Blog
Côte d’Ivoire and the ICC: What hope for the victims?
Posted by Francis Dako, Africa coordinator and Linda Gueye, head of Communications at the Coalition for the ICC on 7th March 2013
Laurent Gbagbo made major headlines the last few weeks with the opening of an important hearing in his case before the ICC but little was said about what victims can hope for now that Côte d’Ivoire has joined the Court.
Since 2002, Côte d’Ivoire has suffered years of political crisis and violence which reached a boiling point with the November 2010 presidential election. While incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo was proclaimed the winner, his opponent Alassane Ouattara vehemently disputed the result, claimed victory and was recognized as the legitimate winner by the …
News
Morsy backs Syrian calls for al-Assad to face war crimes trial
Posted by Mariana on 7th January 2013
Cairo (CNN)—Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy supports calls by people in Syria for President Bashar al-Assad to be tried for war crimes, he told CNN on Sunday in an exclusive interview.
“The Syrian people through their revolution and through the movement will—when the bloodshed stops—move to a new stage where they will have an independent parliament and a government of their choosing,” Morsy, Egypt’s first freely elected leader, told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer in Cairo. “And then they will decide what they want to do to those who committed crimes against them. It …
Blog
Lustration in Libya: Ruling Congress Passes “Political Isolation Law”
Posted by Mariana on 2nd January 2013
by Mark Kersten*
Libya has made yet another significant and controversial decision as it continues down the bumpy path of its post-conflict and post-Gaddafi transition. According to the Libya Herald, the country’s General National Congress (GNC) is preparing to institute a “Political Isolation Law” which will prohibit politicians who were close to the Gaddafi regime from taking political office. The wisdom of such a policy is surely to be hotly contested.
Just days before the new law was announced, a group of GNC members issued a statement declaring that they would …
Blog
Guatemala: Amnesties for Genocide Charges Are Illegal
Posted by Mariana on 3rd January 2013
by Mariana Rodriguez Pareja and Salvador Herencia Carrasco*
Between 1960 and 1996, Guatemala was shattered by an internal armed conflict that resulted in the death of 200,000 people and victimizing an entire nation. According to the report by Guatemala’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), government forces under the de facto presidency of General Rios Montt were found to have committed more than 600 massacres, homicide, forced disappearances, and other crimes, particularly against rural and indigenous communities.
During all those 36 years of extreme violence, 45000 people were disappeared and 650 …
