Crimes Against Humanity

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

April 1, 2023

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 the Trial Chamber’s findings that men were not victims of rape or other inhumane acts through sexual violence. It considered that male victims indeed suffered forced sexual intercourse. Prosecuting sexual violence against men and boys in front of international courts and tribunals is challenging. Sexual crimes against men are often mentioned but not characterized as sexual violence or, worse, mentioned but without any consequences, merely to “set the scene” (see Sivakumaran, pp. 273-274, see also Eichert). The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) never convicted anyone of rape and only once of sexual violence (Ranko Češić case). Different forms of rape (anal…

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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

March 7, 2023

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

February 27, 2023

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

January 16, 2023

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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One Year On – Remembering the Al-Khatib Syrian Torture Case and Reflecting on the Documentation of International Crimes Cases in German Courts

January 12, 2023

One year ago, on 13 January 2022, the Higher Regional Court of Koblenz, Germany, convicted Anwar R, a senior member of the Syrian General Intelligence Service, of at least 4,000 cases of torture, the murder of 27 people and multiple cases of sexual violence as a crime against humanity in the context of the infamous Al-Khatib prison…

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