Group Work Essay Subject International Criminallaw.pdf

lOMoARcPSD|38362288 MINISTRY OF JUSTICE HANOI LAW UNIVERSITY GROUP WORK ESSAY SUBJECT INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL LAW Topic: Topic number Group : No.3 Class : 4533 : N01 – TL1 Hanoi, 2022 Downloaded by chat tailieu (chattailieu@gmail.com) lOMoARcPSD|38362288 Table of Contents Topic: I The necessity and legal basis for establishing The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda II Jurisdiction of The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda III Crimes under the jurisdiction of The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda IV Main features of the legal process of The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda Conclusion BIBLIOGRAPHY 10 Downloaded by chat tailieu (chattailieu@gmail.com) lOMoARcPSD|38362288 Topic: The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda Analyze the following issues about The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda: - The necessity and legal basis for establishing The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda - Jurisdiction of The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda - Crimes under the jurisdiction of The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda - Main features of the legal process of The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda Downloaded by chat tailieu (chattailieu@gmail.com) lOMoARcPSD|38362288 I The necessity and legal basis for establishing The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) is the first international court of law established to prosecute high-ranking individuals for massive human rights violations in Africa The purpose of this court is to prosecute those allegedly responsible for the 1994 Rwandan Genocide Following the assassination of Hutu President Juvenal Habyarimana on April 1994, the Great Lakes country of Rwanda descended into civil war and genocide Hutu extremists in the National Republican Movement for Development and Democracy (MRND) and the Rwandan Armed Forces (RAF) launched an extermination campaign against moderate Hutu and the entire Tutsi ethnic minority By the time the civil war and genocide ended on 19 July 1994, over 800,000 Rwandans had been murdered In an effort to punish those responsible for genocide, the United Nations established the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda On November 1994, the United Nations Security Council adopted resolution 955 (1994), which established “an international tribunal for the sole purpose of prosecuting persons responsible for genocide and other serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in the territory of Rwanda and Rwandan citizens responsible for genocide and other such violations committed in the territory of neighboring States, between January 1994 and 31 December 1994.” As a Chapter VII Security Council resolution, the ICTR asserts primacy over the domestic laws and national courts of third States, and has the ability to force the surrender of an accused, be they a Rwandan citizen or not, located in Rwanda or any third State As provided in Security Council resolution 977 (1995) of 22 February 1995, the ICTR is headquartered in Arusha, Tanzania, with additional offices located in Kigali, New York and The Hague II Jurisdiction of The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda In July 1994, after the genocide was over, the UN Security Council called for an investigation of the events and acted to establish an international criminal Downloaded by chat tailieu (chattailieu@gmail.com) lOMoARcPSD|38362288 tribunal to prosecute those individuals most responsible for the genocide Adopting Resolution 955, the Security Council created the ICTR on November 1994 and the ICTR would also deal with other crimes against international humanitarian law committed on the territory of Rwanda and neighboring states between January 1994 and 31 December 1994 The ICTR is the first ever international tribunal to deliver verdicts in relation to genocide, and the first to interpret the definition of genocide set forth in the 1948 Geneva Convention1 It also is the first international tribunal to define rape in international criminal law and to recognize rape as a means of perpetrating genocide Having been established by the Security Council acting under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Genocide and Other Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of Rwanda and Rwandan citizens responsible for genocide and other such violations committed in the territory of neighboring States, between January 1994 and 31 December 1994 (hereinafter referred to as "the International Tribunal for Rwanda") shall function in accordance with the provisions of the present Statute The International Tribunal for Rwanda shall have the power to prosecute persons responsible for serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in the territory of Rwanda and Rwandan citizens responsible for such violations committed in the territory of neighboring States, between January 1994 and 31 December 1994, in accordance with the provisions of the present Statute So far, the ICTR has finished nineteen trials and convicted twenty-seven accused persons On 14 December 2009, two more men were accused and convicted for their crimes Another twenty-five persons are still on trial Twenty-one are awaiting trial in detention, two more added on 