Search: Complementarity SAIF GADDAFI
01 Nov While Pursuing International Justice at the ICC, the US and UK Must Ensure Justice at Home
...primary obligation to investigate and prosecute its nationals who commit crimes under international law in Afghanistan, the ICC may not have cause to investigate US citizens. Finally, the ICC must develop a backbone in dealing with powerful countries like the US and UK. The OTP stretched the doctrine of complementarity to its very limits, when it decided that the domestic processes in the UK which led to zero prosecutions, were sufficient to avert an investigation by the court. Similarly, the Court’s decision to “deprioritise” the investigation of the US activities...14 Oct Guest Post: Do All Roads Lead to Rome? Why Ukraine Resorts to Declarations Rather than Ratification of the Rome Statute
...regarding the repercussions of the ad hoc declarations in particular and ratification as a whole. For example, concerns over the new declaration being in breach of Article 5 of the Minsk II agreement which provides pardon and amnesty to those involved in the conflict in the Donbass region. However, under international law such amnesty has consistently been interpreted as excluding international crimes and gross human rights violations. Therefore, if Ukrainian courts are unable or unwilling to investigate and prosecute such crimes, the ICC’s complementarity principle can be activated, as it...
26 Jun The Ljubljana-The Hague Convention: Where are we Now?
...for victims in judicial assistance proceedings (Part VI). The Convention is therefore ambitious in its efforts to bolster the ICC complementarity regime and close the loopholes which have enabled perpetrators of international crimes to evade justice in the past. While the ICC Statute’s silence on the obligations of states to enact implementing legislation led to much debate in academic circles, there is no such ambiguity in the Ljubljana-The Hague Convention. In terms of cooperation, which forms the most substantial component of the Treaty and was the impetus behind it, the...
19 Apr Symposium on the ‘Legacy’ of the USA Sanctions against International Criminal Court Prosecutor Ms Fatou Bensouda and Mr Phakiso Mochochoko
...He placed the blame squarely on three individuals: Sam Shoamanesh, the chef de cabinet to the ICC Prosecutor, Phakiso Mochochoko, the head of jurisdiction, complementarity and cooperation division and the Prosecutor herself, Fatou Bensouda. The USA’s contention with the ICC also stemmed from the Prosecutor’s intention to investigate international crimes allegedly committed in the State of Palestine, which potentially implicates citizens of Israel, a long-time ally of the USA. Two months later, then-President of the USA Donald Trump issued Executive Order 13928, which sought to block the properties of certain...30 Dec Special Double Issue on the ICC
Last year, as I was reading an early draft of the agenda for the ICC’s Review Conference in 2010, I asked myself what I would change about the Rome Statute if I was King of the Assembly of States Parties. My answer was that I would amend Article 17, the complementarity provision, to make a case admissible if a national proceeding did not provide the defendant with due process — an issue I had written about before. (You can find the essay here, if you’re interested.) I then wondered what...24 Jul Gacaca’s End and Its Legacy
...not meant for hearing cases of genocide. But somewhere in the process of retrofitting it for mass atrocity, gacaca appears to have lost its core restorative justice defining qualities. In my upcoming article “Complementarity and Alternative Justice” (to be published in the Oregon Law Review), I explore this dilemma in greater depth. I still believe that there is hope for successfully using traditional alternative justice mechanisms to deal with gross human rights violations. For that, a better calibrated hybridization will be necessary. Posterity may not ultimately view gacaca as the...27 Jul Compensating Iraqi Victims of the US Military
...activity during war. (In the case of the UK trial, they are doing so in accordance with the complementarity provisions of the ICC statute.) By additionally compensating victims for criminal killings and for those in which no criminal charges are brought, we convey a sense of responsibility and remorse in terms that are culturally understood. But better to “refresh” training so that fewer mistakes are made in the first place. In the case of detainees, as I argued earlier this week, having clearly defined parameters of treatment — set down...
07 Apr The Growing Imperative to Recognize and Codify Gender Apartheid: Demonstrating the Need and Responding to Critics (Part II)
...Similarly, Professor Bennoune has noted that “the persecution approach fails to adequately implicate the institutionalized and ideological nature of the abuses in question or reflect on the responsibilities of other international actors to respond appropriately.” This argument also fails to recognize the complementarity between gender apartheid and gender persecution. Indeed, the crimes of apartheid and persecution already co-exist in the Rome Statute and, more broadly, in international law. The Taliban’s institutionalized regime of systematic gender-based oppression is similar to the South African apartheid regime, where racial discrimination and the doctrine...
20 May Punishing Atrocities Symposium: Fairness and Accountability in International Criminal Law
...The discussion additionally considers how procedural developments at international tribunals can affect domestic trials for atrocities under the ICC’s complementarity framework. The book then introduces two other dimensions of fairness. One is the use of modes of criminal responsibility that are essential to reaching individuals who do not physically perpetrate crimes, but that also can be applied too expansively. The book discusses, for example, how broad use of modes of liability, such as the ICTY’s application of joint criminal enterprise, can collide with principles of personal responsibility. The other dimension...
09 May Why Does the United States Continue to Oppose International Courts?
...investigate individual suspects and seek indictments against them as long as they fall under the subject matter jurisdiction defined by the Rome Statute. The ICC’s process is characterized by deferential complementarity. Its primary duty is to ensure that national court systems are given sufficient opportunity to “investigate and prosecute individuals suspected of committing atrocity crimes referred to the Court” (p. 75). The ICC takes initiative only after national courts are unwilling or unable to carry out proper investigations or prosecutions. After all, “the long-term objective is to strengthen the capabilities...