PhD studies in human rights: Scandinavian Developments in Rwandan Genocide Prosecutions

Monday, 1 June 2009

Scandinavian Developments in Rwandan Genocide Prosecutions

Yesterday, Finland's State Prosecutor charged a Rwandan man with genocide. It is the first time the Finnish legislation on genocide will be applied. The trial will take place before a little district court in Porvoo, where the Rwandan man lived before he was arrested. The Rwandan man has been detained since April 2007 (the time period of detention without charges is normally not over three months in Finland). The defense attorney of the Rwandan man has claimed that some evidence against the Rwandan man has been obtained through torture. For more information, see e.g.,
http://www.vksv.oikeus.fi/en/Etusivu; http://www.yle.fi/uutiset/news/2009/06/genocide_charges_for_rwandan_in_finland_768598.html; http://www.om.fi/en/Etusivu/Ajankohtaista/Uutiset/Uutisarkisto/Uutiset2009/1232607458297
And from neighbouring Sweden, a report that last week the Swedish High Court ordered the extradition of a genocide suspect to Rwanda to stand trial. Sylvere Ahorugeze was arrested in July last year in the Swedish capital Stockholm. Ahorugeze is a former director of the current Civil Aviation Authority and is accused of orchestrating killings in Gikondo, a Kigali suburb. Apparently, the decision is not subject to any appeal, but that a political determination is still required. Ahurugeze, who had been on an Interpol Red Notice, was first arrested in Denmark but was released over what Danish judiciary said was 'lack of incriminating evidence'.
According to news agencies, the verdict said that there were no legal obstacles preventing the accused to be extradited to Rwanda for trial. The Swedish court apparently considered the recent ruling of the British High Court denying extradition of four Rwandans from the United Kingdom.
There are also interesting developments within Rwanda, where legislation has been promulgated in response to the decisions of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. It will facilitate new applications by the Prosecutor of the International Tribunal to transfer cases to Rwanda. I'm still waiting on some more details. When I have them, I will post the details on the blog.
Thanks to Mikaela Heikkilä

2 comments:

hoolighan said...: I have been reading material by a lawyer Chris Black on cirqueminime@clubinternet.fr that infer that President Kagame wants to incriminate several Ruandans who travelled to foreign countries as they may have material and experience that incriminates Kagame himself in the Tutu massacres. It is disturbing tha no other comments have yet been entered here,; 18 June 2009 at 22:59
hoolighan said...: regret error ; THE URL SHOUD READ,CirqueMinime@club-internet.fr; 19 June 2009 at 13:53

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William A. Schabas is professor of international law at Middlesex University in London. He is also professor of international criminal law and human rights at Leiden University, emeritus professor human rights law at the Irish Centre for Human Rights of the National University of Ireland Galway, and an honorary professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, in Beijing and Wuhan University. He is the author of more than 20 books and 300 journal articles, on such subjects as the abolition of capital punishment, genocide and the international criminal tribunals. Professor Schabas was a member of the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission. He was a member of the Board of Trustees of the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Technical Cooperation in Human Rights and president of the International Association of Genocide Scholars. He serves as president of the Irish Branch of the International Law Association chair of the Institute for International Criminal Investigation. He is an Officer of the Order of Canada and a member of the Royal Irish Academy. Here is the full c.v.

Dr Yvonne McDermott is Senior Lecturer in Law at Bangor University, UK, where she is also Director of Teaching and Learning and Co-Director of the Bangor Centre for International Law. Yvonne is a graduate of the National University of Ireland, Galway (B. Corp. Law, LL.B.), Leiden University (LL.M. cum laude) and the Irish Centre for Human Rights (Ph.D.). Her research focuses on fair trial rights, international criminal procedure and international criminal law. She is the author of Fairness in International Criminal Trials (Oxford University Press, 2016).

Niamh Hayes has been the Head of Office for the Institute for International Criminal Investigations (IICI) in The Hague since September 2012. She is about to complete her Ph.D. on the investigation and prosecution of sexual violence by international criminal tribunals at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, National University of Ireland Galway. She previously worked for Women's Initiatives for Gender Justice as a legal consultant, and as an intern for the defence at the ICTY in the Karadzic case. She has lectured on international criminal law and international law at Trinity College Dublin and, along with Prof. William Schabas and Dr. Yvonne McDermott, is a co-editor of The Ashgate Research Companion to International Criminal Law: Critical Perspectives (Ashgate, 2013). She is the author of over 45 case reports for the Oxford Reports on International Criminal Law and has published numerous articles and book chapters on the investigation and prosecution of sexual and gender-based violence as international crimes.

Joseph Powderly is Assistant Professor of Public International Law at the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies, Leiden University. Between September 2008 and January 2010, he was a Doctoral Fellow/Researcher at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, where he worked, among other projects, on a Irish Government-funded investigation and report into the possible perpetration of crimes against humanity against the Rohingya people of North Rakhine State, Burma/Myanmar. He is currently in the process of completing his doctoral research which looks at the impact of theories of judicial interpretation on the development of international criminal and international humanitarian law. The central thesis aims to identify and analyze the potential emergence of a specific theory of interpretation within the sphere of judicial creativity. Along with Dr. Shane Darcy of the Irish Centre for Human Rights, he is co-editor of and contributor to the edited collection Judicial Creativity in International Criminal Tribunals which was published by Oxford University Press in 2010. He has written over 80 case-reports for the Oxford Reports on International Criminal Law, as well as numerous book chapters and academic articles on topics ranging from the principle of complementarity to Irish involvement in the drafting of the Geneva Conventions. In December 2010, he was appointed Managing Editor of the peer-reviewed journal Criminal Law Forum. His research interests while focusing on international criminal and international humanitarian law also include topics such as the history of international law and freedom of expression.

PhD studies in human rights

Monday, 1 June 2009

Scandinavian Developments in Rwandan Genocide Prosecutions

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