style killings in the Hama region of Syria after government forces bombarded the area with helicopter gunships and tanks yesterday. Following talks with the International Olympic Committee, for the first time Saudi Arabia will send female athletes to London to compete in this year's Olympic Games. Human Rights Watch points out...
Syria has been hit by a wave of defections, with the latest--that of the ambassador to Iraq--coming yesterday. Kofi Annan has urged the UN to "reunite" regarding plans moving forward with Syria, suggesting "consequences" were Syria not to comply with the latest ceasefire calls. A human rights group, Women Under Siege, has reported that sexual violence is being used in Syria as a weapon...
As the rare American legal academic who has both a JD and a PhD in law (the latter, of course, from a law school outside the U.S.), I think this is an exciting development, for all the reasons that Jason Mazzone laid out nicely last year at Balkinization. I imagine Yale's PhD will be very popular, particularly given that the...
The Independent has the story: European governments, including Britain's, have received legal opinion from a leading international counsel who argues they would be fully within their rights to ban trade with Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. The formal opinion from James Crawford, professor of international law at Cambridge University, is likely to inject fresh momentum into campaigns in the United...
Ansar Dine, an al-Qaeda linked group, has destroyed more shrines at a mosque in Timbuktu, Mali, and vowed to continue destroying UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Foreign Policy discusses the issue further here and offers a slideshow of images of the wreckage here. Saudi Arabia has now made it official: it will not be sending female athletes to compete in this year's...
The International Criminal Court handed down the sentence for Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, who received 14 years' imprisonment for conscripting, enlisting and using children under the age of 15 to participate actively in hostilities. The time since March 16, 2006 that he has spent in detention will be deducted from his sentence. Judge Odio Benito wrote a separate and dissenting decision...
Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, the first person convicted at the ICC, has been sentenced to fourteen years in prison. From the Court's press release: Today, Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court (ICC) sentenced Thomas Lubanga Dyilo to a total period of 14 years of imprisonment. The Chamber, composed of Judge Adrian Fulford, Judge Elizabeth Odio Benito and Judge René Blattmann,...
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Over at the St. John's Center for Law and Religion Forum, my colleague Mark Movsesian has posted a fascinating conversation with Professor Andrew Preston (Cambridge), author of Sword of the Spirit, Shield of the Faith. Preston's book examines the role faith has played in the conduct of U.S. foreign and military policy over the course of our history. In this...
Survivors of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre re-enacted their escape in Bosnia this weekend ahead of Ratko Mladic's trial, which resumed today at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague. Tomorrow, the International Criminal Court will deliver the sentence and reparations order for Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, convicted March 14, 2012 of conscripting and enlisting child soldiers and using them to...
Conferences & events On Wednesday July 11, the Brookings Institution is organizing Translating Human Rights into Practice: A Conversation on the United Nations Human Rights Council in the Saul/Zilkha Rooms, 1775 Massachusetts Ave, NW, Washington, DC. For more information and registration, please click here. On July 18, the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at American University, Washington College of Law, is organizing...
