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Stepping Up the Pace of Ratifications of the ICC Amendments on the Crime of Aggression : Where do we stand now?

Published on May 1, 2013        Author: 

President Khama of Botswana (right), Dr Athaliah Molokomme, Attorney General of Botswana (left), Mr Khama, Minister of Defence of Botswana (centre).

In the summer of 2010, the Assembly of States Parties to the Statute of the International Criminal Court, meeting in Kampala, Uganda, adopted amendments to the ICC Statute which define the crime of aggression and provide for the jurisdiction of the ICC over aggression. Under those amendments, the ICC will only be able to exercise jurisdiction over the crime of aggression once 30 States have ratified or accepted the amendments. Furthermore, the Court may not exercise jurisdiction over aggression until 1 January 2017. The amendment provides that there will also be the need for a further decision of the Assembly of States Parties to the ICC Statute to activate the jurisdiction of the Court over aggression. Unlike the Rome Statute of the ICC, ratifications of the Kampala amendments seemed to be going slowly with only 3 states (Liechtenstein, Samoa and Trinidad & Tobago) ratifying the amendments by the end of 2012. However, the pace of ratifications seems set to pick up in 2013. Luxembourg ratified the aggression amendment in January and Estonia did the same in March. In addition, two states - Germany and Botswana - have now completed their domestic processes for ratification and at least one other (Uruguay) is well on the way. The German parliament adopted its Act of Ratification of the Kampala Amendments at the end of February and should deposit its instrument of ratification soon. On April 15, the President of Botswana signed Botswana’s instrument of ratification of the Kampala amendment at a workshop held in Botswana that I was speaking at. He signed the instrument of ratification at a dramatic opening session of a workshop held for African governments on ratification and implementation of the crime of aggression. [On a personal note, I had never seen an instrument of ratification being signed before and I still have not as I arrived at the workshop after the opening session! The workshop was organized by the Government of Liechtenstein and the Global Institute for the Prevention of the Crime of Aggression which has a great website that contains many resources on the crime of aggression.] On April 10, one house of the Uruguayan Parliament (the Chamber of Deputies) approved the bill on ratification of the Kampala Amendments unanimously and the bill is set to go to Uruguayan Senate in the coming weeks (see this report by the Parliamentarians for Global Action).

For the court to be able to exercise jurisdiction over aggression by the beginning of 2017, there will actually need to be 30 ratifications by the beginning of 2016 as the amendments only take effect for each State party one year after the instrument of ratification is deposited. There seems to be a possibility that this number will be reached but that is not so clear. Read the rest of this entry…

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Filed under: EJIL Analysis, International Criminal Court, Use of Force
 

Former ICC Defendant – Ngudjolo – Applies for Asylum in the Netherlands

Published on March 28, 2013        Author: 
Mathias Holvoet is PhD-Researcher in International Criminal Law at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium. He is also a member of the Research Group on Fundamental Rights and Constitutionalism (FRC). Dersim Yabasun is a PhD-Researcher in the International and European Law Department, Maastricht University, The Netherlands.

Mathieu NgudjoloOn 18 December 2012, Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui (Ngudjolo) – a Congolese militia leader – became the first to be acquitted before the ICC, after Trial Chamber II judged that he could not be found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the village of Bogoro in 2003. Ngudjolo was released on 21 December 2012. Subsequently, according to Ngudjolo, the Dutch government decided to repatriate him back to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Since Ngudjolo feared persecution in the DRC because of his incriminating testimony against the Kabila government during his trial, he decided to apply for asylum in the Netherlands to prevent his expulsion. Furthermore, Ngudjolo requested the ICC to require the Netherlands to hand him over to the Court, with whom he would negotiate a place to live pending his asylum examination and during the appeal proceedings. In addition, Ngudjolo requested the Court to order the Victims and Witnesses Unit (VWU) to provide for his protection. The Appeals Chamber will decide on these requests later this year.

The Dutch authorities have approached this whole new development of ‘ICC-asylum seekers’ with serious concern.

There is a reasonable chance that Ngudjolo will be excluded from refugee protection by the Dutch Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND) on the basis of Article 1(f)(a) of the 1951 Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (Refugee Convention), as was the case with two defense witnesses in the Katanga & Ngudjolo cases who applied for asylum in the Netherlands in 2012. However, if there is a risk that Ngudjolo would be subjected to torture or degrading treatment if he were to be expelled to the DRC, Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which protects any person and has an ‘absolute’ character, might prevent his expulsion to the DRC. In that case, Ngdudjolo may find himself in a ‘legal vacuum’. He would be ordered to leave Dutch territory, but at the same time the Dutch authorities are not allowed to expel him to the DRC because of its obligations under European human rights law. This piece will discuss the chances of returning Ngudjolo on the basis of diplomatic assurances and the option of relocation for future acquitted defendants to third countries.

