Search: palestine icc

...is also true of how it views the world. Case in point: sanctions levied against African staff at the International Criminal Court (ICC).’       I have worked on and followed the ICC since it initiated its first investigation in Africa in 2004. With the exception of treaty negotiation and immediate treaty signature, the US government has always demonstrated hostility towards the ICC, from withdrawing its signature to the statute to insisting on the so-called Bilateral Immunity Agreements to keeping its citizens beyond the reach of the ICC as soon as it...

link their individual conduct to specific missile strikes by furnishing the ICC judges with the linkage evidence. While it is not possible to review the content of the ICC Prosecutor’s application, which remains confidential, one may speculate that the ICC Prosecutor relied to a great extent on intelligence information to demonstrate that both suspects directed and coordinated the campaign of missile strikes. Domestic Proceedings It is worth mentioning that Ukrainian authorities earlier initiated proceedings in absentia against the two generals who are subject to the ICC arrest warrants. In January...

miss the symposium post at Justice in Conflict by Kate Gibson.] The ICC Prosecutor is first and foremost a leader, who needs to stimulate a work culture that empowers personnel in a safe and supportive environment – so that they can investigate and prosecute with excellence. Not only must the next ICC Prosecutor effectively tackle all forms of misconduct, they must also have a clean record. In December, the ICC Staff Union Council called on States Parties to give full meaning to the provisions on high moral character of elected...

...ICC Statute, the possibility of engaging in such type of selection seems to be inconsistent with the overall structure of Article 53. Under Article 53(1) of the ICC Statute the Prosecution’s assessment is confined to jurisdiction, admissibility, and interests of justice. No additional criteria are contemplated. Following a positive determination of the listed factors, the Prosecutor ‘shall’ initiate an investigation (Article 53(1) of the ICC Statute). The term ‘shall’ does not appear to allow for any room for additional discretion for the Prosecutor based on other possible factors, including those...

argued elsewhere, the bar for international criminal justice good manners is not so low as to require fawning praise of the Biden administration for revoking EO 13928 and lifting sanctions against Ms Bensouda and Mr Mochochoko. If any praise should be due, it should be because of how the USA handles its relationship with the ICC going forward. As Dianne Marie Amann argued shortly after EO 13928 was revoked, ‘[E]ven as today’s recission allows resumed assistance to the ICC, the administration’s action also must spur an overt commitment that U.S.-ICC...

...that Gaddafi would be focussed on the threat to his life from NATO bombing and rebel advances rather than the threat of spending a few years in the Hague as a result of the ICC arrest warrants? As it stands, we have literally zero evidence that the ICC warrants have determined or persuaded his actions. Gaddafi has not said, for example: “If it wasn’t for the ICC warrant, I would leave” or “A condition of peace is that the ICC drop its arrest warrant against me.” Even if he had...

...the ICC determine whether it had committed an act of aggression? My bet is that it would go with the legal body in a heartbeat — which indicates, again, that the problem is not the definition of aggression, but the fact that the definition would not give the US absolute control over the ICC’s docket. And remember, only one of the options presently under consideration by the SWG would allow the ICC to prosecute an act of aggression proprio motu. Other options would condition the ICC’s jurisdiction on the General...

I’ve argued for the past couple of years that the ICC should open a formal investigation into the situation in Colombia, because it is a non-African situation that satisfies most, if not all, of my criteria for situational gravity: (1) crimes committed with government involvement; (2) systematic criminality; (3) socially alarming crimes such as enforced disappearance and torture. Here is a snippet from a June 2009 report by the American NGOs Coalition for the International Criminal Court (AMICC): In response to FARC attacks, landholders and drug dealers organized in 1997...

for the OTP to invoke Article 19(3) and seek a ruling on the issue of the ICC’s jurisdiction over the Situation in the Philippines. Invoking Article 19(3) would not be unprecedented. In fact, the OTP has invoked this provision twice to clarify the ICC’s jurisdiction: first with respect to the international crimes allegedly committed against the Rohingya in Myanmar that spilled over into Bangladesh (see the decision here, with Judge Perrin de Brichambaut’s partially dissenting opinion here) and second with respect to the Situation in Palestine (see the decision here,...

...practices for comparable charges between the ICC and national courts. Without such standardisation, accused persons might prefer to be prosecuted by the ICC rather than national courts, yet the ICC lacks the capacity to handle all cases. Therefore, more standardised sentencing practices between the ICC and national courts should be considered to reduce these disparities. Defences  Kwoyelo, like Ongwen, argued that he was abducted by the LRA as a child, indoctrinated, and forced to commit crimes under duress (Kwoyelo Judgment para 111). However, Uganda’s criminal law does not recognise duress...

expressivist functions of condemnation and non-acquiescence. Ultimately, it would call into question the point of having the ICC in the first place. Focusing only on investigations that align with immediate state interests may elicit short-term cooperation. However, those are the cases most likely to be viable in domestic courts—whether in the host state (perhaps with external support), or in a third state. The ICC’s marginal contribution in such contexts is likely to be minimal. Furthermore, there is only minimal evidence of the ICC’s capacity to deter non-state actors from committing...

...Ukraine. While even Putin has been credited with using the language of international law to justify his invasion of a sovereign nation (albeit disingenuously), the Obama administration has eschewed invoking the ICC in its list of potential solutions to the Russian invasion of Crimea and Eastern Ukraine. Even after The Ukraine declared an acceptance of ICC jurisdiction under Article 12.3 of The Rome Statute, the White House responded with silence. Recent developments at the ICC have not served to placate American concerns. Though the ICC has tried its best to...