Crimes Against Humanity

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Territorial Jurisdiction at the International Criminal Court for Deportation Across the High Seas

There is a lacuna in the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) jurisprudence on jurisdiction for the transboundary crime against humanity of deportation. The issue is whether the deportation of victims across the high seas into the territory of a Rome Statute state party falls within the ICC’s territorial jurisdiction. The ICC’s leading decisions —arising from Bangladesh/Myanmar— appear to point in different directions. It is unclear whether deportation is completed upon entry into the high seas, on arrival into the first receiving State’s territory or whether deportation constitutes a continuing crime which occurs in both locations. This issue came to a head in requests (by the Tamil Rights Group and Global Rights Compliance) to open “a preliminary examination into crimes against humanity of deportation and persecution committed against Eelam Tamils within the territories of state parties to the ICC.” More broadly, the lacuna affects any putative victims of crimes against humanity of deportation fleeing island states and coastal states that are not party to the Rome Statute across the high seas into the…

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On the rape of men in the context of forced marriages at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia

On December 23rd, 2022, the Supreme Court Chamber of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) published its full appeal judgment in the Samphân KHIEU case. The Supreme Court Chamber mostly upheld Samphân KHIEU’s conviction, including for forced marriages as crimes against humanity of other inhumane acts. The Supreme Court Chamber, however, reversed…

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New universal jurisdiction case filed in Germany for crimes committed in Myanmar before and after the coup: On complementarity, effectiveness, and new hopes for old crimes

A few days before the second anniversary of the ‘failed coup’ in Myanmar, a case was filed in Germany against senior Myanmar military generals and ‘other actors’ identified in the complaint for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. It was filed under universal jurisdiction enshrined in the German Code of Crimes against International Law (Völkerstrafgesetzbuch…

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Nicaragua: Expatriation as an Aggravated Form of Political Persecution

In an unprecedented move in the modern history of international law, Nicaragua has stripped more than 300 dissident citizens of their nationality in the last two weeks. 222 of these citizens were deported to the United States on 9 February (see here), with the Managua Appeals Court (Tribunal de Apelaciones) removing their nationality the day…

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The Law of Immunity and the Prosecution of the Head of State of the Russian Federation for International Crimes in the War against Ukraine

The debate on how to prosecute the international crimes linked to the aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine is ongoing (for example, here, here and here). One of the most prominent aspects of the debate concerns the question of how to prosecute the persons who are allegedly most responsible for such crimes, particularly, the…

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