On the Brink of Genocide?

On Wednesday, Youssoufou Bamba, the Ivory Coast's newly minted Ambassador to the United Nations, warned that his country was "on the brink of genocide." Bamba, who was appointed by Alassane Outtara, the internationally recognized victor in the country's recent elections, voiced concern over massive human rights violations in recent weeks. (The BBC offers an excellent summary of the post-election crisis here.)
Should Bamba's statement be taken at face value? The signs are certainly concerning. Last week, the UN deputy human rights commissioner reported the deaths of nearly 200 Outtara supporters in the post-election violence, as well as many cases of arrest, detention, and torture. This is just the tip of the iceberg, as the UN has been prevented from investigating many serious allegations of human rights abuses. In one example, the UN Operation in Cote d'Ivoire was blocked from investigating a possible mass execution site north of Abidjan.
Senior UN officials have expressed concern over "incitement to hatred and violence" through the national radio and television and some private newspapers. Bamba noted that some houses have been marked according to their residents' ethnic background, a claim echoed by UN officials. Gbagbo has told the UN to leave and his youth minister, Charles Blé Goudé, has warned ECOWAS not to intervene. In his chilling words:

'They should prepare themselves very well because we are thinking about totally liberating our country, and soon I will launch the final assault.'

The forced migration dimension of the story leaves little doubt about the gravity of the situation. On Tuesday, UNHCR reported that 19,000 Ivorians had fled to Liberia. The refugees, largely women and children, are primarily supporters of Outtara but also include some pro-Gbagbo; all sides fear the consequences of a civil war. Most come from western Ivory Coast, a region already known for lawlessness and severe sexual violence prior to the election. While UNHCR has provisions for just over 10,000 additional refugees, humanitarian needs may soon eclipse their capacity.
In the new year, the European Union will tighten sanctions against Gbagbo and his supporters. As indicated in Diane's post yesterday, International Criminal Court Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo has warned that "leaders who are planning violence will end up in the Hague," a call welcomed by Outtara, who has invited an ICC investigation. More to the point, ECOWAS has given Gbagbo a deadline of January 3 to step down or face forcible removal. One can only hope that these international efforts will be sufficient to pull the Ivory Coast back from the brink.

Fragile peace in Liberia

'There's peace in Liberia, but peace is fragile.'

So says Ellen Margrethe Løj (left), since 2007 the U.N. Special Representative for Liberia. (credit for photo of Løj pinning U.N. medal on Nigerian peacekeeper) Formerly a career diplomat in Denmark, Løj served as the Danish Permanent Representative to the United Nations from 2001 until shortly before her appointment to the Liberia post.
Løj's comment was published yesterday, in a San Francisco Chronicle editorial entitled "U.N. role works as peacekeeper in Liberia." The editorial was among several items in the Chronicle's examination of how things stand in Liberia years after the end of active civil war 7 years ago. The series anticipates balloting next year, during which Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (right; prior IntLawGrrls posts), President since 2006, will vie for re-election. Other articles include:
► An overview of post-civil war Liberia;
► Efforts to reintegrate ex-child soldiers;
► The past, present, and future role of women as peacemakers;
► The challenge of disputes over land; and
► Labor at a Firestone factory.
All well worth the read.

On June 3

On this day in ...
... 1862, the United States gave official recognition to the Republic of Liberia (flag at left), the western Africa coastal territory, and onetime U.S. colony, which had declared its independence in 1847. On this day a U.S.-Liberia treaty of commerce and navigation was signed, and formal diplomatic relations were established.

(Prior June 3 posts are here, here, and here.)

On April 12

On this day in ...
... 1980 (30 years ago today), 28-year-old Master Sergeant Samuel K. Doe seized power following a "surprise" coup in Liberia, during which the democratically elected President, William R. Tolbert Jr., was killed at the executive mansion. The New York Times reported that the coup occurred 3 days after Amnesty International released a report criticizing the Tolbert regime for a "'crackdown'" against opposition party members. Pictured at right (credit) with U.S. President Ronald Reagan in 1982, Doe would be killed 10 years later amid a civil war led by Charles Taylor, now on trial before the Special Court for Sierra Leone.


(Prior April 12 posts are here, here, and here)

On March 7

On this day in ...
... 2001, the U.N. Security Council, acting pursuant to Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter, adopted Resolution 1343, in which it demanded that Liberia stop supporting rebels fighting the government in Sierra Leone, and imposed numerous sanctions aimed at limiting Liberia's trade in contraband; in particular, arms and diamonds.

