Search: extraterritorial sanctions

...genocide, which is enshrined in the Genocide Convention. He stated: States Parties confirm that genocide whether committed in time of peace or war, is a crime under international law that they undertake to prevent and punish … A State Party may choose from among a range of measures – diplomatic pressure, economic sanctions, judicial initiatives, or the use of military force – to undertake to prevent or punish genocide. But the State Party’s choice is necessarily discretionary. (Quoted in William Schabas, Genocide in International Law, p. 496) Third: The Future...

...lower mental states such as dolus eventualis or recklessness? I worry about this argument. And here’s why. If intent = recklessness, then all cases of legitimate collateral damage would count as violations of the principle of distinction, because in collateral damage cases the attacker kills the civilians with knowledge that the civilians will die. And the rule against disproportionate attacks sanctions this behavior as long as the collateral damage is not disproportionate and the attack is aimed at a legitimate military target. But if intent = recklessness, then I see...

...or prosecute Americans’ and thereafter the US issued an Executive Order targeting senior personnel of the ICC, including the prosecutor herself, Fatou Bensouda, from The Gambia  with serious financial and travel sanctions.  One of the first acts of Mr. Khan upon becoming Prosecutor in 2021 was to “deprioritize” the investigation into American forces crimes and instead focus on the crimes allegedly committed by the Taliban and the Islamic State in Khorasan Province , an act seen in many places as capitulation to US pressure.  Reprising the US playbook, Russia has...

...Syria. Foreign Policy outlines the options for Syria, in case the plan does not succeed. According to its Foreign Minister, William Hague, the UK may seek a Security Council decision referring Assad to the ICC. In a Reuter’s exclusive, China’s ZTE trading firm had planned on selling $10.5 million (€8 millon) worth of embargoed computing equipment to Iran, shedding some light on how Iran is able to get American tech products despite sanctions. The Philippine Navy is in a standoff with Chinese ships. Colombia’s foreign minister reports that Venezuelan President...

...whether a specific weapons part was used to commit a specific violation. It is the very relationship itself between company and state that enables, among other things, the systemic violation of Palestinians’ right to self-determination. And as Albanese points out, the systemic nature of this violation invalidates ‘paternalistic’ arguments about the economic benefits of continued engagement with Israel’s occupation regime. The response to Albanese’s report has confirmed its significance. Nine days after Albanese filed the report, the US government announced it was imposing sanctions on her for ‘writing threatening letters...

...however, these doctrines were expressions or applications of the broader concept of self-preservation, which Verdebout admits, was recognized as a fundamental right of states. To Verdebout, this confirms the core claim of the book, which is that pre-1914 international law was not indifferent towards the question of the use of force. For instance, on pages 204-205, Verdebout notes that in all the cases of intervention surveyed in her book, the use of force was “presented as sanctions of law – i.e., as the exercise of the right of self-preservation.” This,...

...58] Operation Enduring Freedom, which began in Afghanistan shortly after the 9/11 attacks, was a mission to kill and capture “high value” al Qaeda and Taliban members and destroy the safe havens from which al Qaeda planned and directed the 9/11 attacks. The interrogation techniques were approved in the context of an armed conflict with Afghanistan, which the United States government saw as (at least initially) the main front of the so-called “War on Terror.” For instance, the 1 August 2002 “Bybee Memo” legally sanctions “enhanced interrogation techniques” “in the...

...landscape of international criminal law in Africa. For example, the Annex suggests the creation of an AU – ICC liason office and AU hybrid courts with jurisdiction over crimes within the Rome Statue and Geneva Conventions. If implemented these recommendations would be a significant step towards a stronger AU. I’ve blogged here about the AU’s increasing use of sanctions, and have watched with interest the growing (but not always harmonious) relationship between the AU’s Peace and Security Council and the UN Security Council, as illustrated by differences of opinion on...

As readers no doubt know, Fatou Bensouda announced yesterday that the OTP is opening a formal investigation into the situation in Palestine. Doing so was a foregone conclusion, given the Pre-Trial Chamber’s recent decision that the ICC has jurisdiction over crimes committed in Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem. Regardless, even if the bulk of the work will fall to her successor, Karim Khan, Bensouda deserves credit for not being cowed by Israel’s ridiculous allegations of anti-semitism or by the US’s indefensible sanctions against her, which the Biden administration...

...Conclusion President Trump represents an existential threat to the international legal order. In facing such challenges, small States–who lack the economic weight to exert countermeasures and reprisals against potential sanctions, as is the case of Panama– must resort to international law and multilateral diplomacy, particularly when dealing with threats against their own territorial integrity and political independence. In situations such as this, time is of the essence. Photo attribution: “ In the Panama Canal, 1994 ” from Family collection of Infrogmation of New Orleans is licenced under CC BY-SA 4.0...

...as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s efforts to obtain full membership at the UN) is “pure diplomatic terrorism” peaceful Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) efforts are economic terrorism; legal work and engagement with international mechanisms is legal terrorism; and those who do such work are “Terrorists in Suits.” Perhaps, for Israel, even writing this article or any similar intellectual exercise is intellectual terrorism. Moreover, for Israel, any criticism of its human rights violations is antisemitism. Even calling Israel’s regime by its name and the accurate legal characterization, i.e., “apartheid,” is antisemitic. Likewise,...

...document the suffering of Palestinians as well as Israel’s breaches of international law. They do so at great personal risk, with special note to Albanese who is routinely threatened in the most vile ways by allies of Israel (including the US State Department which either recklessly or deliberately smeared her this past week). Their recommendations bear repeating here: An arms embargo and economic sanctions levelled against Israel; Support for South Africa’s resort to the UNSC under art 94(2) of the UN Charter; Lobbying Karim Khan to pursue arrest warrants for...