Criminal Remedies for HR Violations

1
Criminal Remedies for HR Violations
2
Prosecution of Charles Taylor Sr.

• Taylor Sr was head of a rebellion to oust
  Liberian President starting in 1989
  
• Liberian government fought various rebel forces
  resulting in Taylor Srs installation as
  President in 1997
  
• Other rebel forces continued to challenge
  Taylors presidency until he went into exile in
  2003
  
• Widespread serious HR abuse during Liberias
  civil wars committed by all factions of the
  conflict
  
• Crimes committed were massacres, forced
  recruitment of soldiers, widespread use of child
  combatants, rape, and sexual violence

3
Taylor Sr the Sierra Leonean Conflict

• During the Liberian civil wars, Taylor provided
  substantial support for a rebel force in
  neighboring Sierra Leone - United Revolutionary
  Front (RUF) - headed by an old colleague from his
  days at a guerrilla training camp in Libya in the
  80s
• Taylor helped procure mercenaries for RUF from
  Burkina Faso, and provided other logistical
  support
  
• Ensuring a continued state of conflict in Sierra
  Leone was beneficial to Taylors aim of keeping
  the whole region in chaos, so that West African
  peacekeeping forces had no stable base from which
  to quell the civil wars
• West African forces were preventing Taylor from
  maintaining control of the Liberian capital of
  Monrovia, and from gaining access to diamond
  mines of SL

4
Taylor Sr the Sierra Leonean Conflict cont.

• Taylors brokerage fee for support to RUF was
  Sierra Leonean diamonds
  
• 11 year Sierra Leone civil war was marked by
  severe and brutal violence (1991-2002)
  
• Systematic use of machetes for hacking off limbs
  of civilians, violent sexual brutality and use of
  drugged and abused child soldiers were
  characteristic crimes
• 20,000 mutilated or murdered and 1/3 of the
  population displaced
  
• All factions implicated, but majority of violence
  committed by RUF
  

5
Special Court for Sierra Leone

• War ended in 2002 after many attempts to stop the
  violence
  
• In 2002, request from Sierra Leonean President
  asking assistance from then UN Head Kofi Anan to
  try those responsible for war crimes during the
  civil war
• UN Resolution 1315 was adopted by the Security
  Council requesting the Secretary General to begin
  negotiations with Sierra Leone to establish a
  Special Court
• Result was the establishment of hybrid court
  based on a treaty agreement between the UN and
  Sierra Leone
  

6
Taylor Srs Exile and Capture

• 2003 SCSL issued an indictment against Taylor and
  others for WC and CAH while he was in Ghana
  
• Ghana refused to arrest Taylor who returned to
  Liberia. 2 months of intense violence ensued with
  an arrangement of cease fire if Taylor agreed to
  step down immediately
• Taylor was offered asylum in Nigeria and stayed
  until March 2006, when Nigeria announced it
  would no longer provide a refuge (in response to
  request from new democratically elected Liberian
  President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf)
• Taylors attempt to flee was thwarted by Nigerian
  authorities he was captured and transferred to
  Sierra Leone under UN guard

7
ICC agreement with SCSL

• Due to potential for instability if Taylor Sr
  were tried in Freetown, President of SCSL
  requested the use of ICC facilities for the
  trial
• After negotiations and certain requirements were
  met, ICC agreed to allow its facilities to be
  used by the SCSL according to a Memorandum of
  Understanding concluded between the parties in
  April, 2006
• The SCSL Trial Chamber sits at the Hague, and
  under the MOU, ICC provides courtroom facilities
  and services, administrative-related assistance,
  and detention services. All costs are paid by
  SCSL

8
Jurisdiction of SCSL

• Authorized to try those who bear greatest
  responsibility for war crimes committed after
  11/30/96
  
• 3 categories of crimes
• CAH
• crimes in violation of international humanitarian
  law
  
• Serious crimes under Sierra Leonean law
• No SI "The official position of any accused
  persons, whether as Head of State or Government
  or as a responsible government official, shall
  not relieve such person of criminal
  responsibility nor mitigate punishment."