(Prior March 7 posts are here, here, and here)

Difficulties of exercising extraterritorial criminal jurisdiction: The acquittal of a Dutch businessman for crimes committed in Liberia

(My thanks to IntLawGrrls for the opportunity to contribute this guest post)

With this post I briefly present my recently published article, "The Difficulties of Exercising Extraterritorial Criminal Jurisdiction: The Acquittal of a Dutch Businessman for Crimes Committed in Liberia". An outgrowth of research on domestic efforts, particularly Dutch efforts, to investigate and prosecute international crimes, the article recently was published in the International Criminal Law Review (left).
As host state to the International Criminal Court and fierce promoter of The Hague as the City of Peace and Justice, the Dutch Government is adamant that its own justice system must perform well as a fighter of international crimes. Therefore, a special investigation unit has been entrusted with the task of investigating and prosecuting such offences. Most investigations concern so-called 1F cases, which flow from files of asylum seekers who have been rejected on the basis of a Dutch provision implementing Article 1F of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, which states:

The provisions of this Convention shall not apply to any person with respect to whom there are serious reasons for considering that:
(a) He has committed a crime against peace, a war crime, or a crime against humanity, as defined in the international instruments drawn up to make provision in respect of such crimes;
(b) He has committed a serious non-political crime outside the country of refuge prior to his admission to that country as a refugee;
(c) He has been guilty of acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

In addition, two cases have been pursued against Dutch nationals. First of all, there has been a case against Frans van Anraat for supplying chemicals to the regime of Saddam Hussein (judgement in first instance here; appeal judgement here). This post concerns the second case, namely that against Guus Kouwenhoven (credit for 2008 image of Kouwenhoven, at far right, in a court proceeding at The Hague).
In March 2003, the nongovernmental organization Global Witness published a report entitled, The Usual Suspects: Liberia's Weapons and Mercenaries in Côte d'Ivoire and Sierra Leone. The cover of the report depicted Kouwenhoven standing in a lineup with, among others, Charles Taylor (below left), then the Liberian President, now a defendant on trial before the Special Court for Sierra Leone. The report's implication of Kouwenhoven in the civil war in Liberia served as the lead for the Dutch Prosecution Office to start a criminal case against this Dutch national.
In June 2006, a Dutch court in first instance, via this judgement, convicted Kouwenhoven for the violation of an arms embargo, but acquitted of the count on war crimes. This judgement on appeal acquitted Kouwenhoven of all charges. In its judgment quashing the prior conviction, the Dutch Court of Appeal heavily criticized the Public Prosecutor, and maintained that the case against Kouwenhoven was built on quicksand.
Even though not grounded in universal jurisdiction, given that it occurred in the defendant's state of nationality, the case does illustrate the inherent complexities of exercising extraterritorial criminal jurisdiction:
► A remarkable aspect of the case is that the Court of Appeal evaluated the evidence presented in a fundamentally different way than the Court of First Instance had done. This might be related to the inherent difficulties of assessing “foreign evidence”. In my article, I argue that when adjudicating such foreign cases, national judges, given their unfamiliarity with the historical and cultural setting in which the alleged crimes took place, should call upon experts on the region to assist in the evaluation of the evidence.
► In terms of substance, the case leads to interesting questions as to how charges of illegal arms trade do and should relate to charges of complicity in war crimes. On this point, the Court of First Instance observed that Kouwenhoven’s conviction of illegal arms trading, for having supplied Taylor and/or his armed forces with weapons, was in itself not sufficient evidence to consider it proven that the defendant participated in committing war crimes under one of the modes of liability charged. The Court indicated that the weapons delivered could also have been used for acts that are legally permitted or acts that cannot be qualified as war crimes. One may wonder which legally permitted acts the Court had in mind in the context of Liberia at the time. (Just last month, Taylor denied any trading of arms-for-diamonds in his testimony before the Special court.) Yet, the Court’s general conclusion that the illegal delivery of arms to a region where war crimes are being committed does not necessarily lead to responsibility for war crimes is probably correct.
In sum, the case leads to the complex legal question whether, and under which circumstances, an arms trader can be held criminally responsible for international crimes potentially committed with the arms that he delivered. This is a question that has not yet received a final answer.

