Courts & Tribunals

As one commenter to Ken's post on the draft UN Security Council Resolution notes, there will be no Security Council referral to the ICC on Syria. Currently there is one paragraph in the draft resolution expressing the Security Council's "strong conviction that those individuals responsible for the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian Arab Republic should be held accountable;"  That's not...

Wow! I kind of assumed all the posturing and tough talk from U.S. and ICC officials would scare off Sudan's President Bashir from visiting NY next week to address the UN General Assembly.  But it appears he really is coming. Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, wanted by the International Criminal Court on genocide charges, said on Sunday he planned to attend...

Recent commentary on Bashir’s request for a US visa to attend the 68th General Assembly has focused on US obligations to grant Bashir a visa under Section 11 of the UN – US Headquarters Agreement. See Julian's post here. Pursuant to this agreement, there is little doubt that the US must permit his transit to the UN despite the fact that...

I've been following Argentina's travails in the U.S. courts with great interest, even penning an oped on the subject back in January on their standoff with sovereign debt creditors in Ghana.  Argentina and the so-called "holdout" creditors have been battling out their dispute in the federal courts of New York for years.  So it is interesting to note that Argentina...

In other Latin American news, Venezuela's withdrawal from the American Convention of Human Rights went into effect this week, drawing the condemnations of various human rights groups. The withdrawal was one of the Hugo Chavez's last decisions as President, however, and seems to have been sparked by dissatisfaction with decisions by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Venezuela's withdrawal from the...

[Efrat Bouganim-Shaag, LL.B, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2012); Yael Naggan, LL.B and B.A. in International Relations graduate from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2013)] Last February, a report by the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea concluded that there are “nine patterns of violation” of rights, which "may amount to crimes...