7 April 2021 - NPWJ News Digest on international criminal justice

Articles

Montenegrin Minister Faces Dismissal for Srebrenica Genocide Comments
Balkan Transitional Justice, 05 Apr 2021

Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapic on Monday proposed the sacking of Minister of Justice, Human and Minority Rights Vladimir Leposavic after he expressed doubt about the rulings of international courts classifying the 1995 Srebrenica massacres by Bosnian Serb forces as genocide. Krivokapic said he called on the minister to resign in a private conversation, but Leposavic refused.

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Lawyer lists reasons why Ongwen should walk out of ICC a free man
Daily Monitor, 04 Apr 2021

Although the 1,077-paged International Criminal Court judgment is now being seen by victims as pivotal in the region’s healing process from the physical and psychological wounds inflicted by the war, convicted former Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) commander Dominic Ongwen’s lawyers claim the ruling is ‘utterly embarrassing’ and worth an appeal. 

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Myanmar: Hundreds Forcibly Disappeared
Human Rights Watch, 02 Apr 2021

Myanmar's military junta has forcibly disappeared hundreds of people since the February 1, 2021 coup, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities have taken into custody politicians, election officials, journalists, activists, and protesters and refused to confirm their location or allow access to lawyers or family members in violation of international law.

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U.S. lifts Trump's sanctions on ICC prosecutor, court official
Reuters, 02 Apr 2021

The United States on Friday lifted sanctions on International Criminal Court prosecutor Fatou Bensouda that drew international criticism after they were imposed by the administration of former President Donald Trump. The move, announced by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, lifts the sanctions imposed on Bensouda over her investigation into whether American forces committed war crimes in Afghanistan.
 

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‘What other country would do this to its people?’ Cambodian land grab victims seek int’l justice
Mongabay, 01 Apr 2021

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) in 2014 estimated that at least 770,000 people had been affected by land grabs that cover some 4 million hectares of land. Sources say Indigenous communities are more adversely affected by land grabs because the land is often central to their animist beliefs and their livelihoods, and they are even less likely to be afforded justice than ethnically Khmer victims. FIDH, along with Global Witness and Climate Counsel, submitted an open letter dated March 16 to Fatou Bensouda, the current prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC), urging her to open a preliminary examination into land-grabbing in Cambodia.
 

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Saudi Arabia: Alleged Child Offender on Death Row
Human Rights Watch, 31 Mar 2021

A Saudi man on death row could be executed even though he was 14 at the time of the alleged crime and his conviction followed a grossly unfair trial, Human Rights Watch said today. His case will be transferred next to the Supreme Court in Riyadh for a final ruling. While Saudi authorities announced an end to the death penalty for children for certain crimes in 2018 and applied this retroactively to previous cases in 2020, the death penalty remains a possible punishment for the type of crime Abdullah al-Huwaiti is accused of committing.
 

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ICC Appeals Chamber confirms Trial Chamber I’s decision acquitting Laurent Gbagbo and Charles Blé Goudé of all charges of crime against humanity
ICC, 31 Mar 2021

Today, 31 March 2021, the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court ("ICC" or "Court") delivered its judgment on the Prosecutor's appeal against Trial Chamber I's decision of 15 January 2019, which had acquitted, by majority, Mr Gbagbo and Mr Blé Goudé of all charges of crime against humanity allegedly committed in Côte d'Ivoire in 2010 and 2011. The Appeals Chamber confirmed, by majority, Judge Ibáñez and Judge Bossa dissenting, the decision of the Trial Chamber.
 

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