Thursday, February 10, 2011
If you have not heard yet, former President of the United States George W. Bush cancelled a trip to Switzerland last Sunday under peculiar circumstances. Officially, it is due to security reasons relating to eventual protests against the acts of torture, such as waterboarding, committed by U.S. officials under his Administration and to which he [...]
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
The Charles Taylor trial is coming to an end over at the Special Court for Sierra Leone, with one (final?) dramatic rebound in judicial proceedings already familiar with drama (see my previous post on Naomi Campbell’s rather bizarre testimony). From BBC News: A lawyer for Liberian ex-President Charles Taylor has walked out of court during [...]
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
The United Nations Special Tribunal for Lebanon, tasked with investigating and judging those responsible for the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, met yesterday to define some key legal terms, not least of which to determine what constitutes an “act of terrorism.” From the Associated Press: Lawyers and judges at a U.N.-backed tribunal [...]
Thursday, February 3, 2011
The Economist has published about two weeks ago a very interesting piece on the use of rape as a weapon of war, in the past and present. It’s worthwhile reading for anyone interested. Here’s an excerpt: Rape in war is as old as war itself. After the sack of Rome 16 centuries ago Saint Augustine [...]
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Callixte Mbarushimana, the FDLR leader wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes allegedly committed in the Kivus in 2009, was transferred by the French authorities to The Hague yesterday. See the Jurist report here. Callixte Mbarushimana is the fifth person to be arrested following the issuance of an arrest warrant by the International Criminal [...]
A letter to the International Herald Tribune (published on the New York Times website) has caught my attention. The author writes: History shows that one corrupt regime is usually followed by another. This is so because corrupt countries are often given no chance to build up bureaucracies that can contain corruption. Hence, revolutions tend to [...]
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Should two former dictators, the Tunisian Ben Ali and the Haitian “Baby Doc” Duvalier, face trial in front of an international tribunal such as the International Criminal Court? The idea has been discussed, albeit briefly, especially in the case of Ben Ali following his remarkable downfall caused by what is now known as the Jasmine [...]
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
After Callixte Mbarushimana’s failure to stop the French authorities from transferring him to The Hague, Nicholas Kaufmann, his lawyer, has a new trick up his sleeve to try to get his client released: contesting the validity of the arrest warrant that was issued on 28 September 2010. We are not yet even close to the [...]
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
After Callixte Mbarushimana’s failure to stop the French authorities from transferring him to The Hague, Nicholas Kaufmann, his lawyer, has a new trick up his sleeve to try to get his client released: contesting the validity of the arrest warrant that was issued on 28 September 2010. We are not yet even close to the [...]
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
David Bosco is raising the alarm on his excellent blog The Multilateralist over at Foreign Policy on some potentially very bad news for the international criminal justice project, regarding the ICC’s difficulties in Africa and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon’s delicate mission in an explosive-as-ever Lebanon. The post is not very long, so it is difficult for [...]
