Introduction

International criminal law deals with the criminal responsibility of individuals for international crimes. There is no generally accepted definition of international crimes. A distinction can be made between international crimes which are based on international customary law and therefore apply universally and crimes resulting from specific treaties which criminalize certain conduct and require the contracting states to implement legislation for the criminal prosecution of this conduct in their domestic legal system.

International crimes

The international core crimes - crimes over which international tribunals have been given jurisdiction under international law - are: genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and aggression. International criminal law finds its origin in both international law and criminal law and closely relates to other areas of international law. The most important areas are human rights law and international humanitarian law as well as the law on state responsibility. The sources of international criminal law are the same as those of general international law mentioned in article 38(1) of the Statute of the International Court of Justice: treaties, international customary law, general principles of law, judicial decisions and writings of eminent legal scholars.

International Criminal Court and tribunals

The Nuremberg and Tokyo trials signaled the birth of present-day international criminal law, i.e., the prosecution of individuals for international crimes before international tribunals. In the early nineties of the previous century international criminal law received a major stimulus with the establishment of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda by the United Nations Security Council. The creation of various internationalized or mixed criminal courts and the proposals of the International Law Commission, which resulted in the creation of the International Criminal Court in 2002, contributed to the rapid development of international criminal law during the last two decades.

This Guide is intended as a starting point for research in the field of International Criminal Law. It provides a selection of the legal materials available in the Peace Palace Library, both in print and electronic format. Manuals, leading articles, bibliographies, periodicals, serial publications and documents of interest are presented in the Bibliography section. There are also links to the PPL Catalogue inserted. Special attention is given to our subscriptions on databases, e-journals, e-books and other electronic resources. Finally, the Research Guide features links to relevant websites and other online resources of particular interest.

Bibliography

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Librarian's choice

• Yanev, L.D., Theories of Co-perpetration in International Criminal Law, Leiden, Brill Nijhoff, 2018.

  

  The proper construction of co-perpetration responsibility in international criminal law has become one of the most enduring controversies in this field, with the UN Tribunals endorsing the theory of joint criminal enterprise, and the International Criminal Court adopting the alternative joint control over the crime theory to define this mode of liability. This book seeks to reconcile the ICTY/R’s and ICC’s jurisprudence by providing a definition of co-perpetration that could be uniformly applied in the two justice models that these institutions represent: the ad hoc- and the treaty-based model. An evaluation framework is adopted, pursuant to which the origins, merits and deficiencies of the said competing theories are critically assessed, and a refined legal framework of co-perpetration responsibility is proposed.

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• Kittichaisaree, K., The Obligation to Extradite or Prosecute, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2018.

  

  Prosecution of serious crimes of international concern has been few and far between before and even after the establishment of the International Criminal Court in 2002. Hope thus rests with the implementation of the international legal obligation for States to either extradite or prosecute such perpetrators among themselves or surrender them to a competent international criminal court. This obligation was considered by the United Nations International Law Commission (ILC) which submitted its final report in 2014. Kittichaisaree, Chairman of the ILC Working Group on that topic, not only provides a guide to the final report, offering an analysis of the subject and a unique summary of its drafting history, he also covers important issues left unanswered by the report, including the customary international legal status of the obligation, the role of the universal jurisdiction, immunities of State officials, and impediments to the surrender of offenders to international criminal courts. Authoritative, encyclopaedic, and essential to those in the field, The Obligation to Extradite or Prosecute also offers practical solutions as to the road ahead.

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• Bergsmo, M., Rackwitz, K. and Tianying, S. (eds.), Historical Origins of International Criminal Law, Brussels, Torkel Opsahl Academic EPublisher, 2017.

  
  Editors' Preface:

  "This book seeks to make two contributions. First, the development of national capacity to investigate and prosecute core international crimes–genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and aggression–will continue for several decades into the future. (...) The book has been organised in four autonomous parts:

  Part I contains 41 individual expert opinions on investigations, prosecutions and questions of management, staffing and operations;

  Part II has three reports produced by groups of experts;

  Part III concerns the draft Code of Conduct and Regulations of the Office of the Prosecutor;

  Part IV explains some aspects of its first budget.

