03 April 2019 - NPWJ News Digest on International Criminal Justice

Articles

Why We Must Use The Rome Statute To Prosecute Terrorists For Human Trafficking
Forbes, 03 Apr 2019

Previously, I have written about how terrorist groups are increasingly involved in human trafficking, whereby women and girls of ideologically opposed groups or religions are targeted. This phenomenon involves the perpetration of various forms of sexual violence against the victims of trafficking. The commission of the interlinked crimes of human trafficking, sexual violence, and terrorism is relatively new, encompassing a vicious cycle in which each crime effectively flows from the commission of the others: sexual violence is facilitated by human trafficking, human trafficking is motivated, in part, by sexual violence, and both crimes spread terror among civilian populations.

Continua

ICC president urges US to join global criminal court
Times Live, 02 Apr 2019

The International Criminal Court's top official has called on the United States to join and support its work after Washington recently stepped up its dispute with the global legal body. ICC president Chile Eboe-Osuji called on the US to "join her closest allies and friends at the table of the Rome Statute", referring to the court's founding document. "The past, present and future victims of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes need her to do so," Eboe-Osuji said in remarks made in the US capital on Friday, released by the court on Monday.

Continua

From Caliphate to International Criminal Tribunal? ISIS detainees raise complicated questions under international law
The Defense Post, 01 Apr 2019

At the height of its power, Islamic State controlled a population of 12 million and a territory roughly the size of Great Britain. Last week, the final vestiges of the jihadist group were scrubbed from northern Syria, its previously bold and violent men looking haggard and defeated as they sat in dusty rows outside of Baghuz. The Syrian Democratic Forces, a predominantly Kurdish militia backed by the international Coalition against ISIS, declared military victory on March 23 after the months-long “Cizirê Storm” offensive to liberate the last fragment of the caliphate. Though this is by no means the definitive end of ISIS, the significance of the liberation of Baghuz should not be underestimated.

Continua

Joint Letter to the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court about its Juridical Mandate on War Crimes Committed in Syria
Syrian Network for Human Rights, 29 Mar 2019

Subject: ICC Juridical mandate on war crimes committed in Syria. To the Office of The Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, We, the undersigned Syrian NGOs and victim groups, express our full support to the Article 15 Communication submitted by the Guernica Centre for International Justice with regards to the jurisdiction of the ICC over the hideous crimes committed against the Syria civilian population.

Continua