Gender-based crimes & the Charles Taylor trial

(We welcome IntLawGrrl guest/alumna Valerie Oosterveld back for a guest post on the Special Court for Sierra Leone. Valerie, in turn, extends her thanks for the invitation to contribute to the blog.)

Charles Taylor (below right), former President of Liberia, has been testifying in his own defense before the Special Court for Sierra Leone since shortly after the defence opened its case 4 weeks ago. To date, Taylor has focused on vigorously denying linkages between him and the Sierra Leonean rebel group, the Revolutionary United Front. He stated that he did not support the RUF in the early 1990s, saying that he only worked with the RUF to fend off attacks from a rival armed group in Liberia. He attacked the Prosecutor’s contention that he directed the RUF and said that he was too busy with events in Liberia to also be involved in the conflict in Sierra Leone. Taylor is casting himself as a peacemaker, describing his efforts as head of the Committee of Five -- a group created by the Economic Community of West African States to end the Sierra Leonean conflict. He also denied any links to Liberian fighters who participated in the Sierra Leone conflict, saying that these were former members of the Liberian army who had escaped to Sierra Leone and become part of the Special Task Force in support of the Sierra Leone military. He also refuted claims that he used or condoned the use of child soldiers in Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Taylor is charged with 11 counts of crimes against humanity, war crimes and other serious violations of international humanitarian law (see indictment here). The charges include one count of rape and one count of sexual slavery as a crime against humanity, as well as one count of outrages upon personal dignity as a violation of article 3 common to the Geneva Conventions and of Additional Protocol II. Taylor is also charged with conscripting or enlisting children (both boys and girls) under the age of 15 years into armed forces or groups or using them to participate actively in hostilities, as an “other serious violation of international humanitarian law” under the Statute. Taylor is charged on the basis of individual criminal responsibility for planning, instigating, ordering or aiding and abetting. Additionally, the Prosecutor has argued that Taylor can be held liable under the doctrine of joint criminal enterprise. Finally, the Prosecutor has alleged that Taylor’s responsibility can be proven through the doctrine of superior responsibility.
The Prosecutor presented his opening statement in June 2007, and witness testimony began half a year later, in January 2008. The Prosecutor called 91 witnesses in total:
► 56 crime base witnesses to demonstrate the range of atrocities carried out by those fighting with the RUF and Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) groups;
► 31 insider or linkage witnesses to link Taylor to the crimes committed by the RUF and AFRC; and
► 4 expert witnesses.
In addition, the Prosecutor submitted written statements by 4 crime base witnesses and reports by two additional expert witnesses. The prosecution rested its case on February 27, 2009.
A number of prosecution witnesses presented evidence of gender-based crimes, especially of forced marriage and rape. For example:
► Witness TF1-028 testified in early May 2008 about events in 1998 in and near her home in Karina, Bombali district. TF1-028 described how, when the rebel forces came to town, her brother and his son were beaten by soldiers and molten plastic was dripped over her brother’s body. Her 7-, 8-, and 12-year-old nieces were raped, as was her 13-year-old daughter. She saw her sister-in-law, who was wounded, being forced to walk among a group of naked women. The witness was also stripped naked along with other women and taken to Mandaha, where she described a scene of continuous rape, with rebels raping girls and women in the street and in the bush. She also described how she and others were subjected to ongoing rape as forced “wives”, as well as how they were forced to cook for their junta “husbands”. She described how women who did not submit to rape would be locked in a box for hours. The witness told the court that, as a result of the rape, she and her husband have separated. Her daughter gave birth to a baby and suffers from mental illness.
► On June 18, 2009, the prosecution asked: “Can you explain what you mean when you say a … combatant would say, “I’m taking this away, she is my wife”? What do you mean by that?” Witness TF1-584 answered: “He will bring her to the base and turn her into his wife. Like they would sleep together, the woman would work for him just like a woman would work for her husband in the home … If you were a small child, maybe a woman who was not up to the age of staying with a man, you would be there as a ward and he will take care of you and you would be working for him … When they get old enough, a man who was an RUF fighter would take her and turn her into his wife from the person who had captured her.”
► On June 24, 2008, witness TF1-375 described how rebels captured girls and made them into “wives”, captured and armed boys and made them into fighters in Small Boys Units and captured other people to serve as domestic labourers in the soldiers’ houses.
► On July 9, 2008, witness TF1-388 explained how some male civilians were killed so their wives could be taken.
► In late January 2009, witness TF1-303 described how a man was caught trying to escape from the rebels, and his testicles were cut off as punishment. TF1-303 was captured by a boy soldier when she was quite young (she did not know her age). The boy soldier raped her and forced her to work as a domestic maid in his sister’s house. A more senior soldier then took her as his “wife”, and she was again raped and forced to do domestic chores. Witness TF1-174 also testified to numerous rapes committed during the rebel capture of Makeni, and how the RUF demanded the “donation” of young boys ands girls to its ranks because they are more easily commanded. Witness TF1-062 testified how the Civil Defence Forces drove the rebels from Tongo (a diamond mining area) and killed 20 men accused of being soldiers and four women who were accused of being wives of soldiers.
The evidence of gender-based violence presented by the prosecution in the Taylor case was not about Taylor himself committing these acts. Rather, the Prosecutor is arguing that Taylor can be found guilty of these acts because of his linkages to the RUF and AFRC leaders and perpetrators of these acts. Of the various cases heard by the Special Court, the Taylor case is one of the most difficult in which to prove gender-based violations. This is because of the physical distance, and the distance in the chain of command, between Taylor and the perpetrators of these crimes.
At the close of the prosecution’s case, Taylor brought a motion for judgment of acquittal under Rule 98 of the Special Court’s Rules of Procedure and Evidence. On May 4, 2009, the Trial Chamber dismissed this motion. In an oral ruling, the Trial Chamber found that, based on the joint criminal enterprise mode of liability, the Prosecutor had presented sufficient evidence on all counts which, if believed, would be capable of supporting a conviction. The Chamber agreed with the prosecution that it was not necessary to evaluate the sufficiency of the evidence in relation to the other modes of liability.
The defence case is expected to last at least several months. For those wishing to follow the ongoing developments in the Taylor trial, I suggest checking the Charles Taylor Trial website hosted by the Open Society Justice Initiative, as well as live-streaming of the trial available through the Special Court’s website.