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Filed under: Human Rights, International Criminal Court, Refugee Law, Torture
 

ICC Decides on Immunities and Privileges of Defence Counsel and ICC Staff

Published on March 6, 2013        Author: 

Last week, the Pre-Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Court issued a decision with important implications for the privileges and immunities of counsel acting at the ICC, and also of ICC staff. In its decision, the Pre-Trial Chamber confirmed that the immunities provided for in Article 48 of the ICC Statute apply to defence counsel and to staff of the ICC involved in the ICC proceedings against Saif Gaddafi. It also held “that the inviolability of documents and materials related to the exercise of the functions of the Defence constitutes an integral part of the treatment that shall be accorded to the Defence pursuant to article 48(4).” This means that these documents may not be seized by States, and in this particular case, the ICC held that Libya is under an obligation to return such seized documents.

The decision arose out of the detention in Libya, last June, of four members of staff of the ICC, including Melinda Taylor a lawyer at the Office of the Public Counsel for Defence (OPCD). The ICC staff were detained by the militia holding Saif Gaddafi (who is represented by the OPCD) when they were in Libya to meet with Saif. At time of the detention, I and others argued that these detained persons were entitled to immunity from criminal process in Libya (see previous post).

There are three interesting points that arise out of this decision. The first relates to the applicability of the Statute (and in particular Art. 48) to Libya. The second relates to which part of Art. 48 applies to defence counsel employed by OPCD. The third, and perhaps most important, point is that the decision  implies the applicability of the 2002 Agreement on the Privileges and Immunities of the International Criminal Court to States that have not ratified it.

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Filed under: Diplomatic Immunity, EJIL Analysis, International Criminal Court
 

ICC OTP Report on the Situation in Colombia – A critical analysis

Published on February 1, 2013        Author: 

Professor Kai Ambos is Chair of Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Comparative Law and International Criminal Law at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Germany and Judge at the Provincial Court (Landgericht) of Lower Saxony in Göttingen

Preliminary Remarks

On 14 November 2012 the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) of the International Criminal Court (ICC) published the “Interim Report” on the “Situation in Colombia”. The Report is exceptional for the fact that the OPP usually does not submit such kind of country report at this (preliminary) stage of the proceedings; instead, the Office’s activities are reported in its Annual Report on Preliminary Examination Activities. The reason why this is different in this case is “the high level of public interest” in the Colombian situation. In fact, the very existence of the Report demonstrates the seriousness with which the Office continues to monitor the situation in Colombia.

Despite all its shortcomings, the Report still deserves praise in that it constitutes a unique effort to subsume the complex Colombian situation under the legal regime of the Rome Statute. In fact, the OTP offers the first “official” and impartial account of the Colombian violence in ICL terms and this constitutes an advance in itself, not least with regard to the domestic discussion in Colombia. More concretely speaking, however, the Report offers a mixed picture. While some issues are treated adequately, contributing significantly to an accurate assessment of the Colombian situation, especially with regard to the topic of the “false positives”, the treatment of other aspects leaves more questions than answers. In this sense, the Report makes it difficult to determine with some precision the further course of the OTP’s evaluation of the Colombian situation. Indeed, the Report does not provide for clear standards that could serve as a framework for current and possibly future peace negotiations. Perhaps the question of an “alternative punishment” is the most important one effectively left open by the Report. Clearly, the report reflects the complexities of the Colombian situation which make it so difficult to come to a balanced and satisfactory judgment with a view to possible intervention by the ICC. It may well be argued that this situation demonstrates more than any other the importance of cooperation and mutual learning between local and international criminal justice.

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Filed under: International Criminal Court
 
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Settlements, Territory, and the ICC

Published on January 3, 2013        Author: 

The President of Palestine, Mahmoud Abbas, has threatened to accept the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court in order to pursue a case against Israeli settlement construction. At first, this seems an odd choice. One might expect suits over more classic war crimes involving military forces, of the kind dealt with by the Goldstone Commission, to be a be a safer course.

Such cases have been repeatedly tried in international and national tribunals, and have a well-established jurisprudence. But the rule against “deporting or transferring” one’s civilian population into occupied territory would be a case of first impression, and thus pose potentially daunting obstacles. The attraction of settlements, however, is that the issue is not bilateral. Israel could not counter-claim, as it were.

The talk of taking settlements to the Court is difficult to understand. States refer “situations” to the ICC, not cases. Countries cannot simply engage in strategic claim-splitting, referring the alleged crimes of their enemies and not their own. What is the “situation” here? The scope of the term is not well understood. One might say, at the broadest level, it would seem be the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, of which settlements is a part – and Palestinian violence is another part. More narrowly, given the security buffer justification of many settlements, it would still be artificial to split the situation into an Israel-only offense.

