Sudan| Darfur crimes continue, ICC Prosecutor in briefing to Security Council
Luis Moreno-Ocampo, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), speaks to reporters following his briefing to the Security Council on the situation in Sudan.
In his briefing to the Security Council on 4 December, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) said indiscriminate bombings, rape and other crimes were continuing in Darfur. The Government of Sudan continued to refuse to cooperate with his Office, he added.
From the UN News Centre:
[...] The ICC, which is based in The Hague, issued an arrest warrant for President Omar Al-Bashir in March for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Darfur, where estimated 300,000 people have died since 2003 due to fighting between Government forces and allied Arab militiamen, known as the Janjaweed.
Soon after the warrant was issued the Government expelled 13 international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and revoked the permits of three local groups, dealing a blow to humanitarian efforts in the region.
Briefing the Security Council on the latest developments, ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said that attacks against civilians in Darfur are continuing. In an incident on 25 November, militia reportedly attacked two villages in North Darfur, where they captured civilians, beat villagers and looted property.
“President Al-Bashir, instead of stopping the crimes, is stopping the information about the crimes,” he told the Council.
“The decisions to expel humanitarian workers and silence others by threats of expulsion, or the attempts at restricting the freedom of movement of UNAMID [joint UN-African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur] are part and parcel of this policy to reduce the monitoring capacity of the international community.” Read more
Serbia| UN war crimes courts demand Serbia’s “critical” cooperation in seizing indicted ringleaders
From the UN News Centre:
Top officials of the United Nations war crimes tribunals today called for Serbia’s “critical” cooperation in capturing the two remaining top fugitives accused of atrocities in the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s and denounced Kenya for failing to cooperate in the case of a major suspect in the Rwandan genocide of 1994.
“The arrest of Ratko Mladic [Bosnian Serb military chief in Bosnia and Herzegovina] and the other remaining fugitive [Serb politician] Goran Hadžic remains one of my office’s foremost priorities,” International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) Prosecutor Serge Brammertz told the Security Council, noting progress in Serbia’s cooperation in providing more effective access to documents. [...]
More here.
France Presses Sri Lanka to End Emergency Laws
Ambassador for Human Rights of France, Francois Zimeray, was in Sri Lanka on Saturday to ask the country to end its state of emergency and investigate alleged war crimes. His request came ahead of a key EU ruling on trade concessions to the country. Read more
Israel gvt forming task force on Goldstone report
Israel will establish a task force to respond to the Goldstone report and its repercussions. Read more
Gaza war crimes debate to reopen
The U.N. Human Rights Council based in Geneva will reopen the debate on alleged war crimes in Gaza later this week. According to officials, Palestinians succeeded in gathering enough support to call the special meeting. AP reports:
The debate will start Thursday, a day after the U.N. Security Council in New York discusses the Goldstone report, which accuses Israeli forces and Palestinian militants of war crimes and possible crimes against humanity during their Dec. 27-Jan. 18 war. [...] U.N. officials say 18 of the council’s 47 members signed a motion calling for the debate. The backers are: Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bolivia, China, Cuba, Djibouti, Egypt, Gabon, Indonesia, Jordan, Mauritius, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Senegal. Ibrahim Khraishi, the Palestinian Authority’s U.N. ambassador in Geneva, said the two-day debate would examine the report as well as recent incidents of violence in Jerusalem. [...] “We’ll wait to take a stance on the debate itself once it begins,” Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said. “We still think that this report is very dangerous and is disconnected from reality. This report was based almost exclusively on Hamas propaganda.” [...] More here.
In closed-door meeting, Security Council decides to discuss Goldstone report on 14 Oct
UN Photo / Paulo Filgueiras.
The U.N. Security Council will discuss the Goldstone report on 14 October, AP reports:
The council met behind closed doors Wednesday to discuss Libya’s request for an emergency meeting on the report, written by legal experts chaired by eminent South African jurist Richard Goldstone.
The council agreed to advance its monthly meeting on the Middle East to Oct 14 and focus on the war crimes report. The meeting was originally scheduled for Oct. 20. [...]
[...] Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. observer, said the Palestinians, Arab nations, and the 118-nation Nonaligned Movement of mainly developing countries strongly support the Libyan initiative.
More here.
Goldstone on “Justice in Gaza”
Richard Goldstone, head of the UN fact-finding mission on the Gaza conflict, writes today in The New York Times. Read more
ICJ: Human Rights Council urged to protect judges and lawyers in times of crises
The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) urged the UN Human Rights Council as it opened its 12th session in Geneva on 14 September 2009 to establish a new expert mandate to improve protection of human rights of individuals in armed conflicts and generally in any crisis situations. The ICJ requested the Council to harness protection of judges and lawyers from violence and intimidation inflicted on them for their professional functions. It also sought accountability for human rights violations and international crimes committed by the Israeli Army, Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups during the recent war in Gaza. Read more