9
Command Responsibility

• The issue of command responsibility is of crucial
  importance, given that its mandate is to try
  "persons who bear the greatest responsibility
  
• Standard A Superior is criminally responsible if
  they knew or had reason to know that the
  subordinate was about to commit such acts, or had
  done so and the superior had failed to take the
  necessary and reasonable measures to prevent such
  acts or to punish the perpetrators

10
Status of Taylor Sr. Trial

• Trial commenced June, 2007 at the Hague
• Recessed in mid-July and reconvened Aug 20 with
  Status Conference, wherein noted that defense
  counsel had withdrawn from case and new counsel
  had been appointed (Court declined Taylors
  request to represent himself)
• Request for continuation by defense granted to
  permit further time to apprise themselves of the
  case
  
• New trial date set for January 7, 2008 with
  intermittent Status Conferences until then
  

11
Prosecution of Chuckie Jr.

• Charles Taylor Jr. is a US citizen, born in
  Massachusetts and grew up in Boston and Florida
  
  
• In the mid 1990s he left for Liberia, and under
  the leadership of his father, he headed up an
  elite presidential security force
  
• The security force, later known as the
  Anti-Terrorist Unit (ATU), gained a nefarious
  reputation for brutally committed rapes, murders,
  beatings, burnings, abductions, and recruitment
  of child soldiers
• Fled Liberia upon his fathers exile

12
Arrest on Passport Fraud

• The day after Taylor Srs apprehension, Chuckie
  Jr. was caught by US immigration attempting to
  sneak into the US from Trinidad. He had been
  living there waiting for the statute of
  limitations to run on Florida indictments for
  arms-related offenses
• Chuckie Jr. was convicted of passport fraud for
  lying about his fathers identity on his passport
  renewal application, and ordered to serve an 11
  month sentence

13
The Red Flag Anti-Atrocity and Alien Deportation
Act, 2001

• Pursuant to the Act, Chuckie Jr. was on a
  watchlist of people deemed inadmissable
  
• Act directs officials to develop lists of persons
  suspected of engaging in torture (defined in the
  AAADA), extra-judicial killings (defined in
  TVPA), genocide, or religious freedom violations
  abroad
• Inclusion on the list results in status as unfit
  for US citizenship and ripe for deportation
  

14
Indictment under Anti-Torture Statute -18 USC
2340,1994

• While held in custody, he was indicted under US
  Federal Anti-Torture Statute for crimes committed
  between1999-2003 in Liberia
  
• ATS is a criminal statute enacted to bring the US
  in compliance with its obligations as a signatory
  to the CAT which it ratified in 1994
  
• Allows the US to prosecute anyone who commits
  torture abroad regardless of their nationality
  (Is this UJ??)
  
• Prosecution of Chuckie Jr is the first successful
  indictment under the Anti-Torture Statute since
  its enactment
  
• Start of case expected September, 2007 in
  District Court for Southern District of Florida
  
• Court clerk indicated the Initial Appearance
  occurred 9/10/07
  

15
Platforms For Justice

• Numerous international venues for prosecuting
  most serious abuses
  
• ICC, SCSL, ICTY, ICTR, Cambodia, Iraq, East
  Timor, Lebanon
  
• ICTY and ICTR were the impetus for creation of
  ICC
  
• ICC is a permanent venue whereas other tribunals
  are limited in scope to specific times and
  location of crimes

16
International Criminal Court

• Independent institution not part of the UN
• established by Rome Statute (Treaty adopted in
  1998 and came into effect July 2002)
  
• Currently are 104 State Parties, Japan 105 in
  October 07
  
• Jurisdiction over crimes of GEN, WC, CAH
  occurring after July 30, 2002
  
• Crimes defined in Rome Statute along with
  elements in a supplemental text
  
• Exercise of jurisdiction is not universal
• Accused is national of a State Party or State
  requests jurisdiction of the ICC for a particular
  situation
  
• Crime took place on territory of State Party or
  State requests jurisdiction of ICC for a
  particular situation
  
• UN Security Council may refer a situation to the
  Prosecutor, irrespective of nationality of
  accused or location of the crime (example is
  Sudan)

17
US Bilateral Immunity Agreements

• US attempt to abrogate reach of ICC to its
  Nationals
  
• Agreement between US and another country (can be
  either State Party to ICC or non-state party)
  that US nationals will not be extradited or
  surrendered to the jurisdictional reach of the
  ICC
• Failure to complete a Bilateral Agreement with
  the US upon request results in the withdrawl of
  US funds for assistance
  

18
American Servicemen Protection Act and Nethercutt
Amendment

• 2 other attempts to legislate against the reach
  of the ICC
  
• ASPA (Aug 02) makes US support of international
  peacekeeping forces contingent on grant of
  immunity for all US personnel, and grants
  permission to use any force necessary to free
  US citizens or its allies from ICC custody
• NA (Dec 04) Cuts funding from US Economic
  Support Fund to all countries that have ratified
  Rome Statute but have refused to sign a BIA
  
• Note UNSC Resolution 1422 (July 02) Blanket
  immunity extended to all US personnel involved in
  UN peacekeeping missions, since US threatened to
  pull out all of its troops around the world if
  not granted