However, while the GA vote makes the path to such a referral easier, there remains an under-underappreciated hurdle that a settlements-suit would have to clear. If Palestine accepts the jurisdiction of the ICC under Art. 12(2)(a) of the Rome Statute, the Court would only have jurisdiction over Israel for conduct that occurred “on the territory” of Palestine. Thus exercising jurisdiction requires determining Palestine’s territory.

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Filed under: EJIL Analysis, International Criminal Court, International Criminal Law, Palestine
 

Palestine as a UN Observer State: Does this Make Palestine a State?

Published on December 3, 2012        Author: 

Last week, the UN General Assembly voted by 138 to 9 (with 41 abstaining) “to accord to Palestine non-member observer State status in the United Nations”. Thus, Palestine which has been an observer at the UN since 1974 has had its status within the UN upgraded to being an observer State. There has been much euphoria on one side as a result of this decision, and dismay on the other side. However, what are the implications, if any, of this decision. It is thought that one reason why Israel opposed the change, though it asserts that the decision achieves nothing, is that characterising the Palestinian as an observer State would give Palestine access to legal, particularly judicial, remedies that it otherwise would not have (see BBC Q & A report here). It was reported that the United Kingdom, which in the end abstained from voting, was prepared to vote in favour of the resolution, if Palestine had been prepared to pledge not to ratify the Rome Statute of the ICC or to seek to utilise the International Court of Justice. So though the granting of observer Status does not change “the facts on the ground”, it is thought that it would change the legal position of Palestine under international law. But does it? Are there new legal options open to Palestine as a result of the resolution and does the resolution constitute Palestine as a State?

Any student of international law will be familiar with the debate between the declaratory theory of recognition of States and the constitutive theory. Theory, practice and judicial decisions favour the declaratory theory and assert that recognition does not create Statehood. Although last week’s decision does not grant Palestine membership of the UN (which would require Security Council approval), the decision to grant observer State status to Palestine is an act of collective recognition of the statehood of Palestine. If that decision is capable of effecting the legal changes hoped for (by proponents) or feared (by those oppose the decision), this will provide strong support to the view that collective recognition is capable of creating Statehood. Read the rest of this entry…

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Filed under: EJIL Analysis, International Court of Justice, International Criminal Court, International Criminal Law, International Tribunals, Palestine, State Responsibility, States and Statehood
 

ICC Assembly of States Parties Urged to Decide on Status of Palestine.

Published on September 24, 2012        Author: 

In April of this year, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court indicated, in an official statement, that he was not competent to decide whether Palestine is a State such that it can accept the jurisdiction of the ICC under Article 12(3) of the ICC Statute. As a result, the ICC Prosecutor took the view that he could not take any action as a result of the declaration made by the Palestinian National Authority in January 2009, accepting the jurisdiction of the ICC over crimes committed on the territory of Palestine. In that statement, the Prosecutor decided that:

“competence  for  determining  the  term  “State”  within  the meaning of article 12 rests, in the first instance, with the United Nations Secretary General who, in case of doubt,  will  defer  to  the  guidance  of  General Assembly. The  Assembly  of States Parties of the Rome Statute could also in due course decide to address the matter in accordance with article 112(2)(g) of the Statute.”

In an earlier post, I provided analysis of the Prosecutor’s statement and was critical of the Prosecutor’s view that it is the UN Secretary General that has initial competence with regard to all questions of Statehood under Art. 12 of the Rome Statute.

A group of eminent international law scholars have now written to the President of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute to urge her to place the question of the Statehood of Palestine, for the purposes of Art. 12(3) of the Rome Statute, on the agenda of the next meeting of the ASP. That meeting will be held in November this year. The letter is as follows:

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Filed under: EJIL Analysis, International Criminal Court, Palestine, States and Statehood
 
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The African Union, the ICC and Universal Jurisdiction: Some Recent Developments

Published on August 29, 2012        Author: 

Over the last few years, the African Union (AU) Assembly, (composed of Heads of States and Governments), has concerned itself with a number of issues relating to international criminal law (see previous posts by me here, here, and here; and by Max Du Plessis and Chris Gevers here and here). Last month, the AU Assembly held its 19th Summit and continued the trend of making decisions with regard to international criminal justice (see here for the full text of the Assembly decisions). Earlier this week, Max Du Plessis wrote about the decision of the AU Assembly at this summit to postpone consideration of a draft protocol that would amend the Statute of the African Court of Human Rights and Justice to give it jurisdiction to try international crimes. As has now become usual, the AU Assembly, at this latest summit, also adopted decisions on the International Criminal Court and on the Abuse of the Principle of Universal Jurisdiction. Both of these decisions contain new developments from previous decisions which are analysed below. There is a call for African States to conclude bilateral immunity agreements and the AU has adopted a Model Law on Universal Jurisdiction.

