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International Criminal Court: Summary of the prosecutor's Application for Warrant of Arrest Against Omar Hassan Ahmad Al Bashir

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 February 2017

William R. Slomanson
William R. Slomanson*
Affiliation:
Thomas Jefferson School of Law, Pristina University(Kosovo)
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Information
International Legal Materials , Volume 47 , Issue 5 , October 2008 , pp. 829 - 832
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 2008

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References

Endnotes

1 In April 2007, I.C.C. judges issued arrest warrants charging the Sudanese Minister of State for the Interior, and a Militia Janjaweed leader, with crimes against humanity (I.C.C. Statute, Art. 7) and war crimes (Art. 8). Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, 17 July 1998, UN Doc A/ CONF.183/9 (1998), entered into force 1 July 2002, [hereinafter Rome Statute], available at http://www.icc-cpi.int/library/about/officialjournal/Rome_Statute_120704-EN.pdf.

2 See, e.g., Arrest Warrant of 11 April 2000 (Dem. Rep. Congo v. Belg.), Judgment I.C.J. Reports 2002, p. 3, available at http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/121/8126.pdf.

3 Major definitional breakthroughs were signaled in the jurisprudence of the I.C.T.Y. and the I.C.T.R. The blockbuster is the I.C.J.'s comprehensive work product collated in the 175- page Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Bosn. &Herz. v. Serb. &Mont.), Judgment I.C.J. Reports 2007, available at http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/91/13685.pdf. For an edited 37-page version, see http://slomanson.tjsl.edu/11.l_Bosnia_v_FRYGeno.pdf.

4 Press Release, International Criminal Court, Statement by Mr.Luis Moreno Ocampo to the United Nations Security Council Pursuant to UNSCR 1593 (June 5, 2008), available at http://www.icc cpi.int/library/press/pressreleases/ICC-OTP-ST20080605-ENG.pdf [hereinafter Prosecutor's Security Council Statement].

5 S.C. Res. 1593, 1, U.N. Doc. S/RES/1593 (March 31, 2005) (refers the situation prevailing in Darfur, since 1 July 2002, to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court) [hereinafter Resolution 1593]; see also Press Release C/8351, Security Council, Security Council Refers Situation in Darfur, Sudan, to Prosecutor of International Criminal Court, U.N. Doc. SC/ 8351 (March 31,2005), available at http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2005/sc8351.doc.htm.

6 Summary of Prosecutor's Application to Pre-trial Chamber I, Situation in Darfur, the Sudan, ICC-02/05, International Criminal Court (14 July 2008), available at http://www.icc-cpi.int/library/cases/icc-02-05-152eng.pdf [hereinafter Prosecutor's Application for Arrest Warrant].

7 Rome Statute, supra note 1, Art. 58.

8 Id. Art. 58.

9 See Sarah Andrews, U.S. Courts Rule on Absolute Immunity and Inviolability of Foreign Heads of State: The Cases against Robert Mugabe and Jiang Zemin, ASJL INSIGHTS, NOV. 2004, http://www.asil.Org/insights/2004/ll/insightO41122.html.

10 Regina v. Bartle and the Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis and Others, Ex Parte Pinochet Ugarte, 2 All. E.R. 97 (H.L. 1999), available at http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/ldl99899/ldjudgmt/jd990324/pinol.htm (edited version available at http://home.att.net/slomansonb/pinochet.html).

11 See International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia - Milošević Trial Public Archive, http://hague.bard.edu.

12 See Genocide in international law, infra note 27, at 544: ’ ‘In fact, its application was almost never clear because of the very strict definition of the crime of genocide. As [professor] Georg Swarzenberger noted cynically: ‘the Convention is unnecessary when applicable and inapplicable when necessary.'“

13 Rome Statute, supra note 1, Art. 27(1) (“[i]n particular … a Head of State or Government“) and Art. 27(2) (“Immunities … under national or international law, shall not bar the Court from exercising its jurisdiction“). The Statute's latent category, Crimes of Aggression, cannot be charged until a treaty amendment that would define its parameters. See The international criminal court and the crime of aggression (Mauro Politi & Giuseppe Nesi eds., 200,4).

14 I.C.T.Y. and I.C.T.R. jurisdiction (not to mention the hybrid national-international special tribunals) has focused on events in specific geographic locals, and for a limited timeframe. Such was the work product of the U.N. Security Council's post-Cold War activism, necessitated by lack of State consent. While one could say the same, regarding the Security Council's 2005 reference of The Situation in Darfur to the I.C.C., that triggering mechanism was approved by the State parties to the Rome Statute.

15 Rome Statute, supra note 1, Art. 12.

16 Prosecutor's Security Council Statement, supra note 4, at 2.

17 See Florian razesberger, the international criminal court: the principle complementarity (2006).

18 Prosecutor's Security Council Statement, supra note 4, at 3.

19 See Rome Statute, supra note 1.

20 See id. Art. 2. This listing mirrors Article 6 of the Genocide Convention, infra note 28.

21 For further details, see Sudanese President Makes First Public Threat to Expel Peacekeepers, Sudan Tribune, Aug. 26, 2008, available at http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?-page=imprimable&id_article=28364. Prosecutor's Application for Arrest Warrant, supra note 6, at7 (italics in original).“Sudan,” ironically, evolves from the Arabic phrase Bilad-al-sudan, which literally translates to “Country of the blacks.“ See Online etymological dictionary, at http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=sudan&searchmode=none.

24 Prosecutor's Application for Arrest Warrant, supra note 6, at 8 (italics in original).

25 Prosecutor's Security Council Statement, supra note 4, at 4.

26 Id. at 1.

27 International tribunals experience enormous difficulties with fact-finding, burden of proof, and the overarching wording of the Genocide Convention. Classic illustrations are provided in Fact-finding before international tribunals (Richard Lillich ed., Ardsley-on-Hudson, NY: Transnational, 1990); Mojtaba kazazi, burden of proof and related issues: A Study on evidence before international tribunals (1996); and william a. schabas, genocide in international law (2000) [hereinafter Genocide in international law].

28 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (9 December 1948) 78 U.N.T.S. 227, available at http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/p_genoci.htm. See also, Marko Milanovic, ICC Prosecutor charges the President of Sudan with Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes in Darfur, ASIL INSIGHTS, July 28, 2008, http:// www.asil.org/insights/2008/07/insights080728.html.

29 U.N. Charter, Art. 2, para. 7, available at http://www.un.org/aboutun/charter.

30 Id.