Anyone and everyone talking about the International Criminal Court today is talking the issuance of an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. However, the warrant is not the only big event for the Court this week. Here’s a roundup of a few other key recent ICC-related developments:
- Via UN Dispatch: John Boonstra reports: “Indicted Bosnian Serb war criminal (and noted soda-drinker)” Radovan Karadzic pled not guilty on charges of genocide and war crimes. As Boonstra notes, Karadzic followed the lead of his fellow Serbian war criminal Slobodan Milosevic and refused to plead, thus forcing the presiding ICC judge to enter Karadzic’s plea.
- The first independent inquiry into the Burmese governments’ response to last year’s cyclone urged the United Nations Security Council to refer the junta government to the ICC for investigation into crimes against humanity committed by the regime in the aftermath of the cyclone.
- The trial of indicted Congolese war criminal, former rebel commander, and alleged child soldier recruiter Thomas Lubanga Dyilo continues in The Hague. I’ve had difficulty finding reports of new developments in the Lubanga proceedings (and I’m wondering what has been done to address the witness protection issues that were evident in the early days of the trial), but here is the ICC’s weekly hearing schedule, where you watch Lubanga trial’s live. Kudos to the ICC for its consummate tech-savvy ways.
- And speaking of indicted Congolese war criminals, where is that fellow known as “the Terminator?” Shouldn’t he be in The Hague awaiting trial? Oh no, I forgot, Bosco Ntaganda—wanted by the ICC on charges of conscripting child soldiers, among other war crimes—just finished leading a joint Rwanda-Congo military operation in eastern Congo, and the Congolese government is currently preparing to integrate Bosco and his rebel forces into the Congolese army. (Here is Bosco’s arrest warrant from the ICC, which was unsealed in April 2008).
If you would like more information on the ICC’s numerous situations, cases, and investigations in an easy-to-navigate format, check out Enough’s interactive map, “The World of the International Criminal Court.”
UPDATE: Writing for the Wronging Rights blog, Katie offers a fascinating set of other updates on what she calls "the wonderful world of international criminal law." Check it out.