On January 16

On this day in ...
... 1979 (30 years ago today), after months of civil protest, Iranian Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi and his wife, Empress Farah, fled, heading by plane from Tehran to Aswan, Egypt. Pahlavi, whose lavish lifestyle's evident in this 1967 photo of the couple's coronation (credit), would die in the latter country the following year -- even as the austere Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini consolidated power in Iran.
... 2002, at Freetown, Sierra Leone's Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Solomon E. Berewa, and the United Nations' Under Secretary-General for Legal Affairs, Hans Corell, signed the Agreement on the Establishment of a Special Court for Sierra Leone, thus paving the way to adjudicated charges against

persons who bear the greatest responsibility for serious violations of international humanitarian law and Sierra Leonean law committed in the territory of Sierra Leone since 30 November 1996.

IntLawGrrls' prior posts respecting this hybrid tribunal are here; among my publications on same is this article. The Special Court's website details its accomplishments to date: it reports that 2 cases (Civil Defence Forces and Armed Forces Revolutionary Council) "have been completed, including appeals," at the courthouse in Freetown. As for the Revolutionary United Front case, also tried in Freetown, "[t]estimony ... is complete, and a Trial Judgement is expected later this year." Finally, "[t]he trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor is in the Prosecution phase at The Hague." The court also considered some other matters, and it withdrew 3 indictments on account of the deaths of the defendants, Foday Sankoh, Sam Bockarie, and Johnny Paul Koroma.

Sierre Leone Prosecutor on the ICC's Darfur Indictment

For all of us watching the debate generated by the Darfur indictment (prior IntLawGrrls posts here and here), I highly recommend David Crane's July 21, 2008, editorial inthe Baltimore Sun. David (left), who was the Chief Prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierre Leone, opens as follows:

On June 4, 2003, as Liberian President Charles Taylor walked up the steps for the opening ceremony of the Accra Peace Accords in Ghana, I stood in front of the world's press and announced that I had unsealed an indictment charging him with 17 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The international community reacted with praise - and condemnation.
Politicians and diplomats voiced concern that my announcement had jeopardized the newly organized peace process and hopes for stability in West Africa. Some even said that the indictment put lives at risk. Yet five years later, Liberia is stable, and a fairly elected government is in place with a real possibility that it is on the correct path to a sustainable peace under the leadership of the first woman ever elected a head of state in Africa. Mr. Taylor sits in The Hague on trial before a judicial chamber of the Special Court of Sierra Leone.