14 December 2009 Ten are still at large The first trial, of Jean-Paul Akayesu, Lang, Berel (2005) "The Evil in Genocide" Genocide and Human Rights: A Philosophical Guide Palgrave Macmillan UK pp 5–17 Downloaded by chat tailieu (chattailieu@gmail.com) lOMoARcPSD|38362288 began in 1997 In October 1998, Akayesu was sentenced to life imprisonment Jean Kambanda, interim Prime Minister, pleaded guilty The International Tribunal for Rwanda and national courts shall have concurrent jurisdiction to prosecute persons for serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in the territory of Rwanda and Rwandan citizens for such violations committed in the territory of the neighboring States, between January 1994 and 31 December 1994.2 In the article and of STATUTE OF THE INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL FOR RWANDA 1994 Article 7: Territorial and Temporal Jurisdiction The territorial jurisdiction of the International Tribunal for Rwanda shall extend to the territory of Rwanda including its land surface and airspace as well as to the territory of neighboring States in respect of serious violations of international humanitarian law committed by Rwandan citizens The temporal jurisdiction of the International Tribunal for Rwanda shall extend to a period beginning on January 1994 and ending on 31 December 1994 Article 8: Concurrent Jurisdiction The International Tribunal for Rwanda and national courts shall have concurrent jurisdiction to prosecute persons for serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in the territory of Rwanda and Rwandan citizens for such violations committed in the territory of the neighboring States, between January 1994 and 31 December 1994 The International Tribunal for Rwanda shall have the primacy over the national courts of all States At any stage of the procedure, the International Tribunal for Rwanda may formally request national courts to defer to its competence in accordance with the present Statute and the Rules of Procedure and Evidence of the International Tribunal for Rwanda Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide art 2, 78 U.N.T.S 277, December 1948 Downloaded by chat tailieu (chattailieu@gmail.com) lOMoARcPSD|38362288 III Crimes under the jurisdiction of The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has played a pioneering role in the establishment of a credible international criminal justice system, producing a substantial body of jurisprudence on genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, as well as forms of individual and superior responsibility Articles 2, and of Statute of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, November 1994 contain the crimes under the ICTR’s jurisdiction The ICTR's jurisdiction was limited to acts of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, as defined in its Statute, committed in Rwanda or by Rwandan nationals in neighboring States between January 1, 1994, and December 31, 1994 Genocide (Article 2) According to article of 1994 ICTR’statute: Genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: Killing members of the group; Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group Article of the Statute stipulates that the Tribunal shall have the power to prosecute persons responsible for genocide, complicity to commit genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide, attempt to commit genocide and complicity in genocide Crimes against humanity (Article 3) The International Tribunal for Rwanda shall have the power to prosecute persons responsible for the following crimes when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against any civilian population on national, political, ethnic, racial or religious grounds: Murder; Extermination; Downloaded by chat tailieu (chattailieu@gmail.com) lOMoARcPSD|38362288 Enslavement; Deportation; Imprisonment; Torture; Rape; Persecutions on political, racial and religious grounds; Other inhumane acts Violations of Article common to the Geneva Conventions and of Additional Protocol II (Article 4) (a)Violence to life, health and physical or mental well-being of persons, in particular murder as well as cruel treatment such as torture, mutilation or any form of corporal punishment;(b) Collective punishments; (c) Taking of hostages; (d) Acts of terrorism; (e) Outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment, rape, enforced prostitution and any form of indecent assault; (f) Pillage; (g) The passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgement pronounced by a regularly constituted court, affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples; (h) Threats to commit any of the foregoing acts The ICTR completed its first cases in 1998 In May former Rwandan prime minister Jean Kambanda pleaded guilty to six charges of genocide and was sentenced to life imprisonment on September On September 1998, he was found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity (Article of Statue of ICTR) With this case, the ICTR became the first international tribunal to enter a judgement for genocide and the first to interpret the definition of genocide set forth in the Geneva Conventions, according to the UN Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals In the same judgement, the ICTR also defined the crime of rape in international criminal law and recognized rape as a means of perpetrating genocide It is also the first time that rape is defined