28 March 2018 - NPWJ News Digest on International Criminal Justice

Articles

Biafra: ICC to investigate alleged killings during ‘Operation Python Dance’
by Daily Post Nigeria, 28 Mar 2018

The International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague has said it will investigate the September 2017 invasion of a community in Abia State by soldiers of the Nigerian Army during a military exercise code-tagged Operation Python Dance 2 (Egwu Eke Abuo).

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Accountability Key To Ending Violence in CAR
by New Vision, 27 Mar 2018

The International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Fatou Bensouda has said justice and accountability are necessary to successfully surmount the recurring cycle of violence in the Central African Republic (CAR). “It is heartening that the men and women of the CAR have called for justice. These demands must be met. We have heard this need expressed by many, including participants in the Bangui Forum of 2015, Government representatives, members of civil society, religious leaders, refugees and members of the diaspora,” she said during her visit to the country over the weekend.
 

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Civil Society Groups In Ghana Urge Government To Pass Int’ Criminal Court Bill Into Law
by Modern Ghana (press release), 25 Mar 2018

More than 65 civil society organizations working on human rights in Ghana have urged the government to pass the International Criminal Court Bill 2016 into law to give effect to the implementation of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Ghana ratified the Rome Statute in 1999, the treaty that established the court, ICC, in the Hague, Netherlands, and drafted the Ghana International Criminal Court Bill in 2016 but are yet to pass the Bill into law to domesticate the Rome Statute, 19 years after ratifying it. The civil society groups made the call in a communiqué they issued after attending a 3-day CSOs strategic workshop in Accra to draw up an implementation plan and an action strategy for the implementation of the recommendations the UN Human Rights Council made to Ghana during the third review of Ghana’s human rights record under the United Nations Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism in November 2017.

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‘Ghost Court’ Delays Justice for Kosovo War Victims
by Balkan Insight, 21 Mar 2018

After years of delays, the new Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague still hasn’t yet started work on prosecuting alleged perpetrators, prolonging the anguish of war victims’ families, says judge Dean B. Pineles. The court’s exclusive mandate is to prosecute individual members of the Kosovo Liberation Army for suspected crimes committed during and shortly after the brutal conflict with the Serbian forces of Slobodan Milosevic, and to bring a measure of justice to the victims and their families.

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