  (...) The second contribution we seek to make with this book is to open up this interesting interregnum to analysis and research, based on sound facts chronicled by first-hand materials. As such, the book contributes towards the institutional history of the ICC Office of the Prosecutor at the time of its birth. It is for this reason that the book appears as Volume 5 of Historical Origins of International Criminal Law."
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Database

Blogs

• Interview President Kosovo Specialist Chambers : Judge Ekaterina Trendafilova

  Performing duties in the field of international criminal justice requires expertise in criminal law, procedure, humanitarian law and human rights as well as a profound knowledge of evidence law. Thus, efforts to master all these closely related areas should be an important and daily part of the professional development of everyone dedicated to international criminal justice. However, to provide you with a more precise answer, apart from my knowledge on international law related areas, evidence law is of particular interest to me.

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• Gbagbo

  On January 15 2019, Mr Laurent Gbagbo, the former head of state of Côte d’Ivoire (2000-2011) and his right-hand man, Charles Blé Goudé, were acquitted from all charges of crimes against humanity that were allegedly committed between 2010 and 2011. Post-electural bloodshed in Côte d’Ivoire in 2010 resulted in the death of about 3,000 people and the displacement of 500,000. Gbagbo was charged with four counts of crimes against humanity: murder, rape, other inhumane acts or – in the alternative – attempted murder, and persecution, allegedly committed during the 2010-2011 post-election violence in Côte d’Ivoire. Gbagbo, who has pleaded not guilty, was taken into custody by the ICC in 2011. He remained in custody for seven years. The trial was a landmark in the history of the ICC. Gbagbo was the highest profile official and the first former head of state, to stand trial at the ICC since the establishment of the Court.

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• Argentina To Report Venezuela to the ICC for Alleged Crimes Against Humanity

  On August 20, the President of Argentina, Mr. Mauricio Macri, announced during a press meeting that he intends to report Venezuela to the International Criminal Court (ICC) over alleged crimes against humanity. President Macri stated that his plans to refer the Venezuelan government to the ICC are supported by Colombia, Chile and Paraguay. If Argentina succeeds, it will be the first time in history that a state party to the Rome Statute refers a fellow member to the ICC.

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• International Criminal Tribunal of Bangladesh (ICTB) sentences 4 persons to death for war crimes committed during 1971 war.

  On 17 July 2018 International Crimes Tribunal-1 of the International Criminal Tribunal of Bangladesh (ICTB) sentenced four persons to death for crimes against humanity and genocide which were committed during the 9-month war of independence of Bangladesh in 1971. This civil war resulted in mass killings, persecutions, deaths, sexual violence and displacements and genocide by the Pakistan armed forces and paramilitary groups that collaborated with them. The four accused, residents of Moulavibazar, resisted the idea of an independent Bangladesh and were affiliated in a local para military force that collaborated with the Pakistan armed forces. The crimes took place in Pachgaon village, Paschimbag village, Moulaviazar Town and at Rajanagar Police station in 1971 against those who were in favor of a liberated Bangladesh. All four have been found guilty of committing genocide of 59 Hindu villagers, raping 6 Hindu women, looting around 102 houses and setting more than 132 houses on fire in 1971.

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• Men and Boys as Hidden Victims of Sexual Violence

  Generally, victims of rape and other types of sexual violence are reluctant to speak out. Unfortunately, exclusion and stigmatization are the unavoidable corollary of acts of sexual violence. While there still is limited awareness, focus and advocacy on women’s rights in sexually violent circumstances, it is even less so when men are the victims of these crimes. Reflections on the male victims’ perspective to sexual violence in unrest inspired Sophia Ugwu and her team at Centre for African Justice Peace and Human Rights, a non-profit Foundation based in The Hague, to organise a Symposium on sexual violence perpetrated against the Male gender.