as means of perpetrating genocide Akayesu was sentenced to life and found guilty of crimes against humanity for “ordering, aiding and abetting” rape3 IV Main features of the legal process of The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda The power of bearing witness – how rape became an ‘act of genocide’, https://www.un.org/africarenewal/web- features/podcast-power-bearing-witness-%E2%80%93-how-rape-became-%E2%80%98act-genocide %E2%80%99; Downloaded by chat tailieu (chattailieu@gmail.com) lOMoARcPSD|38362288 The ICTR is governed by its Statute, which is annexed to Security Council resolution 955 (1994) The ICTR consists of three major organs: the Chambers, the Office of the Prosecutor and the Registry There are four Chambers in which judges adjudicate trials and motions before the ICTR: three lower Trial Chambers and one Appeals Chamber Although all three of the lower Trial Chambers are located in Arusha, the ICTR Appeals Chamber also adjudicates for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, and is located in The Hague, Netherlands In total, the Chambers consist of 16 permanent judges and ad litem judges, all chosen by the United Nations General Assembly There are three permanent judges for each of the three Trial Chambers, and seven permanent judges for the Appeals Chamber; however, only five of these seven permanent judges sit on the Appeals Chamber at any given time Although ad litem judges serve on the ICTR, they are selected from a pool of 18 ad litem judges The pool of 18 ad litem judges was created to expedite the judicial process on 14 August 2002 through Security Council resolution 1431 (2002) Originally, only four ad litem judges could serve on the ICTR at any given time, but due to the pressures of the judicial calendar and the Security Council’s desire to close down the Tribunal by 2009, the number of serving ad litem judges was increased to nine on 27 October 2003 through resolution 1512 (2003) The Office of the Prosecutor is responsible for investigating all crimes under which the ICTR has jurisdiction, prepares indictments, and prosecutes defendants The Registry is responsible for providing all administrative support to the Chambers and the Prosecutor The first trial started in January 1997, and by December 2012, the Tribunal had completed the trial phase of its mandate Of the 92 persons indicted for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, 49 were found guilty and convicted, cases were withdrawn, 10 were referred to national jurisdictions (2 to France, and to Rwanda), accused died before completion of their cases, Downloaded by chat tailieu (chattailieu@gmail.com) lOMoARcPSD|38362288 and 14 of the accused were acquitted Nine accused are still at large As of March 2014, the cases against 12 accused remain on appeal On January 1997, the ICTR held its first trial, one of the most momentous cases in international law: The Prosecutor v Jean-Paul Akayesu At the start of his trial, Akayesu faced 12 charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and violations of common article of the 1949 Geneva Conventions in the form of murder, torture and cruel treatment In June 1997, the Prosecutor added “three counts of crimes against humanity and violations of common article 3/Additional Protocol II for rape, inhumane acts and indecent assault” (Report of the ICTR (S/1997/868)) These additional counts marked the first time in the history of international law that rape was considered a component of genocide The conviction of the prime minister during the genocide, Jean Kambanda, to life in prison in 1998 was the first time a head of government was convicted for the crime of genocide The Tribunal’s “Media Case” in 2003 was the first judgment since the conviction of Julius Streicher at Nuremberg after World War II to examine the role of the media in the context of international criminal justice Conclusion Along with the ICTY the only other ad hoc international war crimes tribunal the Security Council has established through the UN Charter’s Chapter VII authority, the ICTR represents a significant development in transitional justice The establishment of ICTR and ICTY has been an indispensable basis for the construction of the Rome Statute, helping the United Nations to develop international criminal law to demand justice for those who suffer from the crimes covered by the Rome Statute However, the current model of the international criminal court is still influenced by political institutions, especially the great powers, to achieve their goals 10 Downloaded by chat tailieu (chattailieu@gmail.com) lOMoARcPSD|38362288 BIBLIOGRAPHY Binaifer Nowrojee, “Your Justice is Too Slow” Will the ICTR Fail Rwanda’s Rape Victims? Augustine Brannigan, Nicholas A Jones, Genocide and the Legal Process in Rwanda From Genocide Amnesty to the New Rule of Law; Michael Humphrey, International intervention, justice and national reconciliation: the role of the ICTY and ICTR in Bosnia and Rwanda Michael P Scharf (2008), “statute of the international criminal tribunal for rwanda”, United Nations; Lang, Berel "The Evil in Genocide" Genocide and Human Rights: A Philosophical Guide Palgrave Macmillan UK The power of bearing witness – how rape became an ‘act of genocide’, https://www.un.org/africarenewal/web-features/podcast-power-bearing- witness-%E2%80%93-how-rape-became-%E2%80%98act-genocide %E2%80%99; 11 Downloaded by chat tailieu (chattailieu@gmail.com)