You can read the whole editorial here.

On July 26

On this day in ...
... 1847, Joseph Jenkins Roberts proclaimed Liberia to be an independent republic. Roberts, an African-American man born in Virginia, had moved to Liberia in 1829. The West African land had been purchased from indigenous West Africans in 1822 and maintained as a colony by a U.S.-based group known as the American Colonization Society. The new republic's 1st Constitution was proclaimed in September 1847, and soon after Roberts became its 1st President. The Library of Congress' website observes: "Still a country today, Liberia deals with conflict between descendants of African Americans and indigenous tribes." (credit for photo of 1862 Liberian dollar)
... 1948 (60 years ago today), President Harry S. Truman issued Executive Order 9981, which desegregated the U.S. armed forces. The Order began:

1. It is hereby declared to be the policy of the President that there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion or national origin. This policy shall be put into effect as rapidly as possible, having due regard to the time required to effectuate any necessary changes without impairing efficiency or morale.

On April 22

On this day in ...
... 1980, at an army barracks near Monrovia, Liberia, 13 top officials of the deposed government, among them the brother of assassinated President William Tolbert, were publicly executed by shootings that journalists described as "cruel and messy." The executions took place on orders of coup leader Samuel Doe; eventually he would lose power to Charles Taylor, who served as president of Liberia (flag above right) for a decade but now is on trial before the Special Court for Sierra Leone, sitting at The Hague, Netherlands.
... 2003 (5 years ago today), Martha Wright Griffths (below left) died in Amarda, Michigan, at age 91. Born and raised in Missouri, in 1940 she was graduated from the University of Michigan Law School, and practiced law in that state. In Michigan she served as an elected official -- 1st a legislator, then a judge -- from 1948-54, and again as lieutenant government from 1982-91. As a Member of Congress from 1955-74, Griffiths came to be known as a "graceful feminist": the Democrat introduced the Equal Rights Amendment during her 1st year in Congress, and thereafter fought for its adoption continuously, albeit unsuccessfully. A 1970 Time Magazine article reported:

Although the other nine women Representatives in the House recently urged that she be considered for appointment to the high court because she is a highly competent lawyer as well as legislator, Mrs. Griffiths considers such an event 'out of the range of possibility.'

As we've posted, it'd be another 11 years before the 1st woman, Sandra Day O'Connor, won a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. (photo courtesy Library of Congress)

On this day

On March 29, ...
... 1973 (35 years ago today), American troops withdrew fully from South Vietnam (right). In the long years of U.S. involvement in the Indochinese country, "the cost to the United States has been almost 46,000 men killed and more than 300,000 wounded," according to the New York Times. It further reported that the war was "unfinished" and had "deeply scarred" both Vietnam and the United States, and that among the departing troops "[t]here was little emotion or joy as they brought to a close almost a decade of American military intervention."
... 2002, Sierra Leone's Parliamant enacted Special Court Agreement, 2002 (Ratification) Act, thus setting the stage for the Special Court for Sierra Leone, a hybrid tribunal charged with trying persons believed most responsible for atrocities during the civil war that wracked the country in the 1990s. As we've posted, among those now on trial before the Court is Charles Taylor (left), former President of Liberia. Recently, a witness before the Court testified that troops cannibalized captives -- including U.N. peacekeepers -- on Taylor's orders.

A new kind of war crimes trial for Sierra Leone

At last, the trial of Charles Taylor, the former President of Liberia, began today before the Special Court for Sierra Leone. Taylor stands accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity for supporting and directing the Revolutionary United Front, one of the militias that committed atrocities in Sierra Leone, in exchange for Sierra Leone’s coveted diamonds. (See our prior posts about the trial here.) What makes this trial different than the others already held by the Special Court? After all, the Court’s other prosecutions have been targeted at government officials and militia leaders, in keeping with the understanding that responsibility for atrocities should extend beyond the immediate perpetrators to those who planned and directed the acts.
But this trial targets a different category of accomplices: outsiders who finance and arm militias in full knowledge of their atrocities, either for direct financial benefit (e.g., payoffs of diamonds) or to profit indirectly from the opportunities to seize land and natural resources that are presented by the resulting mayhem (e.g., control of the mines themselves). This kind of outside support radically escalated the level, extent, and duration of violence against civilians in Sierra Leone’s conflict (and has done so elsewhere as well, for example in the Democratic Republic of Congo). Thus, this prosecution is similar in some ways to the ongoing series of Alien Tort Claims Act lawsuits in the US against corporations who knowingly involve themselves in and profit from human rights violations abroad (prior post here), as it seeks to extend liability to the profiteers of international crimes against civilians.
Can the prosecution succeed in proving a direct link between Taylor’s support and the RUF’s misdeeds? Tying such acts to distant leaders is always difficult, and some argue that the available circumstantial evidence here may be insufficient here. But regardless of the eventual verdict in the Taylor case, this effort to extend responsibility to those who knowingly support and profit from war crimes and crimes against humanity is a welcome development.