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• The ESMA Mega Trial: Crimes against Humanity during the Last Dictatorship in Argentina 1976-1983

  This blog has been written by Argentinean lawyer Federico Gaitan Hairabedian. From 2014 to 2017, he has taken on the role of a plaintiff attorney for CELS (Centre of Legal and Social Studies) in the ESMA Mega-case for the crimes committed at the Naval School of Mechanical Engineering (ESMA) representing the victims and families of those disappeared during the military dictatorship in Argentina between 1976-1983. ESMA functioned as an illegal, secret detention center during the so-called National Reorganization Process. It was the largest detention center for thousands of instances of forced disappearance, torture, and illegal execution.

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• Mali War Crimes Suspect Mr. Al Hassan Makes Initial Appearance Before the ICC

  After the Al Mahdi case, a landmark trial, a second case has been referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Timbuktu, Mali between 2012 and 2013. Another Malian national, 40-year-old Mr Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mohamed Ag Mahmoud, faces charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. He has been accused of destroying holy places, mausoleums of Muslim saints in Timbuktu and of enforcing a policy of forced marriage which had led to sexual slavery and rape of women and girls. The alleged crimes were committed between 2012 and 2013 when Timbuktu was under the control of militant islamists. From April 2012 until January 2013, Mr Al Hassan was head of the Islamic Police.

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• Perspectives on Mass Violence: Peace and Conflict Studies and Genocide Studies Compared

  This week’s compelling guest blog compares the fields of Conflict Studies with Genocide Studies, its intriguing differences and similarities and the general lack of cross-pollination between them, even though they both deal with questions of collective violence and individual participation in violence. The author, Kjell Anderson, is a jurist and social scientist and works in both fields of Conflict Studies and Genocide studies.

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• Former Nazi Officer's Plea for Mercy Rejected

  The mercy plea of Oskar Gröning, a 96-year-old former Nazi officer, has been denied. On July 15, 2015, Mr Gröning, who is also called the ‘bookkeeper of Auschwitz’, was condemned of being “guilty of aiding and abetting murder in three hundred thousand legally concurrent cases”, referring to the 300,000 murders that took place in the Nazi death camp Auschwitz during the Second World War. During the trial of 2015, Oskar Gröning expressly admitted moral guilt, but not criminal guilt.

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• ICTY Sentences Ratko Mladić to Life Imprisonment

  Ratko Mladić, the former commander of the Bosnian Serb army and one-time fugitive from international justice, has been sentenced to life imprisonment after being convicted of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) at The Hague. The “Butcher of Bosnia” to his enemies and critics, Mladić was the most notorious of the ICTY’s 161 indictees, along with former Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadžić and late Serbian President Slobodan Milosević. The ICTY convicted Mladić of crimes it labelled as some of the “most heinous” in human history, in one of the highest profile war crimes cases since the post-World War Two Nuremberg trials of Germany’s Nazi leadership.

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• Are Syria and Iraq the Middle Eastern Bloodlands?

  Deir az-Zor is a sleepy town on the banks of the Euphrates in the Syrian desert, and did not ring much of a bell for most non-Syrians. Except for Armenians. During the 1915 Armenian Genocide, the Ottoman government deported hundreds of thousands of Ottoman Armenians to Deir az-Zor, where they were left to die or were killed outright. A German diplomat who was stationed in that area wrote that the Armenians were “slaughtered like sheep”. To the casual observer this looked allegorical or even hyperbolical, in any case unreal, removed far away in geography, time, and culture. Until recent times, when ISIS videos surfaced online. And again the desert soil of Deir az-Zor shone red with blood, and once more the word ‘Deir az-Zor’ served as a symbol of bloodshed.

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• Using the G-Word?

  Using the term genocide to describe a set of crimes potentially entails moral, political and legal consequences for States, with the ultimate fear of being dragged in a military ordeal. It is therefore the cause of many heavily disputed matters. Consequently, there is a high threshold for governments and parliaments to occasion a genocide determination, euphemistically known as the G-word. When in 1994 the depth of massacres in Rwanda emerged ‘’U.S. officials were afraid that the use of the stinging term would cause demands for intervention that the administration did not intend to meet’’.

