In today's weekly news wrap, Jessica flagged an article that said Saif was due to appear in court in Tripoli for the beginning of the pre-trial phase of the case against him, al-Senussi, and 36 (!) other defendants. The article was inaccurate, and was later updated to make clear that Saif was appearing in Zintan on unrelated charges -- not...
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi will join 37 former regime members in a pre-trial session in Tripoli over charges of murder and crimes allegedly committed during 2011 civil war. Despite Russia's claims that the UN report on chemical weapons in Syria is biased, the UN claims the evidence that rockets were used containing sarin gas is indisputable. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has pledged to...
An ICC chamber, at the request of the ICC Prosecutor, has issued a decision "remind[ing]" U.S. authorities of the two Arrest Warrants issued by the ICC, and "invit[ing]" U.S. authorities to apprehend Bashir and turn him over to the ICC. This is not exactly surprising. Still, it is worth noting that the ICC chamber reviews the legal landscape and it concludes (rightly...
Supporters of Bangladesh's largest Islamic party have clashed with police amid a nationwide strike called to protest against the death sentence awarded to one of its senior leaders for war crimes. A nun working with survivors of displacement and abuse by the Lord’s Resistance Army in a remote corner of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been awarded the world’s...
According to Reuters, the US is dropping hints that it will grant Omar al-Bashir a visa to travel the UN for the annual meeting of the General Assembly: A senior State Department official said Bashir would "not receive a warm welcome" if he were to travel to the U.N. meeting. The official said Bashir had applied for a visa to attend...
UN investigators found "clear and convincing evidence'' that chemical weapons were used on a relatively large scale in an attack last month in Syria that killed hundreds of people though the report did not say who launched the attack in rebel-held Damascus suburbs. Kenya is canvassing support for a possible walk-out by African states from the ICC, whose prosecution of elected Kenyan leaders has revived accusations on the...
Does anyone have a copy of Bin Cheng's article "International Law in the United Nations," 8 Yearbook of World Affairs 170 (1954)? It's not available online, and our library doesn't have that journal...
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power and the U.S. State Department are using unequivocal language to condemn Sudan's President Omar Bashir's application for a visa to attend the U.N. General Assembly meetings in New York. But this tough talk is probably just hot air, since it is likely the U.S. is going to grant him the visa. Here is...
UN chemical weapons inspectors have handed their report into an alleged gas attack in Syria to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Secretary Ban stated in a UN meeting that an expert team's report will likely confirm the use of chemical weapons in the August 21 attack on Damascus. At PhD Studies in Human Rights, a post discusses Secretary Ban's comments and the...
On both twitter and the blog, readers seem to have inferred from my previous post that I'm somehow disappointed that the US-Russia chemical-weapons deal does not automatically allow force for noncompliance. I suppose that's my fault; I tend to assume when I write that readers have at least some prior knowledge of my politics. So let me be clear: I am...
That's the tally in light of the deal that has been reached regarding Syria's chemical weapons. The US position was that any agreement had to permit the use of force against Syria in case of noncompliance. But the US-Russian deal simply calls for the Security Council to consider the consequences of noncompliance under Chapter VII; it does not commit the...