On October 29, ...

... 1390, Jeanne de Brigue became the 1st person convicted of witchcraft in a secular proceeding before the Parlement de Paris. At trial she confessed, before and after having been tortured, to having invoked a demon. Before this, her skill at divining, or finding things, had been enlisted at times by courts seeking to solve larcenies. de Brigue and another convicted woman would be burned at the stake in August of the following year.
... 1938, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf (left) was born in Monrovia, Liberia, into a family descended from those onetime slaves in the United States who went on to colonize Liberia in the 19th century. Following undergraduate study in Monrovia, she went to the United States, where she earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Colorado and a master's degree in public administration from Harvard. She returned to Liberia and entered politics, but went into exile during periods of dictatorship and political turmoil. In 2005 Sirleaf, known like many 1st woman leaders as the "Iron Lady," was elected President of Liberia.

Extraterritorial torture case moves forward

The 1st case brought under the U.S. statute that forbids extraterritorial torture moved a few steps closer to trial when Charles McArthur Emmanuel appeared in the Miami, Florida, courtroom of U.S. District Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga and entered a plea of not guilty to an amended indictment.
Unfamilar with the defendant, a 30-year-old "Boston-born U.S. citizen"? Perhaps his father's name will ring a bell: Emmanuel is the son of former Liberian President Charles Taylor, himself undergoing trial before the Special Court for Sierra Leone, sitting specially at The Hague. That trial, which has proceeded in fits and starts since the rocky opening session described here, is now in hiatus till January -- the same month that son Emmanuel's U.S. trial is now set to begin.
Emmanuel, said to have commanded his father's Anti-Terrorist Unit and sometimes called Chuckie Taylor or Charles Taylor, Jr., has been under arrest since he entered the United States in March 2006. By that act he satisfied the jurisdictional component of the relevant statute twice over; it applies to U.S. citizens and all present in the United States.
Returned last Thursday, the new indictment is gruesome. It adds to the original single charge of torture 4 additional counts, all pertaining to a period from 1999 to 2003. It contends that the defendant,

who headed an armed security force in his father's administration, allegedly committed torture by burning the victims with molten plastic, lit cigarettes, candle wax and an iron. He is accused of beating, stabbing and shocking them -- including in their genitals.

The five Liberian victims -- all in the United States -- have testified about their alleged violent experiences at the hands of Taylor and other Liberian security soldiers under his control.

Handling the 1st round of pretrial litigation was an all-woman prosecution team including Brenda Sue Thornton, now a Washington-based Justice Department lawyer, but not long ago an international prosecutor who served at the U.N. Transitional Administration in East Timor and who secured genocide convictions before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in the 1999 Kayishema and Ruzindana judgment. The Office of the Federal Public Defender represented Emmanuel.
This summer the prosecution won the 1st round: in a 14-page opinion that surveyed international law as well as U.S. foreign relations law chestnuts like Paquete Habana, Judge Altonaga (right) denied a motion calling for dismissal of the 1st indictment on the following grounds: absence of authority under Article I of the Constitution to enact the statute; absence of congressional "authority to apply criminal laws extraterritorially, where the locus of the offense is completely foreign"; sovereign immunity due a foreign official; unconstitutional vagueness in statutory terms; violation of due process on account of extraterritorial application of the law; and violation of certain 6th Amendment fair trial rights. United States v. Emmanuel, 2007 WL 2002452 (S.D. Fla. July 5, 2007).
Initiation of the 1st prosecution under this 13-year-old statute is to be welcomed. To be hoped for is full litigation of all issues in this case, important not only because of the status of the defendant and gravity of the charges, but also because it'll set the foundation of a jurisprudence for 18 U.S.C. § 2340A, enacted in furtherance of obligations the United States incurred by its ratification of the Convention Against Torture.

