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US Sanctions Targeting International Criminal Court Are An Outrage

September 10, 2020 the International Association of Democratic Lawyers. , , ,
On 2 September 2020, U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo announced the imposition of sanctions on Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and prosecution jurisdiction director for authorizing such an investigation, including war crimes committed by U.S. forces, for which U.S. officials bear responsibility. These sanctions were based on a declaration by U.S. President Trump of a national emergency on this subject in June of 2020. The International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL) rejects as outrageous these sanctions on senior prosecution officials of the International Criminal Court.

EU And France Call On US To Reverse ‘Unacceptable’ Sanctions Against ICC’s War Crimes Investigators

September 5, 2020 RT. , , ,
US sanctions against two International Criminal Court officials are “unacceptable and unprecedented” and should be reversed, said the EU’s top diplomat, while the French foreign minister called them “a grave attack” on the court. The sanctions are “unacceptable and unprecedented measures that attempt to obstruct the court's investigations and judicial proceedings,” EU High Representative for Foreign Policy Josep Borrell said in a statement on Thursday. The US should “reconsider its position and reverse the measures it has taken,” Borrell added. His comments came shortly after French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian condemned the sanctions as “a grave attack against the court,” saying it put into question “multilateralism and the independence of the judiciary.” 

US Punishes ICC For Investigating Potential War Crimes

September 3, 2020 Susan M. Akram, The Conversation. , , , ,
The Trump administration has sought to weaken or abandon various international agencies since 2016. Now it’s taking aim at the International Criminal Court, a global tribunal that investigates and prosecutes war crimes, torture and genocide. Claiming the ICC’s investigation into alleged war crimes by U.S. forces in Afghanistan poses a national security threat, President Donald Trump issued an executive order on June 11 effectively criminalizing anyone who works at the ICC. Its lawyers, judges, human rights researchers and staff could now have their U.S. bank accounts frozen, U.S. visas revoked and travel to the U.S. denied.

Israel’s Secret List Of Officials Who May Stand Trial At International Court

July 20, 2020 Noa Landau, Haaretz. , , ,
Israel is drawing up a secret list of military and intelligence officials who might be subject to arrest abroad if the International Criminal Court in the Hague opens an investigation into alleged Israeli war crimes in the Palestinian territories. Haaretz has learned that this list now includes between 200 and 300 officials, some of whom have not been informed. The great secrecy surrounding the issue stems from a fear that the mere disclosure of the list’s existence could endanger the people on it. The assessment is that the court is likely to view a list of names as an official Israeli admission of these officials’ involvement in the incidents under investigation. The ICC is expected to rule shortly on whether to approve the request by ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda to investigate Israel and Hamas over suspicions of war crimes in the territories beginning in 2014, the year of Operation Protective Edge.

‘Godfather’ Donald’s Mafia War On The ICC

July 7, 2020 Danny Sjursen, AntiWar.com. , , ,
Free advice: one way for an administration to avoid the ire of an International Criminal Court (ICC) is not to act like a mafia crime family. Appearances and all. Only discretion has never been Donald Trump’s game. The kid from Queens – who built a casino empire in mobbed-up 1980s Atlantic City – thrives in another (under)world entirely. So, when the ICC had the temerity to even investigate America’s spies and soldiers in Afghanistan, Trump tried rather stronger(-arm) tactics: Mafia-style intimidation. I’m no Martin Scorsese, but here’s how it basically went down, in lay(“made-“)man’s terms: Youse foreign snowflakes from sissy Netherlands wanna stick your noses in our business? Alright then, my associates here got somethin’ for ya: Badabing! Suck on these! [sanctions, canceled visas, and endless threats]

US And Israel Team Up To Thwart War Crimes Probes

April 19, 2020 Maureen Clare Murphy, Electronic Intifada. , , ,
The US secretary of state’s threats to sanction two employees working for the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court and their families last month may have been the opening salvoes of a new US-Israel war against the justice body in The Hague. Both states currently face the embarrassing specter of war crimes investigations by the court – an unprecedented challenge to their impunity. In response, they aim to disempower the court by preventing it from exercising jurisdiction in countries that are not state parties to the Rome Statute, the treaty on which the court was founded. Should the US and Israel succeed, it would be a significant blow to the court’s independent mandate and purpose as a court of last resort for the victims of the world’s worst human rights abusers.

Scheer Intelligence: Even The ICC Can’t Rein In American Exceptionalism

April 3, 2020 Robert Scheer, KCRW.com. , , ,
In early March, senior judges in the international criminal court ruled that an investigation into the actions the U.S., Afghan and Taliban military committed in 2003 could take place, overturning a previous ruling. Perhaps more remarkable than the fact the ICC, which had earlier assumed such an investigation wouldn’t be possible because none of those implicated would be likely to cooperate, was the U.S. response to the decision.  “This is a truly breathtaking action by an unaccountable political institution masquerading as a legal body,” said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.  Although the Trump official’s blatant disparaging of a global justice organization is deeply troubling, American undermining of the ICC predates both Donald Trump’s rise to power and the Afghanistan War.

