US to Seek a Seat on the UN Human Rights Council

The United States administration announced today that it will seek a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council in the upcoming elections, to be held in May: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/31/AR2009033102782.html?hpid=topnews. When the Council was created, in 2006, the Bush administration decided that it did not wish to participate. There are forty-seven seats on the Council, which is the principal human rights organ of the United Nations.

New Journal: Human Rights Practice

the first issue of Journal of Human Rights Practice, which is published by Oxford and based at the Centre for Applied Human Rights, University of York, includes articles by Michael Sfard, Manfred Nowack, and Stephanie Farrior. It is available free of charge: http://jhrp.oxfordjournals.org/current.dtl
Thanks to Dr Michael Kearney

Is the International Criminal Court Targetting Africa?

Richard Goldstone has written a persuasive article on the International Criminal Court and Africa, entitled 'Does the ICC Target Africa?' It is featured in the latest issue of the newsletter EQ: Equality of Arms Review, published by the International Bar Association, which features a range of issues concerning the relationship between Africa and the Court: www.ibanet.org/Human_Rights_Institute/ICC_Outreach_Monitoring/EQ_Magazine.aspx

Blogs are Evidence at Yugoslavia Tribunal

The Trial Chamber handling the Karadzic case has just issued a ruling deciding that proceedings can be conducted in English, despite the defendant's insistence that everything be translated into Serbian and use cyrillic script: http://www.icty.org/x/cases/karadzic/tdec/en/090326.pdf. The Chamber refers to recent blog entries by one of his legal advisers as evidence that the defendant is comfortable enough in English. See particularly paragraphs 6 and 19.
Thanks to Jernej Letnar Černič

ICC Observers

The transitional justice team at University of Oxford have a very interesting blog on the International Criminal Court: http://iccobservers.wordpress.com/. The transcription of an interview I did with them recently is available at: http://iccobservers.wordpress.com/2009/03/26/icc-observers-exclusive-interview-william-schabas-professor-of-human-rights-law-and-director-of-the-irish-centre-for-human-rights-at-the-national-university-of-ireland-galway/

Prosecutor Appeals Genocide Decision of International Criminal Court

The Prosecutor has applied for leave to appeal the decision of the Pre-Trial Chamber that issued an arrest warrant for crimes against humanity and war crimes against President Bashir of Sudan because it rejected the charge of genocide: http://www.icc-cpi.int/NR/exeres/CC751CCC-B58D-49A8-8073-83E0D06D3717.htm
In order to obtain leave to appeal, in accordance with article 82, he must demonstrate that the decision 'involves an issue that would significantly affect the fair and expeditious conduct of the proceedings or the outcome of the trial' and for which 'an immediate resolution by the Appeals Chamber may materially advance the proceedings'. It is really hard to see how these conditions can be met. The evidence to prove crimes against humanity and genocide will be essentially the same, and therefore this should not affect the proceedings in a significant way. The Trial Chamber can always conclude that there is enough evidence to sustain a charge of genocide, and then amend the charges, bearing in mind the need to give fair warning to the defence. In other words, there is no need to resolve this issue now. It can easily be fixed at trial, if indeed a mistake has been made.
The Prosecutor's arguments in his application for leave to appeal are not very convincing. Essentially, they amount to saying that any time a Pre-Trial Chamber denies certain charges in an arrest warrant, this raises issues of fairness and requires immediate determination. He is claiming, I think, that a decision of the sort should automatically be subject to an appeal.
This is surely not what was intended by the drafters of the Rome Statute, it is not what the Statute says, and it doesn't make sense. The whole purpose of limiting the right of interlocutory appeal is to expedite the proceedings. It is generally framed within concern about dilatory motions by the defence. One would not expect it to be the Prosecutor who is delaying proceedings.
One of the arguments in the application for leave to appeal that I found particularly intriguing is the claim that the Pre-Trial Chamber decision creates unfairness for the defense. This is very creative. I doubt that the defense agrees, however, that the Prosecutor should be able to appeal in order to add a charge of genocide!
The application says that the Prosecutor also intends to apply for a new arrest warrant, with new material. Aren't there more important things for the Prosecutor to be doing? After all, he obtained a warrant for crimes against humanity. Why not concentrate on proving that one, rather than quibble about whether the charge should also be one of genocide?

Cassese is President of Special Tribunal for Lebanon

Antonio Cassese will be the President of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, according to a UN Press Release issued a few days ago: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=30286&Cr=lebanon&Cr1=tribunal. Daniel Fransen of Belgium has been appointed as the Pre-Trial Judge. Other details concerning appointment of judges are to be provided later, and once security arrangements are in place, says the press release. It concludes: 'The investigation continues under the guidance of Prosecutor Bellemare, and a trial will take place when he has sufficient evidence is in place, according to the court.' This investigation has been underway for nearly four years. Who done it?

Cuirt Literature Festival in Galway, 21-26 April

At this year's Cuirt Festival of Literature, held annually in Galway in late April and known around the world, I'm delivering a lecture entitled: 'Writing about Atrocity: Justice, Redemption and Trivialisation. Thoughts on Schlink (The Reader), Mailer and Grass.' I propose to explore some of the issues that arise when 'fiction' encounters 'truth'. There is a fascinating interface of relevance to the contemporary human rights debate about the 'right to truth' and the efforts of writers who speak to the great historic atrocity crimes of our era. My lecture will ask whether there is also a 'right to fiction'. Here's the full programme: http://www.galwayartscentre.ie/ftp/parrafos/Cuirt_Programme_200920091803173255_.pdf. The lecture is on 25 April at 5 PM.

Reports of Israeli War Crimes in New York Times

See the front page of today's New York Times for a story entitled 'Soldiers' Accounts of Gaza Killings Raise Furor in Israel: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/20/world/middleeast/20gaza.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp. It includes the following:

Now testimony is emerging from within the ranks of soldiers and officers alleging a permissive attitude toward the killing of civilians and reckless destruction of property that is sure to inflame the domestic and international debate about the army’s conduct in Gaza. On Thursday, the military’s chief advocate general ordered an investigation into a soldier’s account of a sniper killing a woman and her two children who walked too close to a designated no-go area by mistake, and another account of a sharpshooter who killed an elderly woman who came within 100 yards of a commandeered house. When asked why that elderly woman was killed, a squad commander was quoted as saying: “What’s great about Gaza — you see a person on a path, he doesn’t have to be armed, you can simply shoot him. In our case it was an old woman on whom I did not see any weapon when I looked. The order was to take down the person, this woman, the minute you see her. There are always warnings, there is always the saying, ‘Maybe he’s a terrorist.’ What I felt was, there was a lot of thirst for blood.”

International Studies Association Convention Next Year

In February, I attended the International Studies Association annual convention, for the first time. I have known about the gathering for many years, but had never managed to get there before. It is a fabulous gathering of academics, with an enormous number of sessions reflecting a broad range of disciplines in the area of human rights. The call for papers has just been issued for next year’s meeting, which will be held in New Orleans, from 17-20 February 2010: http://isanet.ccit.arizona.edu/MyISA/NewOrleans2010.aspx.
I would urge doctoral students to consider making proposals for both papers and panels at next year’s meeting. Think about proposing a panel, and not just one for other doctoral students but where you invite a few ‘big names’ to participate. The deadline is 1 June 2009, so it is not too early to start moving on this.