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• Africa and withdrawal from the ICC

  Currently, 124 countries have ratified the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. But the USA, China and the Russian Federation for example have not. 139 States have signed the Rome Statute. Of those states, 34 are African states (comprising 30 percent of the court’s membership), 28 States are Latin American and Caribbean States, 19 are Asia-Pacific States, 18 are Eastern European states and 25 are from Western Europe and other States. In the past few days three African countries have announced that they intend to withdraw from the ICC. On October 18, 2016, Pierre Nkurunziza, the President of Burundi signed legislation on withdrawal from the ICC.

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• New (E-)book: Historical War Crimes Trials in Asia

  Torkel Opsahl Academic EPublisher (TOAEP) in Brussels has published a new (e-)book : Historical War Crimes Trials in Asia edited by Daqun Liu and Binxin Zhang. The TOAEP furthers the objective of excellence in research, scholarship and education by publishing worldwide through the Internet. The publisher has four publications series: the Publication Series, the Policy Brief Series, the Occasional Paper Series and the Law of the Future Series. The Peace Palace Library wishes to thank the Torkel Opsahl Academic EPublisher for donating all books on print.

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• War Crimes Investigations in the UK: All is Fair in Law and War?

  While the last British troops left Iraq in 2011, national and international investigations into the UK military’s conduct in Iraq are still ongoing and continue to spark controversy. Civil lawsuits as well as criminal prosecutions could still be on the horizon for some British soldiers. Gerry Simpson described this continuous quest for justice and the backlash against its results as the human dilemma of “wanting justice and being ‘sick of giving it’”. This blog will examine the British involvement in Iraq and the alleged war crimes committed during their mission, and the efforts and initiatives undertaken to discover the truth and to seek justice.

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• From The Hague to Nuremberg: Our Visit to Nuremberg

  From Sunday 8 November 2015 to Tuesday 10 November 2015, Sophie Brinkel, Candice Alihusain and Fé de Jonge, visited the city of Nuremberg in Germany. This city is internationally known for the war crimes trials that took place in Nuremberg after the Second World War, from 1945 to 1949. These trials encompassed both the International Military Tribunal, which was created by the Allied forces, and the subsequent Nuremberg Trials, organized by the USA authorities.

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• An Ad Hoc Hybrid Special Court for Sri Lanka: What Does It Take?

  On 16 September 2015, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka issued two reports on promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka. Their recommendation: the creation of an ad hoc hybrid special court to try war crimes and crimes against humanity. Which crimes were committed and how did the international community reach such a recommendation? This post will take a look at the civil war which plagued Sri Lanka for 25 years, the subsequent international response and finally, what does it take to create an ad hoc hybrid tribunal?

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• AAIL-AFIL Distinguished Lecture Series

  The African Association of International Law and the African Foundation for International Law are organizing the second lecture in the AAIL-AFIL Lecture Series in association with the Hague Academy of International Law. The lecture will take place on 19 June 2015 at 6.00 p. m. in the Historical Reading Room at the Peace Palace. The lecture will be followed by a reception. Earlier this month, on June 3, Justice Hassan B. Jallow addressed the United Nations Security Council and presented a progress report on the work of the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

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• International Corporate Criminal Liability at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon: Prosecutor v. Karma Al Khayat and Al Jadeed

  On Thursday the 16th of April, the trial against journalist Karma Al Khayat and television network Al Jadeed started at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) in Leidschendam, the Netherlands. Both Ms. Karma Al Khayat and Al Jadeed are charged with contempt of court and obstruction of justice. Because the alleged crimes are media-related and the accused have argued that the trial threatens the freedom of press, the case has already attracted much attention. However, what is more striking is the fact that this is the first time a legal person is prosecuted by an international or internationalized criminal court.

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• A Supreme Offence against International Morality and the Sanctity of Treaties: William II of Hohenzollern and the Treaty of Versailles

  Early during World War I, jurists and statesmen in both France and Great-Britain, such as Larnaude and Lapradelle, had advocated the German Emperor William II to be arrested and brought to trial. The principle that military officers should be held personally responsible for orders in violation of the laws and customs of war, if pushed to its logical limits, would render commanders-in-chief, that is heads of State, liable for illegal acts for which they are responsible, directly or indirectly. And in Germany, there was one commander-in-chief: the Emperor William II.