Women keeping the peace

Check out this post by our Opinio Juris colleague, Kevin Jon Heller, on the United Nations' India Formed Police Unit stationed in Monrovia, Liberia. At a ceremony there this weekend U.N. envoy Alan Doss said that the all-woman peacekeeping unit "not only demonstrates gender equality but also serves as an encouragement for Liberian women to become police officers themselves." Numbers remain low, however. Heller reports out that only 6% of Liberian police -- and only 2% of U.N. peacekeepers -- are women.

A Hybrid Truth Commission?

In response to criticism of international ad hoc tribunals (too expensive, too distant from the societies they aim to serve) and domestic trials (too biased, insufficient infrastructure) in addressing crimes of mass violence, we've seen the rise of hybrid tribunals that combine elements of international and national structures (think the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, the Special Court for Sierra Leone). Now we may be seeing a new breed of truth commission. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Liberia, created to examine the causes of the conflict in Liberia from 1979 to 2003, is working with Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights to take statements of Liberians living here in the United States for use before the commission. Indeed, some of this statement-taking will be happening right here in Philadelphia, under the direction of Sarah Paoletti, who runs the new Transnational Clinic at Penn Law. This creative approach enables the cash-strapped Liberian TRC to marshall the resources of American NGOs and law school clinics and to reach populations that fled the country, many because they were targeted by the Doe or Taylor regimes. Liberian refugees as far away as Sweden have expressed interest in being involved in the TRC in this way, and the same organizations that take statements here in the U.S. will also travel to Ghana to assist in statement-taking there. While this approach might be culturally appropriate only for a country with such strong historical ties to the United States, it seems a promising way forward for Liberia, and the engagement of the diaspora may provide useful lessons for future truth commissions around the world. (Photo credit to Richard Franco.)

Special Court for Sierra Leone: 1st verdicts

The mixed national-international tribunal set up in the wake of Sierra Leone's civil war returned its 1st verdicts yesterday, finding 3 rebel leaders guilty on 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity. This 1st judgment by the Special Court for Sierra Leone also constituted the 1st international convictions for conscripting child soldiers and forced marriage as crimes against humanity. (A pathbreaking work on the 2d crime is Forced Marriage: Rwanda’s Secret Revealed, 7 UC Davis Journal of International Law & Policy 197 (2001), by Monika Kalra Varma).
Reading the verdict at yesterday's session was Justice Julia Sebutinde (left) of Uganda, Presiding Judge of Trial Chamber II. The other members of the panel -- now adjudicating charges against former Liberian President Charles Taylor -- were Justices Teresa Doherty (right) of Northern Ireland and Richard Lussick of Samoa.
In the instant case, Trial Chamber II adjudged defendants Alex Tamba Brima, Brima Bazzy Kamara, and Santigie Borbor Kanu. Each had helped lead the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council, which, along with the Revolutionary United Front, had wreaked mayhem in the Western African country throughout much of the 1990s. The Court reports that in addition to crimes just mentioned, these 3 also were found guilty of acts of terrorism, collective punishments, murder as a crime against humanity, murder as a war crime, rape. outrages upon personal dignity, physical violence as a war crime, enslavement, and sexual slavery and other sexual violence. (The 631-page judgment's available here.)
Allowing that the judgment's "'a positive signal,'' Amnesty International urged greater accountability for the atrocities of Sierra Leone's civil war; that is, more prosecutions of persons believed responsible, as well as compensation for victims of the violence.

All Taylor all the time

Open Society Justice Initiative has launched a blog on the trial of Charles Taylor (right). Taylor, President of Liberia until he went into exile in Nigeria in 2003, is standing trial before the Special Court for Sierra Leone, a mixed national-international tribunal sitting, for this case only, at The Hague. The BBC provides, in "Charles Taylor - preacher, warlord, and president," a crisp summary of Taylor's "flamboyant" and brutal rule in West Africa; and also a summary of the charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes that he now faces.
Taylor boycotted yesterday's opening session of trial, at which were read the "catalog of horrors" that is the indictment. The stage seems set for a repeat of the representation/self-representation tussle that that played throughout the international trial of deposed Serbian President Slobadan Milosevic, aborted in 2006 when he died before return of verdict. (A symposium analyzing the problem appeared in the March 2006 edition of the Journal of International Criminal Justice).
Thanks to Opinio Juris colleague Kevin Jon Heller for the Taylorblog tip.