Team Trump Failed To Bully ICC Into Dropping War Crimes Probe

March 15, 2020 Marjorie Cohn, Truthout. , , ,
fter the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) found a reasonable basis to believe that U.S. military and CIA leaders committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Afghanistan, Team Trump threatened to ban ICC judges and prosecutors from the U.S. and warned it would impose economic sanctions on the Court if it launched an investigation. Apparently succumbing to the U.S. threats, in April 2019, the ICC’s Pretrial Chamber refused to authorize the investigation that prosecutor Fatou Bensouda had requested. But in an unprecedented decision, the Appeals Chamber unanimously overruled the Pretrial Chamber on March 5, 2020, and ordered a formal investigation of U.S., Afghan and Taliban officials for war crimes, including torture, committed in the “war on terror.”

Afghanistan: ICC Appeals Chamber Authorises The Opening Of An Investigation

March 6, 2020 Staff, Icc-cpi.int , ,
Today, 5 March 2020, the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court ('ICC' or 'Court') decided unanimously to authorise the Prosecutor to commence an investigation into alleged crimes under the jurisdiction of the Court in relation to the situation in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. The Appeals Chamber's judgment amended the decision of Pre-Trial Chamber II of 12 April 2019...

Palestinians Decry ICC Prosecutor’s Delay Of Israeli War Crimes Investigation

January 4, 2020 Marjorie Cohn, Truthout.org , , ,
In a significant development for Israeli accountability, Fatou Bensouda, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), seeks to launch an investigation into war crimes committed in Palestine. But she has established an unnecessary and politically suspect condition to slow down the process. Following a five-year preliminary examination, Bensouda found a reasonable basis to mount an investigation of “the situation in Palestine.”

ICC Decision To Investigate War Crimes Touches Israelis’ Deepest Fear (Accountability)

December 27, 2019 Jonathan Ofir, Mondoweiss.net , ,
The recently announced decision of the International Criminal Court to investigate Israeli war crimes (pending a pre-Trial chamber decision on the “territories” at hand), has hit a raw nerve in Israel. It is not merely that Prime Minister Netanyahu went on Hasbara overdrive with his antics, saying that ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda is ignoring “the truth when she says that the very act of Jews living in their ancestral homeland, the land of the Bible, that this is a war crime”.

US Leaders Can Now Be Prosecuted For Illegal War

July 30, 2019 C.J. Polychroniou, Truthout.org , , ,
War is gathering around the world, and autocratic leaders are undermining the legal checks on their discretion to launch attacks abroad. With the rule of law under threat, the International Criminal Court recently defined and activated for prosecution a new crime called the “crime of aggression.” The crime of aggression — leadership responsibility for planning, preparing, initiating or waging illegal war — has begun to permeate international, regional and national legal systems around the world. But in an age of drones, cyberattacks, insurgents and autocrats, is it too little, too late?

Center For Constitutional Rights Alleges U.S. Interference Into International Criminal Court

June 12, 2019 Melanie Burney, Inquirer.com , ,
June 6, 2019, New York –Yesterday, the Center for Constitutional Rights filed a complaint with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers alleging ongoing interference by the United States into the operations of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and requesting a formal comprehensive independent investigation. The complaint cites the steady stream of threats made by Donald Trump and other senior officials against the court if it proceeded to open an investigation into war crimes committed by U.S. military and C.I.A. officials in Afghanistan and other countries.

Facing The Facts: Israel Cannot Escape ICC Jurisdiction

June 11, 2019 Ramzy Baroud, Dissidentvoice.org , , ,
The Chief Military Advocate General of the Israeli army, Sharon Afek, and the US Department of Defense General Counsel, Paul Ney, shared a platform at the ‘International Conference on the Law of Armed Conflict’, which took place in Herzliya, Israel between May 28-30. Their panel witnessed some of the most misconstrued interpretations of international law ever recorded. It was as if Afek and Ney were literally making up their own law on warfare and armed conflict, with no regard to what international law actually stipulates.

ICC Refuses To Investigate Crimes In Afghanistan, U.S. Torture

April 14, 2019 Center for Constitutional Rights. , , ,
April 12, 2019, Paris, The Hague, New York – In what human rights groups call an appalling decision, the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber II decided not to grant the Prosecutor’s request to open an investigation into alleged crimes committed in Afghanistan and on the territory of other States Parties implicated in the U.S. torture program. Tens of thousands of victims in Afghanistan, along with victims of U.S. torture, had urged the ICC to authorize the investigation. Despite finding that requirements were met as regards both jurisdiction and admissibility, the Pre-Trial judges decided that authorizing an investigation would not serve “the interests of justice”...
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