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• Achievements of the ICTY

  Twenty years ago the United Nations Security Council unanimously adapted Resolution 827. With this resolution the international community envisaged to put to trial those individuals that were alleged to be responsible for grave crimes against humanity, infractions of international humanitarian law and the law of war which have been committed during the Yugoslav wars (1991-1999). The United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), was the first ad hoc criminal tribunal that came into existence since the erection of the Nuremberg and Tokyo Tribunals after World War II.

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• Homeland, Zero Dark Thirty and Jack Bauer: Rendition, Torture and the Demise of American Values

  The latest in a series of Hollywood productions which reopened a debate about torture and extraordinary rendition is Zero Dark Thirty. Real life variations of Hollywood-scenarios have been unfolding as the US government has engaged in a program of extraordinary rendition since the Clinton Administration and which became widespread under the Bush Administration following the September 11 terrorist attacks.This blog examines Obama’s policy towards torture and (extraordinary) rendition.

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• Crimes against Cultural Property in Mali

  In an earlier Peace Palace Library blog (Cultucide in Timbuktu: Shari’a and war crimes) Ingrid Kost wrote that the Islamist Group Ansar (Ed)dine (“Defenders of the Faith”) destroyed some of the age-old mausolea of Sufi Saints in Timbuktu, Mali. One of the major causes of destruction of cultural property (the illicit trading, stealing and looting of cultural property is not covered in this blog) over the ages has been armed conflict. Crimes against cultural property should therefore be addressed properly.

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• The International Criminal Prosecution Of Gender Crimes

  When we first think about wars and armed conflicts, we very often think about battlefields, burned villages, wounded soldiers, air-bombs and tanks. We tend to forget that civilians, women and children in particular, are at the centre of warfare and frequently fall victim to sexual violence in staggering numbers. The international community and the UN Security Council have established that gender crimes are part of the most serious of international crimes and should therefore be of great concern to the international community as a whole. In spite of this, international crimes involving sexual violence continue to be one of the most difficult crimes to prosecute.

  This blog will briefly discuss the international criminal prosecution of gender crimes by various international legal institutions.

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• The ICC's 10th Anniversary

  Ten years ago, on 1 July 2002 the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) entered into force. At the moment there are 121 States Parties to the Rome Statute. The ICC is the first permanent international court for the prosecution of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

  What has been achieved by the Court since 2002?

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• Cultucide in Timbuktu: Shari’a and War Crimes

  Last weekend the Islamist Group Ansar Eddine (“Defenders of the Faith”) destroyed some of the age-old mausolea of Sufi Saints in Timbuktu. Despite the fact that recently on June 28 2012, these mausolea were placed on the UNESCO List of World Heritage in Danger.

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• The African Union and the International Criminal Court

  The handling of the ICC arrest warrant against the Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir continues to create major problems for the African Union. The planned attendance by Al-Bashir of the 19th AU Summit in Malawi coming July and the threat of the Malawi government to arrest him if he did attend has forced the African Union to move the summit to its headquarters in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa.

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• Judgment in the Trial of Former Liberian President Charles Taylor

  On Thursday 26 April, Trial Chamber II of the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) delivered its verdict in the case against Charles Taylor, former president of Liberia. Taylor was found criminally responsible of aiding and abetting rebel forces in the commission of 11 counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity and other serious violations of international humanitarian law in neighboring Sierra Leone during its civil war.

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• The International Criminal Court Delivers Judgment on Child Soldiers

  On Wednesday 14 March, Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court (ICC) delivered it’s first verdict. In a unanimous decision three judges convicted Thomas Lubanga Dyilo of the war crimes of conscripting, enlisting, and using children under the age of 15 to participate actively in hostilities. With this judgment the ICC firmly establishes the use of children in armed conflict as an international crime and also focuses renewed attention on the many thousands of children still used in various other conflicts in the world.

