• Street vendor watches live broadcast of verdict being delivered by United Nations-backed court in the Hague convicting former Liberian president Charles Taylor in Freetown.
    © 2012 Reuters
    Sierra Leone: Landmark Conviction of Liberian Ex-President

    The conviction on April 26, 2012, of Charles Taylor, the former president of Liberia, for serious international crimes during Sierra Leone’s brutal armed conflict provides justice for victims and shows that no one is above the law. Taylor was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity before the United Nations-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone on charges that stemmed from his support for rebel groups there.

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International Justice

  • A Flawed Court in Need of Credibility
    May 21, 2012

    Ten years ago, when the treaty creating the International Criminal Court took effect, the prospect of holding heads of state and powerful warlords to account for mass slaughter seemed like science fiction. Today the signs carried by Syrian protesters demanding “Assad to The Hague” are powerful testimony that the court is making its presence felt.

  • Bahrain: Human Rights Body Should Target Repression
    May 20, 2012

    United Nations member states should scrutinize Bahrain’s deplorable human rights record during the country’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) at the UN Human Rights Council on May 21, 2012. The international community should push Bahrain to adopt specific measures to ensure free expression and peaceful assembly, end torture, free political prisoners, and establish credible accountability mechanisms for continuing abuses.

  • UN Security Council: Press Libya on Impunity
    May 16, 2012
    Members of the United Nations Security Council should condemn attempts by the Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) to prevent accountability for serious and ongoing crimes committed in Libya. The International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, will brief the Security Council on his Libya investigation on May 16, 2012.
  • DR Congo: Bosco Ntaganda Recruits Children by Force
    May 15, 2012
    Gen. Bosco Ntaganda, who mutinied against the Democratic Republic of Congo in early April 2012, has forcibly recruited at least 149 boys and young men into his forces since April 19. Ntaganda, a former rebel leader turned army general, is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of war crimes for previous recruitment and use of child soldiers.
  • Africa: Fugitives Take Note - Justice Can Be Done
    May 15, 2012

    Liberia's "big man" surely thought he'd enjoy a comfortable retirement when he left power back in 2003. But on April 26 the Special Court for Sierra Leone convicted Charles Taylor for war crimes and crimes against humanity, proving that even the most powerful aren't immune from justice

  • Libya's Human Rights Problem
    May 15, 2012

    Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC) warmly accepted the international community's military and political support for dislodging the Qaddafi government, and vowed to build a new state that would respect human rights. But it seems to be veering off course. Not only is it rejecting international human rights monitoring and the ICC's jurisdiction, but more troubling still, it has passed some shockingly bad laws, mimicking Qaddafi laws criminalizing political dissent and granting blanket immunity to any crimes committed in "support" of the revolution.

  • ICTY/Bosnia: Start of Mladic Trial Shows Persistence Pays
    May 14, 2012

    The opening of the trial of Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb wartime military commander, is a salient reminder that justice catches up with those accused of atrocity crimes. Mladic’s trial for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide is scheduled to begin on May 16, 2012, before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague.

  • Libya: Amend New Special Procedures Law
    May 11, 2012
    Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC) should immediately amend a new law that protects from prosecution people who committed crimes if their actions were aimed at “promoting or protecting the revolution” against Muammar Gaddafi. The law also allows authorities to detain people for up to two months if they are considered “threats to security.”
  • If Charles Taylor Can Be Tried for War Crimes, Why Not Kissinger?
    May 10, 2012

    Should Vladimir Putin be studying the conviction of Charles Taylor, the former Liberian president? What about Henry Kissinger? The verdict marked the first time since the post–World War II Nuremberg trials that a former head of state has been convicted by an international tribunal of war crimes and crimes against humanity. What may be of more lasting significance, however, is that Taylor was not convicted for oppressing his own people—though he did that as well—but for his material support to abusive forces in another country. In that respect, the decision speaks not just to tinpot dictators but to leaders of countries who fight proxy wars by knowingly giving client states or rebel allies the means to commit atrocities. 

  • Joint Letter to the Justice Ministers and Attorneys General of the African States Parties to the International Criminal Court Regarding the Proposed Expansion of the Jurisdiction of the African Court of Justice and Human Rights
    May 3, 2012
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