Atrocities in Sudan’s Darfur region are spreading from town to town in an organized campaign of violence that includes mass executions, rape and ethnic targeting, amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court told the UN Security Council on Monday.
Tag Archives: ICC Prosecutor
ICC makes progress in investigating alleged war crimes in Libya
On Monday, the International Criminal Court received a declaration lodged by the Libyan government declaring the country’s acceptance of the ICC’s jurisdiction with respect to alleged crimes in its territory from 2011 to the end of 2027.
ICC chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, was expected to brief the United Nations Security Council Thursday to detail the office’s 29th report which details findings from its’ investigation into crimes in Libya.
However, Khan was unable to make his appearance after being slapped by sanctions from President Donald Trump in February.
Despite obstacles such as the sanctions, the ICC noted that it had seen ” an unprecedented six months of dynamism in our work in the situation in Libya”.
The ICC notably issued its first public arrest warrant for crimes committed in detention facilities in Libya earlier this year.
“There is what can be described as a black box of suffering on the coast of the Mediterranean that nobody has wanted to open. A black box that contains the cries, the ongoing pain, as we speak, of some of the most vulnerable people in both the West and the East of the country”, the statement by the ICC to the UN Security Council noted on the subject of Libyan detention facilities and potential crimes committed there.
Ambassador Christina Markus Lassen, the Permanent Representative of Denmark, commended the ICC prosecutor’s office for their work in Libya by highlighting the unsealed arrest warrants for alleged crimes and efforts to ensure that the voices of victims and survivors are heard.
U.S. sanctions on ICC prosecutor cripple tribunal’s work
The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor has lost access to his email, and his bank accounts have been frozen.
The Hague-based court’s American staffers have been told that if they travel to the U.S. they risk arrest.
Some nongovernmental organizations have stopped working with the ICC and the leaders of one won’t even reply to emails from court officials.
Those are just some of the hurdles facing court staff since U.S. President Donald Trump in February slapped sanctions on its chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, according to interviews with current and former ICC officials, international lawyers and human rights advocates.
The sanctions will “prevent victims from getting access to justice,” said Liz Evenson, international justice director at Human Rights Watch.
Trump sanctioned the court after a panel of ICC judges in November issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant.
Judges found there was reason to believe that the pair may have committed war crimes by restricting humanitarian aid and intentionally targeting civilians in Israel’s war on Gaza.
Staffers and allies of the ICC said the sanctions have made it increasingly difficult for the tribunal to conduct basic tasks, let alone seek justice for victims of war crimes or genocide.
A spokesperson for the ICC and for Khan declined to comment. In February, ICC President Judge Tomoko Akane said that the sanctions “constitute serious attacks against the Court’s States Parties, the rule of law based international order and millions of victims.”
Order targets chief prosecutor
The February order bans Khan and other non-Americans among the ICC’s 900 staff members from entering the U.S., which is not a member of the court. It also threatens any person, institution or company with fines and prison time if they provide Khan with “financial, material, or technological support.”
The sanctions are hampering work on a broad array of investigations, not just the one into Israel’s leaders.
The ICC had been investigating atrocities in Sudan and had issued arrest warrants for former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on charges that include genocide. That probe has ground to a halt even as reports mount of new atrocities in Sudan, according to an attorney representing ICC prosecutor Eric Iverson, who is fighting the sanctions in U.S. courts. Iverson filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration seeking protection from the sanctions.
Iverson “cannot do, what I would describe as, basic lawyer functions,” said Allison Miller, who is representing Iverson in the suit.
American staffers at the organization, like Iverson, have been warned by its attorneys that they risk arrest if they return home to visit family, according to ICC officials. Six senior officials have left the court over concerns about sanctions.
One reason the the court has been hamstrung is that it relies heavily on contractors and non-governmental organizations. Those businesses and groups have curtailed work on behalf of the court because they were concerned about being targeted by U.S. authorities, according to current and former ICC staffers.
Microsoft, for example, cancelled Khan’s email address, forcing the prosecutor to move to Proton Mail, a Swiss email provider, ICC staffers said. His bank accounts in his home country of the U.K. have been blocked.
Microsoft did not respond to a request for comment.
Staffers at an NGO that plays an integral role in the court’s efforts to gather evidence and find witnesses said the group has transferred money out of U.S. bank accounts because they fear it might be seized by the Trump administration.
Senior leadership at two other U.S.-based human rights organizations told the AP that their groups have stopped working with the ICC. A senior staffer at one told the AP that employees have stopped replying to emails from court officials out of fear of triggering a response from the Trump administration.
The cumulative effect of such actions has led ICC staffers to openly wonder whether the organization can survive the Trump administration, according to ICC officials who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisal.
One questioned whether the court would make it through the next four years.
ICC Prosecutor Seeks Arrest Warrants, Senate Border Bill, Scarlett Johansson ChatGPT
The chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court is seeking arrest warrants for top leaders of Hamas and Israel, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Democratic-led Senate will hold a second vote on bipartisan border legislation that failed to pass earlier this year. And Scarlett Johansson says the maker of ChatGPT copied her voice for its new AI personal assistant.
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ICC Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, on the occasion of this year’s International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women
The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (“ICC” or the “Court”) serves as an important legal instrument in the fight against impunity for atrocity crimes
THE HAGUE, Netherlands, November 27, 2020/ — On the occasion of this year’s Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, I join the calls for a world free of violence against women and children.
Women and girls around the world continue to be the victims of unspeakable crimes, from sexual and gender-based violence to harassment, human trafficking, child marriages, and being forced to serve as child soldiers.
Despite progress made in the fight against impunity for such crimes, they remain prevalent. These are crimes that have traditionally gone un-reported and un-punished for too long. Their impact on women and girl victims is profound, with sometimes irreversible physical and mental repercussions. The suffering is also extended to their families and communities.
This annual commemoration offers the international community writ large an opportunity to take stock of the progress made, but also the hurdles and challenges that still stand in the way and which must be addressed.
The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (“ICC” or the “Court”) serves as an important legal instrument in the fight against impunity for atrocity crimes.
Building on my Office’s Policy Paper on Sexual and Gender Based Crimes (“SGBC”) (https://bit.ly/3q6bp2A) and the Policy Paper on Children (https://bit.ly/2VlDSU5), we have sought to systematically investigate and prosecute sexual and gender-based crimes and crimes against or affecting children. The charges we have brought in the Prosecution’s cases and the successes we have secured in court attest to this reality. Much more work remains to be done but we are committed.
My Office will continue to exert all efforts to meet challenges and ensure a measure of justice for the victims of these crimes. Together, with the competent authorities at the national level, we can and must close the impunity gap for violence against women and children, each within our respective complementary mandates.
In the 21st century, violence against women and children is still a stain on our humanity; it must be eliminated for good.
The Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC conducts independent and impartial preliminary examinations, investigations and prosecutions of the crime of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression. Since 2003, the Office has been conducting investigations in multiple situations within the ICC’s jurisdiction, namely in Uganda; the Democratic Republic of the Congo; Darfur, Sudan; the Central African Republic (two distinct situations); Kenya; Libya; Côte d’Ivoire; Mali; Georgia, Burundi Bangladesh/Myanmar and Afghanistan (subject to a pending article 18 deferral request). The Office is also currently conducting preliminary examinations relating to the situations in Bolivia; Colombia; Guinea; Iraq/UK; the Philippines; Nigeria; Ukraine; and Venezuela (I and II), while the situation in Palestine is pending a judicial ruling.
For further details on “preliminary examinations” and “situations and cases” before the Court, click here ), and here ).
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of International Criminal Court (ICC).