23 February 2022 - NPWJ News Digest on international criminal justice

Articles

Myanmar attacks Rohingya genocide case at UN’s top court
Euroactiv, 22 Feb 2022

Myanmar hit out Monday (21 February) at a genocide case brought against it by the Gambia for alleged persecution of Rohingya Muslims, urging the UN’s highest court to drop the claim on legal grounds. Banjul dragged Myanmar before the International Court of Justice in 2019, accusing the predominantly Buddhist country of genocide against the Rohingya Muslim minority after a bloody 2017 military crackdown. When the case opened in December 2019 Aung San Suu Kyi personally represented Myanmar at the Hague-based ICJ, but she was ousted as the Asian country’s civilian leader in a military coup last year.

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Stop weapons supply to Myanmar, rights expert urges
UN News, 22 Feb 2022

Weapons exports to the military rulers in Myanmar by UN Member States must stop, the UN independent expert on the human rights situation in the country said on Tuesday. In a report to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Special Rapporteur Tom Andrews insisted that these arms had been used against civilians. He also called for the UN Security Council to convene an emergency session to vote on a resolution to ban this trade.

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Said case: Trial to popen on 26 September 2022
International Criminal Court, 21 Feb 2022

On 21 February 2022, Trial Chamber VI of the International Criminal Court (ICC) scheduled the opening of the trial in the case of The Prosecutor v. Mahamat Said Abdel Kani for 26 September 2022. The warrant of arrest against Mr Mahamat Said Abdel Kani was issued under seal on 7 January 2019 for war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed in Bangui (CAR) in 2013.

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Bosnia is still finding bodies from a genocide some leaders claim never happened
The Washington Post, 21 Feb 2022

It’s been 26 years since the killings in Srebrenica, a genocide that broke Europe’s never-again vow and constituted the bloodiest period of this nation’s three-year war. Much of the world turned its attention away from the Balkans after the U.S.-brokered peace deal in 1995, and the subsequent trial at The Hague, which handed down war crime convictions and life sentences. But a battle over reality is now pushing the country to a breaking point.
 

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Independent investigation into Kazakhstan killings, torture a priority
Human Rights Watch , 21 Feb 2022

Kazakhstan’s government has said repeatedly that it is investigating the recent violence and unrest that led to the deaths of at least 227 people, including 19 security force members, thousands of arrests, and reports of torture and mistreatment. It is in the government’s interest for the grave human rights abuses during these “January events” to be properly investigated and those responsible held to account. Without genuine efforts to bring justice for victims, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s national reform plans will remain hollow promises.

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Sri Lanka clears police, defence chiefs over Easter bombings
France 24, 18 Feb 2022

Sri Lanka's High Court on Friday acquitted two top officials accused of "crimes against humanity" for failing to prevent the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings that killed 279 people. The state had indicted the two men in November for failing to act on early warnings from an Indian intelligence agency that local jihadists were planning a string of suicide bombings in April 2019.

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Human rights lawyers attempt to bring Syria war crimes cases to ICC
The Guardian, 16 Feb 2022

A groundbreaking attempt to make Iranian and Syrian military officials answerable for war crimes they may have committed in Syria is being launched, as part of an effort to have the cases brought before the international criminal court. The request includes evidence of Syrian victims forced to flee into Jordan due to attacks and intimidation by the Syrian government and Iran-backed militia groups. It is being brought by the US-based Iran Human Rights Documentation Center in conjunction with Haydee Dijkstal, a UK barrister.

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