In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Courts & Tribunals

30 Apr

[Clive Baldwin is a senior legal advisor at Human Rights Watch.] The use of the word ‘apartheid’  in its legal meaning  can sometimes, but not always, generate considerable power and attention. The related crime against humanity of persecution never seems to attract the same interest.   Our finding in 2020 that the Myanmar authorities  were committing the crime against humanity of apartheid against ethnic Rohingya...

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27 Apr

[Alexander Wolffenbuttel is a Ph.D. student in International Law at the Graduate Institute Geneva. He is a former legal consultant at the International Criminal Court and a former apprentice at Sjöcrona van Stigt advocaten defending Oleg Pulatov. The opinions and comments expressed in this publication are those of the author.] Photo credit: BBC   MH-17 Trial: U.S. Satellite Imagery and Foreign Confidential Intelligence...

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26 Apr

[Parisa Zangeneh is a PhD student at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, National University of Ireland, Galway, where she  is a recipient of the Hardiman Scholarship.] Photo: Parisa Zangeneh Monique Cormier’s recent book focuses on a problem that has plagued the International Criminal Court (ICC, Court) since its inception: its potential (in)ability to exercise jurisdiction over nationals of non-States Parties (NSPs)...

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22 Apr

[Stephen A. Lamony (LL.M) is an International Lawyer, Ex-Senior Foreign Policy Advisor, Ex-Senior United Nations Advocate for Africa-Amnesty International and Ex- Head of Advocacy and Policy, Coalition for the International Criminal Court.] Introduction The United States has long had the reputation as the world leader and has prided itself on leading the world in support of human rights. A longstanding stain on the United States’ record, however, has been its...

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22 Apr

[Rashmi Dharia is a doctoral candidate at Sciences Po Law School, Paris.] As of 2nd April 2021, the Biden administration rescinded the sanctions that had been imposed by Executive Order 13928 of 11th June 2020 and its follow-up on 2nd September 2020 on ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and the Head of the Jurisdiction, Complementarity and Co-operation Division Mr Phakiso Mochochoko. The US-ICC relationship looks all set to ‘go back’ from...

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21 Apr

[Satang Nabaneh is a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria, and the Founder and Executive Director of Law Hub Gambia. She currently pursues research interests including international human rights law and monitoring mechanisms, democratization in Africa, and Gambian constitutional law.] On September 2, 2020, the Trump administration announced that the United States had designated the International Criminal Court (ICC)...

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21 Apr

[Chidi Anselm Odinkalu is Senior Manager for Africa with the Open Society Justice Initiative. He received his Ph.D. in law from the London School of Economics & Political Science and is a former Chair of Nigeria’s National Human Rights Commission.] The invocation of sanctions against senior officials of the International Criminal Court (ICC) by the Trump administration in 2020, has been the subject of considerable examination and...

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20 Apr

[Nabil M. Orina is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Centre of Excellence for International Courts (iCourts), Faculty of Law, University of Copenhagen. He holds a PhD from City University of Hong Kong.] President Trump’s sanctions against the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (the Court), Fatou Bensouda and the Head of Jurisdiction, Complementarity and Cooperation Division, Phakiso Mochochoko have rightly attracted condemnation from states as well...

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20 Apr

[Sharon Nakandha is a Program Officer with the Africa Regional Office of the Open Society Foundations.] ‘The United States will use any means necessary to protect our citizens and those of our allies from unjust prosecution by this illegitimate court. We will not cooperate with the ICC. We will provide no assistance to the ICC and we certainly will not join...

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19 Apr

[Oumar Ba is an Assistant Professor of International Relations at Morehouse College.] On 2 April 2021, President Biden rescinded the sanctions that the Trump administration had imposed on Fatou Bensouda and Phakiso Mochochoko – the two most senior African officials in the ICC’s Office of the Prosecutor. These sanctions were preceded by visa restrictions on ICC personnel in 2019 and a visa ban on Bensouda. Sanction regimes...

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19 Apr

[Owiso Owiso is a Doctoral Researcher in Public International Law at the University of Luxembourg.] Those Sanctioned… and Those Not Sanctioned The Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) of the International Criminal Court (ICC) as currently structured has five persons at the helm, the Prosecutor, Deputy Prosecutor and three division directors (investigations; jurisdiction, complementarity and cooperation (JCCD); and prosecutions). Two of these persons, the Prosecutor Ms Fatou...

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19 Apr

[Sharon Nakandha is a Program Officer with the Africa Regional Office of the Open Society Foundations and Owiso Owiso is a Doctoral Researcher in Public International Law at the University of Luxembourg.] In March 2020, following a decision of the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) which authorised the Prosecutor to open an investigation in Afghanistan, Mike Pompeo, then-Secretary of State of the United...

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