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• Eichmann Trial 50 years

  Lecture in the Peace Palace Library on the Eichmann trial, that took place 50 yeras ago.

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• Ratko Mladić's arrest and the ICTY

  It was all over the news that Ratko Mladić, one of two remaining the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) fugitives, was arrested on Thursday 26th of May in the village of Lazarevo, northern Serbia. After 16 years on the run, the arrest of this Colonel General, former Commander of the Main Staff […]

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• Libya and the International Criminal Court (ICC)

  On February 16th 2011- following a wave of uprisings throughout the Middle-East- Libya experienced a so-called Day of Rage which led to protests breaking out to challenge Colonel Muammar Qadhafi’s 41 year old iron rule- the region’s longest. This blog will briefly discuss the actions taken by the United Nations Security Council and the ICC in response to the unfolding humanitarian crisis in Libya.

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• Dresden 1945: An Allied War Crime?

  Since 1945, the bombing of Dresden is considered by many as a violation of international law and as a crime against humanity, even though positive rules of international humanitarian law were absent at the time. The Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907, were among the first formal statements of the laws of war and war crimes in the nascent body of international law. However these conventions, adressing the codes of wartime conduct on land and at sea, were adopted before the rise of air power. Despite repeated diplomatic attempts (→ The Hague Rules of Air Warefare 1922/1923) to update international humanitarian law to include aerial warfare, it was not done before the outbreak of World War II. The absence of positive international humanitarian law does not mean that the laws of war did not cover aerial warfare, but there was no general agreement of how to interpret those laws. The aerial bombardment of Dresden does not only raise the question as to whether or not it was an Allied war crime, but it also makes a moral appeal to prevent total war against civilian populations. It’s memory is kept alive.

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• Arabian leaders try to tackle tension in Lebanon

  King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and Syrian President Bashar Assad visited Beirut on Friday 30th July in a show of unity before the Special Tribunal for Lebanon’s indictments in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Lebanon’s president, prime minister and parliamentary speaker stood side by side to receive the heads of state as they descended from a Saudi jet onto a red carpet at Rafik Hariri International Airport. The visit appeared to be an attempt to quell anxiety in Lebanon that followed a speech last week by Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the militant group Hezbollah, in which he denied links between his party and Hariri’s death.

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• The First Review Conference of the ICC Statute & the Crime of Aggression Part II

  After two weeks of intense debates and years of preparatory work by the Special Working Group on the Crime of Aggression, the Review Conference of the Rome Statute adopted by consensus amendments to the Rome Statute which includes a definition of the Crime of Aggression and determined how the Court will exercise its jurisdiction over the crime.

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• Suspension of Spain’s Investigating Judge Garzón

  On Friday, 14 May 2010, Spain’s General Council of the Judiciary in an emergency session decided to suspend National Court investigating judge Baltasar Garzón pending his trial for knowingly exceeding his jurisdiction by initiating an investigation into the crimes committed during the country’s civil war and the Franco regime, despite an existing amnesty law.

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• The First Review of the ICC Statute and the Crime of Aggression

  From May 31st until June 11th 2010, state parties to the International Criminal Court (ICC) will meet in Kampala, Uganda for the first Review Conference of the Rome Statute. One of the most important issues on the agenda is the legal definition of the crime of aggression. This blog will discuss some of the legal complexities in finding an international consensus on the definition of this crime.

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• New Institute for Counter-terrorism in the Hague

  Three Hague-based organizations, T.M.C. Asser Institute, the Centre for Terrorism and Counterterrorism of the University of Leiden/Campus Den Haag and the Dutch Institute for International Relations ‘Clingendael’, announced to join forces to set up an independent institute that will contribute to the study and policy-making in the field of counter-terrorism. The institute is financed by […]

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• ICTY Judgement in Florence Hartmann Case

  On Monday, 14 September, the Specially Appointed Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) convicted French journalist Florence Hartmann for contempt of the Tribunal (Case No. IT-02-54-R77.5, full Judgement [PDF], Judgement Summary [PDF]).

