Search: extraterritorial sanctions

...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...

...the isolated state might conduct a nuclear test or a missile launch ahead of a ruling party meeting in May. Police in the Pakistani city of Karachi have arrested an al Qaeda operative who is on the United Nations sanctions list, a police official said on Friday. Indonesia on Friday defended its use of the death penalty for drug traffickers, just days after its representative was jeered at a U.N. narcotics conference, citing a steep rise in demand and consumption in Southeast Asia’s most populous country. Europe Finland’s highest administrative...

...the international rule of law, sanctions against the International Criminal Court and UN individuals, combined with the resources crisis facing multilateral institutions, are very concerning. The resource crisis makes child-specific expertise incredibly precarious. An OHCHR representative explained that investigative bodies are operating at a maximum of 60% of their mandated capacity. Within this scarcity, specialized roles related to child rights are often the first to disappear. Child rights expertise remains vested in individual positions rather than embedded in institutional practice – when experts leave, their knowledge disappears with them. Participants...

...no lack of ability or willingness to prosecute but there has been a conscious inclusive democratic decision to prioritize other forms of accountability than full or conventional criminal sanctions. Overall, my stance is that human rights tribunals need to develop techniques of adjudication that permit a constructive dialogue with domestic political and legal institutions and practices of transitional justice, a dialogue sensitive to context and the considerations that affect the relative legitimacy of transnational tribunals and domestic political and legal actors in addressing questions of justice related to political conflict....

...rejecting its claim that the crimes committed in Venezuela resulted from the imposition of U.S. sanctions, as this lacked evidentiary basis (para. 7). If the speculations on a sealed ICC warrant are correct, one may wonder what the prospects are of Maduro being surrendered to The Hague. The U.S. is not a party to the Rome Statute and the Court can only invite non-state parties to collaborate (para. 32) through an arrest warrant referral, but cannot oblige execution (Article 59 of the Rome Statute). It is also safe to suppose...

...to it in its battle against Japanese whaling in the Southern Ocean. The case raises interesting questions about the jurisdiction of US Courts over the activities of a vessel, flying the Australian flag but owned by a US incorporated society, in the Southern Ocean. At the SHARES blog, a new post outlines shared responsibility in UN targeted sanctions. Rosa Brooks shares some of her thoughts at Foreign Policy on sovereignty and imminence in Obama’s drone war. ASIL has a new Insight on China’s Straight Baseline Claim: Senkaku (Diaoyu) Islands (.pdf)....

...with the UN Charter framework, I am led to the conclusion that aggression cannot be defined as a crime under international law at this time. But this should not be too troubling. The Security Council continues to have the authority under Article 39 to find that a state has committed an act of aggression. And the Council continues to have the authority to impose sanctions on the offending state. And it should not be forgotten that individuals can be held personally accountable for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide....

...under customary international law, and many are widely recognised as being subject to universal jurisdiction. There is an obligation upon all states to enact effective penal sanctions in domestic law and an obligation to search for and to try or extradite persons suspected of grave breaches on the basis of universal jurisdiction, regardless of the nationality of the perpetrator.’ (Al-Haq, para 33) The grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions documented in the Goldstone Report are alleged to constitute war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity. The UN General Assembly resolution...

...reaches 40. This means that many Israelis, if not themselves suspected of criminal acts, are potential sources of information regarding events in Gaza and the West Bank – whether a bomb dropped on a café, or tank and rifle fire directed at Palestinians seeking food or medical assistance. Israelis, understandably, want and like to travel – whether to Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Africa, Europe or Latin America. If governments were serious about sanctions and about their international duty to prevent and to punish genocide and to bring an end...

...in which judicial independence has been, or is being, eroded across the EU.  Illustrating the Range of Judicial Independence Issues Adjudicated Litigation has commonly responded to frontal attacks on judges’ independence, such as arbitrary dismissals, unfounded disciplinary sanctions, or even the growing criminalization of the judicial role, often as reprisals against judges exercising independence or opposing powerful actors abuse of power. Many cases involving Poland, such as Dolińska-Ficek and Ozimekf v Poland, challenged the arbitrary removal of Polish judges and their replacement by ‘neo judges’ on the judicial council, which...

...symposium. Our first contributor is Ramesh Thakur, Distinguished Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, and Professor of Political Science at the University of Waterloo, Canada. Professor Thakur’s article, ‘ Law, Legitimacy and United Nations’, identifies a gap between law and legitimacy in the practice of the United Nations and posits that this is a serious challenge to the authority of the organisation. Thakur detects this ‘ legitimacy deficit ’ with respect to a number of areas. He points to the difficulties with international sanctions regimes, the concerns regarding...