The Impact of the ICC on the Venue of the Summit

The question of where the AU summit would be held was dominated by the fallout of the strained relationship between the AU and the International Criminal Court. The venue of the Summit was changed from Malawi to Addis Ababa, the seat of the AU, just one month before the meeting as the AU refused Malawi’s request for Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir not to be invited to the meeting. Malawi, a party to the Statute of the International Criminal Court, stated that it had an obligation to arrest Bashir, who is wanted by the ICC, were he to visit Malawi. Read the rest of this entry…

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Filed under: EJIL Analysis, International Criminal Court, The African Union, Universal Jurisdiction
 

ICC Pre-Trial Chamber Suspends Libya’s Obligation to Surrender Saif Gaddafi and Asserts Application of ICC Statute to Libya

Published on June 20, 2012        Author: 

Over the past few months, I have written a number of posts on whether Libya would be entitled to suspend (or postpone) its obligation to surrender Saif Gaddafi to the ICC in the event of Libya challenging the admissibility of ICC proceedings (see here, here, here , here and here). In what I thought was a great and really productive exchange of views,I debated the issue with Kevin Jon Heller at Opinio Juris and Jens David Ohlin at LieberCode. In April, the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber rejected Libya’s application to suspend the obligation to surrender Saif Gaddafi holding that although Libya had, at that stage, indicated its intention to challenge admissibility of the case, it had not actually done so. In May, Libya did file a challenge to the admissibility of the proceedings (which has been discussed here on EJIL:Talk!). Earlier this month, the Pre-Trial Chamber held that as a result of Libya’s admissibility challenge, Libya is entitled, under Article 95 of the ICC Statute to postpone its obligation to surrender Saif Gaddafi to the ICC. That suspension of the obligation of surrender will last until the ICC determines the validity of the admissibility challenge.

ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber took the same position as I took in my blog posts on the issue and in my recent article in the Journal of International Criminal Justice. In fact, the chamber addressed the issue in pretty much the same way as I have, structuring their decision in a similar way to me and using similar arguments. In terms of the structure of the decision, the chamber first addressed the question of whether and how the ICC Statute applies to the obligation of cooperation in cases of a Security Council referral. Then the Chamber addressed the question whether Article 95 of the Statute applies to the obligation of surrender.

With regard to the application of the ICC Statute in case of UN Security Council referrals, the chamber reiterated its earlier decision that:

“the legal framework of the Statute applies in the situations referred by the Security Council in Libya and Darfur, Sudan, including its complementarity and cooperation regimes.” (para. 28)

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Filed under: EJIL Analysis, EJIL Reports, International Criminal Court, Libya
 
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The Immunity of the ICC Lawyers and Staff Detained in Libya

Published on June 18, 2012        Author: 

Readers will be aware that four staff of the International Criminal Court have been detained in Libya after meeting with Saif Gaddafi over a week ago. The visit to Saif Gaddafi was organized by the ICC’s Office of the Public Counsel for Defence which has been appointed to represent Saif Gaddafi in the ICC proceedings against him. One of the persons detained is Melinda Taylor, an Australian defence lawyer at the ICC. She has been accused of spying, and of passing on to Saif a letter from Saif’s former right hand man, Mohammed Ismaili, who is wanted by the Libyan authorities. Taylor and the other ICC staff were detained by a militia in Zintan, the town where Saif Gaddafi is being held.  Since their detention, they have been visited by an ICC delegation together with the Ambassadors of Australian, Russia, Lebanon and Spain. Thankfully, an ICC Press Release reports that the detained staff indicated that they are in good health and being well treated.

Since the incident first began, there have assertions that these ICC staff are entitled to immunity from arrest and detention in Libya. This claim has been made by the ICC President, Judge Sang-Hyun Song, by the Australian Foreign Minister, Bob Carr, by Mark Kersten on his  blog Justice in Conflict, and by Kevin Jon Heller on Opinio Juris. I agree with the view that these staff are immune and think it is useful, and interesting, to set out the basis on which that immunity exists.

The most straightforward argument for the immunity is that it is provided for in Article 48 of the ICC Statute and that this provision is binding on Libya as a result of UN Security Council Resolution 1970. Article 48 provides that:

“(3) The Deputy Registrar, the staff of the Office of the Prosecutor and the staff of the Registry shall enjoy the privileges and immunities and facilities necessary for the performance of their functions, in accordance with the agreement on the privileges and immunities of the Court.

(4) Counsel, experts, witnesses or any other person required to be present at the seat of the Court shall be accorded such treatment as is necessary for the proper functioning of the Court, in accordance with the agreement on the privileges and immunities of the Court.”

Before getting on to which immunities this provision grants to ICC staff, one ought to begin by explaining why Art. 48 is binding on Libya. Read the rest of this entry…

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Filed under: Diplomatic Immunity, EJIL Analysis, International Criminal Court, Libya