Ending impunity for serious crimes

Bravo for Justice!

Today has been a particularly exciting day for international criminal law and the national prosecution of serious crimes. National prosecutions of crimes against humanity and other 'core' international crimes is necessary under the complementarity principle of the Rome Statute, which clearly states that national courts have the primary responsibility for trying these crimes. The issue of complementarity has been one of the themes under disussion at the ICC Kampala Conference.

1. the first mention goes to the ICTY, established by a security council resolution and now winding up its work as other national war crimes tribunals take over the work (such as the mixed Supreme Court of Kosovo and BiH). In the largest case ever to come before the Tribunal, the judges found the accused guilty of genocide - amongst 7 other things and ordered two life sentences. The finding of genocide for the events in Srebenica is particularly important given the Karadzic trial. A summary of the decision in Popovic et al can be found here: http://www.icty.org/x/cases/popovic/tjug/en/100610summary.pdf

2. Now if that wasn't enough excitement, latin american national courts have been breaking new ground in prosecuting former high ranking military officials for crimes committed during dictatorships and peace time. Spearheaded by Chile, Argentina and Colombia are following suit. The Tribunal Oral Federal 1 de Mar del Plata, condemned the former commander of a secret detention center (La Cueva) to life imprisonment for inter alia 32 kidnappings, 2 murders and 5 rapes as crimes against humanity. This is a landmark decision given the widespread gender based crimes committed during the Argentine Dirty War and the impunity that has reigned since the laws of debida obediencia and punto final. Argentine national courts have since held that amnesty laws were illegal and have been holding trials to ensure those responsible for approx 30,000 forced disappearances, torture in the various detention centres, including La Esma, and now gender based crimes, are held to account.

More info here: http://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/elpais/1-147292-2010-06-10.html

3. Although much attention has been furnished on the situation in Colombia during the Kampala Conference in relation to investigation by the ICC, (see this document on victims and reparations by Eduardo Pizarro Leongómez http://www.icc-cpi.int/iccdocs/asp_docs/RC2010/Stocktaking/V-M.2.Doc%20CNRR-Pizarro.pdf), front page news in Colombia has been focusing on the conviction of Colonel Luis Alfonso Plazas Vega for the disappearances of 11 civilians during the attack on the Palacio de Justicia in 1985. This event took place in the context of a siege on the Colombian Supreme Court in which members of a guerilla group took the court hostage. After a military raid, all the guerillas were killed as well as 11 of the Supreme Court Justices. Let's hope that this trial leads to true prosecutions for more recent events, including prosecution of those responsible for widespread gender based violence perpetrated in the context of an armed conflict involving the Farc, paramilitaries and the armed forces. Unbelievably, the Office for the attorney general *procurador general* which is responsible for ensuring compliance with human rights is appealing the decision.

more info here:
(http://www.elespectador.com/noticias/judicial/articulo-207329-condenan-30-anos-de-prision-coronel-r-plazas-holocausto-del-palacio).

4. Now to another dear little corner of the world: the Saville Report on Northern Ireland, has been published after 12 years! The report finds that the deaths of civilians, shot by British soldiers, were unlawful. Not a shocker really. Thirteen unarmed civilians, all of them male, were shot dead at a civil rights march in the Bogside area of Derry in January 1972. A 14th man died of his wounds several months later. Pressure will now be placed on the Public Prosecution Service to prosecute the soldiers responsible.

more info: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jun/10/bloody-sunday-inquiry-northern-ireland

5. Finally, a quick mention about a decision of the Grand Chamber in Kononov v. Latvia (17 May 2010) in which the Court found that the prosecution of Kononov for war crimes in the Latvian Courts did not violate Article 7 of the Convention, given that war crimes were well established by the 1940s in international law. Convictions can therefore be based in international law, mening that national law is not acting in an ex post facto manner. The Court also highlighted that gender based crimes, specifically the protection of pregnant women, has been recognised in international law since 1863. The decision means that war criminals will be held accountable under international legal standards and confirms the trend in international customary law to hold amnesties unaccountable.

That's all for now.