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Important Step Toward Justice in DR Congo?

Transitional Justice Plans Should Include Prosecutions for Grave Crimes

The Congolese human rights minister launched national consultations on a new transitional justice initiative that, if implemented, would help the Democratic Republic of Congo emerge from conflict, address grave human rights violations, and institute…
Women demonstrate for peace in Beni, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, April 23, 2021.
News

A Call for Justice in Africa’s Great Lakes Region

Nairobi Conference Commits to Greater Efforts to Fight Impunity, Defend Rights

Last week, the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region met in Nairobi, Kenya, to discuss “combating impunity and upholding human rights as key contributors to peace and security.” Representatives from the organization’s 12…
Jean Baptiste Nguondija, a resident of Ngbada, Central African Republic, by the grave of his 10 year-old daughter Nathana Poura. Nguondija has lost 5 children since the conflict began in 2013.
News

Remembering Alison Des Forges, 10 Years Later

Rights Champion Wrote Definitive Account of Rwandan Genocide

Ten years ago today, our beloved colleague Alison Des Forges died in the crash of Flight 3407 traveling from Newark to her home in Buffalo. Alison had recently been in Uganda to meet with her research team that, to my great fortune,…
News

Ten Years On, Still No Justice for Congo Massacre

Commanders Behind Kiwanja Killings Never Held to Account

On November 4 to 5, 2008, rebel forces from the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP) killed around 150 people, including 14 children, in the town of Kiwanja in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo – one of the region’s…
News

Leaked Video Blows Lid off Torture in Russian Prisons

State Protection Required for Lawyer and Inmate who Exposed Torture in Yaroslavl Prison

That torture is rampant in many Russian prisons and detention facilities, with little consequences for perpetrators, is widely known among Russia’s human rights defenders, lawyers, and journalists. Last week the United Nation’s expert torture-monitoring…
Irina Biryukova, a lawyer with Public Verdict representing Evgeny Makarov, Moscow, 2018.
News

No Redress for Central African Victims

International Criminal Court Acquits Jean-Pierre Bemba

The International Criminal Court (ICC) appeals chamber last Friday overturned the conviction against Jean-Pierre Bemba, former vice-president of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Bemba was the court’s sole prosecution from its…
Former Congo vice-president Jean-Pierre Bemba looks up when sitting in the courtroom of the International Criminal Court to stand trial in The Hague, Netherlands, September 29, 2015.
News

African Members Reaffirm Support at International Criminal Court Meeting

Countries Commit to Working Within the ICC System

A slew of African countries reaffirmed their backing for the International Criminal Court (ICC) during the past two days, giving much-needed support to the court in the wake of recently announced withdrawals by South Africa, Burundi, and Gambia.  …
News

Moscow Holds International Justice in Contempt

Russia’s Withdrawal of Signature From Rome Statute is a Symbolic Gesture

Yesterday, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin issued an order to notify the United Nations that Russia was withdrawing its signature from the Rome Statute, the treaty of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Russia never ratified the statute and was not…
A general view shows the Spasskaya Tower and the Kremlin wall in central Moscow, Russia, May 5, 2016.
News

Dispatches: On Africa and the ICC, Don’t Buy All the Hype

As the African Union summit closed on January 31, 2016, Kenyan media ignited with reports that the African Union endorsed mass withdrawal of African countries from the International Criminal Court. But the reality is a lot less newsworthy than the main…
A general view shows delegates during the 26th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union (AU) at the AU headquarters in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa, January 31, 2016.
News

Dispatches: Crimea – Keep Quiet or Else

A Russian military court has just sentenced a Ukrainian filmmaker from Crimea, Oleg Sentsov, to 20 years in jail for supposedly running a “terrorist organization.” His alleged accomplice, Crimean activist Olexander Kolchenko, received a 10-year term for…
Oleg Sentsov
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Dispatches: Ending Genocide in Rwanda Does not Excuse Murder

When Emmanuel Karenzi Karake, the head of Rwanda’s intelligence services, was brought into the dock of a London court on Thursday, he clasped his hands above his head in a two-fisted salute to the public gallery. Dozens cheered; others looked on in…
karake
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DR Congo: Chronology

Early History (1300s - 1800s)The Belgians (1870s - 1959)Independence (1960 - 1990s)War (1994 - 1999)Failed Peace Efforts (1999 - 2003)Transition (2003 - 2006) A New Government but More Conflict (2006 - ) Early History 1300s The Kongo empire, a highly…
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Fact Sheet: Past U.S. Criticism of Military Tribunals

(Washington, DC) - Under President Bush's November 13th Military Order on military commissions, any foreign national designated by the President as a suspected terrorist or as aiding terrorists could potentially be detained, tried, convicted and even…

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