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• ICC Issues Arrest Warrant for al-Bashir

  On Wednesday, 4 March, the Pre-Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced its decision to issue a warrant for the arrest of the Sudanese President, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, for crimes against humanity and war crimes (Read here Decision [PDF], Summary of the Decision [PDF], Arrest Warrant [PDF], and Press Release).

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• Al-Bashir Arrest Warrant!

  On Thursday, 12 February, the International Criminal Court (ICC) informed the media that no decision had yet been taken by the Pre-Trial Chamber on last year’s application of Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo for an arrest warrant against the Sudanese President, Omar Hassan al-Bashir. The statement came in reaction to an article in the New York Times on Wednesday that the ICC had actually decided to issue the arrest warrant for al –Bashir.

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• Impressions of the 60 years Genocide Convention

  Impressions of the 60 years Genocide Convention On Sunday 7 and Monday 8 December, The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies in Amsterdam, the Amsterdam Center for International Law and the Peace Palace Library organized a conference in The Hague to mark the 60th anniversary of the Genocide Convention. At the conference several legal and […]

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• Genocide Convention at Sixty!

  The Genocide Convention at Sixty!
  In 1948 the UN General Assembly unanimously adopted the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide .
  To commemorate this fact: 1) A special issue of Case Western Reserve Journal of International law (Vol. 40, 2008, No. 1-2) and 2) two-day conference in The Hague in the Peace Palace

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• Remembrance Slave Trade and its Abolition

  Saturday 23 August marks the UN nineth annual International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition.

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• Rwandan Genocide Report.

  A report published by President Paul Kagame’s government accuses France of complicity in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, by supporting and training Hutu leaders and their militia carrying out the massacres that killed 800.000 people.

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• Peace and Justice!

  On Thursday, 31 July, the United Nations Security Council adopted resolution 1828 (2008) renewing the mandate of UNAMID, the UN-African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur, for another year (resolution [PDF] and meeting record S/PV.5947 [PDF]).

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• Judgement of ICTY Trial Chamber in Contempt of Court Case

  On Thursday, 24 June, the Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) convicted Kosovar journalist Baton Haxhiu for contempt of the Tribunal (Case No. IT-04-84-R77.5, judgement [PDF]).

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• Karadžić located and arrested

  During the night of the 21st of July Radovan Karadžić was located and arrested by Serbian security officers.

  Radovan Karadžić is charged with genocide for the murder of close to 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995. The indictment alleges that Radovan Karadžić also committed genocide, persecutions and other crimes when forces under his command killed non-Serbs during and after attacks on towns throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina.

  The arrest of Radovan Karadžić was welcomed as a “milestone” by war crimes prosecutors of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia [ICTY]in The Hague.

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• Judgement of the ICTY Appeals Chamber in the 'Dubrovnik' Case

  On Thursday, 17 July, the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) rendered its judgement [PDF document] on the appeals of both the Prosecution and the Defense against the conviction and sentence of the former Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) General Pavle Strugar (Case No. IT-01-42-A).

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• ICC Prosecutor Presents Second Case on Crimes in Darfur

  On Monday, 14 July, Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo of the International Criminal Court (ICC) filed an application for an arrest warrant and submitted to the Judges of the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber evidence of crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Darfur by the Sudanese President, Omar Hassan al-Bashir (Read here the Application for warrant of arrest [PDF]).

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• Tenth Anniversary Celebration of the Statute of Rome

  On 3 July 2008, the 10th anniversary of the Rome Statute [PDF]of the International Criminal Court was celebrated here, at Peace Palace in The Hague, in the presence of Her Royal Highness Princess Máxima of the Netherlands. The event started with speeches of Mr. Maxime Verhagen, Minister of Foreign Affairs of The Netherlands, Ms. Rama […]

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Links

See also

More Research guides on International Criminal Law

• Terrorism
• Transnational Crime

PPL keywords

• Aggression
• Crimes against humanity
• Genocide
• International crimes
• International Criminal Court
• International criminal justice
• International criminal law
• International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
• International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
• Special Court for Sierra Leone
• Special Tribunal for Lebanon
• War crimes

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