A United Nations Security Council discussion on the role of the International Criminal Court (ICC) is an important opportunity to address inconsistencies in the Security Council’s referrals to the court. The Security Council discussion, its first ever debate on the ICC open to all UN members, is scheduled for October 17, 2012.

 

Hundreds of victims of the 2009 massacre, rapes, and other abuses by security forces in Guinea have yet to see justice done on the eve of the third anniversary of the attacks. The Guinean government should increase support for the domestic investigation of the crimes so that those responsible can be held to account without further delay. 

 

In the course of three days in late August, I travelled from Courtroom 600 in Nuremberg, Germany, where an international military tribunal tried 21 top Nazi leaders in 1945-46, to Courtroom 2 at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Courtroom 2 is the site of proceedings against Khalid Sheik Mohammed and the four others accused of masterminding the attacks on 11 September 2001. The contrast could not be more stark.

Twenty-one years after his overthrow and flight to Senegal, the former Chadian dictator Hissène Habré may finally face trial for brutality against his own people. On Tuesday, July 24, four days after the world court in The Hague ruled that Senegal must bring Habré to justice, Senegal and the African Union agreed on a plan for a special court to try Habré. Senegal's new president, Macky Sall, says he wants proceedings to begin later this year.