Showing posts with label Syria. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Syria. Show all posts
By Alexandra Moffit

Picture: Globe License: Public Domain

United Nations

Under a new Secretary-General, the United Nations took several new steps based on studies in 2017.

·       Antonio Guterres begins role as Secretary-General of the United Nations in January.
·       The United Nations Security Council unanimously voted to issue new sanctions to North Korea. These sanctions were in response to its burgeoning nuclear program and its ballistic missile program.
·       The United Nations’ agency that deals with aviation proposed a global drone registry that would aid local law enforcement agencies. This registry would be a step towards global regulations dealing with the small crafts.
·       Russia and China vetoed resolutions that would have sanctioned Syria for its use of chemical weapons.
·       United Nations agencies reported during 2017 that 2016 was the first time in the 21st century that hunger increased. Possible reasons offered by the United Nations for this increase were climate change and conflict. These would cause an increase in food insecurity around the world. There are currently around 815 million chronically malnourished people around the world.
·       The United Nations and other organizations began investing in blockchain technology. Organizations like the World Food Programme launched pilots that use blockchain in delivering food.

The United States and International Organizations

With the United States changing leadership as President Trump began his tenure in office, the United States changed its relationships with various international organizations significantly during 2017.

·       The United States, in one of Donald Trump’s first acts as President, declared its intention to abandon the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The previous administration had negotiated the large free trade deal with various nations but had not come into effect yet.
·       The United States withdrew from the Paris Climate Accords in June, becoming one of the only countries not party to the climate agreement.
·       The United States, Canada, and Mexico began to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement following President Trump’s dissatisfaction with the agreement. A relocation or dissolution of the agreement would cause major changes in the economies of each nation, as well as trade laws.
·       The United States withdrew from UNESCO, the United Nations cultural organization, in October. “At the time when conflicts continue to tear apart societies across the world, it is deeply regrettable for the United States to withdraw from the United Nations agency promoting education for peace and protecting culture under attack,” Director-General of UNESCO Irina Bokova said. The United States indicated its reason for leaving as the organization’s inclusion of Palestine as a member in 2011.

Refugees and International Organizations

As refugee numbers increased in 2017, various international organizations took steps to combat problems.

·       Security in Burma has been conducting ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims. Some have sought asylum in Bangladesh. The crisis has had a global impact and is ongoing. A new UN pilot program could provide refugees in Bangladesh with work permits.
·       International Organizations like the World Bank used their leverage to try to push Burma to stop its persecution of Rohingya Muslims. The World Bank announced it would be withholding a $200 million loan it had promised to the country.
·       The United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees announced that there are over 3 million stateless people around the world. The agency urges countries to grant citizenship to these stateless people, which would provide them with basic health and personal rights.


By Maura Sokol


Picture: Globe License: Public Domain

2017 marked the end of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), which closed out its existence with high profile convictions. Although international justice may have been achieved in these cases, a number of international crimes were committed across the globe in 2017, many of which will remain a threat in 2018.

International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia

In November, the ICTY Tribunal in the Hague brought its prosecutions to a close. The ICTY was first created in May 1993, under Resolution 827 by the United Nations Security Council to prosecute international crimes committed during the Yugoslav Wars. This creation of an international, ad hoc tribunal has left an enduring legacy on international criminal law. During its 25 years of existence, 161 individuals have been charged with crimes and 151 have faced trial, with 90 convictions that included major generals and political leaders. All unresolved cases will now be handed over to another ad hoc criminal court, the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT).

General Radko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb army chief known as the “Butcher of Bosnia” was one of the last war criminals convicted in the ICTY. In November, the tribunal sentenced him to life in prison for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. Mladic was responsible for thousands of deaths, engaged in ethnic cleansing, and was responsible for the 1995 genocide of Srebrenica and the three-year siege and bombardment of Sarajevo.

During the last hearing of the ICTY, the convicted Bosnian Croat war criminal Slobodan Praljak drew much of the media’s attention by committing suicide in the courtroom after ingesting potassium cyanide. The hearing had been part of an appeal by six Bosnian Croat political and military leaders who were convicted in 2013 of persecuting, expelling and murdering Bosnian Muslims. Praljak ingested the cyanide after the tribunal announced he had lost his appeal. Praljak had been sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Genocide in Myanmar

The government in Myanmar, once known as Burma, committed horrific violence against the Rohingya, Myanmar’s minority Muslim population, in what the United Nations high commissioner for human rights called a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing.” Beginning on August 25th, more than 626,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar and an estimated 9,000 were killed by late September. Hundreds of villages have been destroyed or burned to the ground, and the Associated Press has reported a campaign of mass rape, robbery and torture. Despite widespread condemnation, there has been little action from the international community.

Syrian War Crimes

Efforts to investigate and bring to justice the many war crimes committed by Syrian President Bashar al Assad’s regimes continued throughout 2017. In November, Amnesty International published an extensive new report that detailed the regime’s massive campaign of sieges, unlawful killings, and forced displacement through use of “surrender or starve” tactics. The Islamic State has unlawfully killed civilians and used them as human shields, and the US-led coalition has also carried out attacks that led to the death of civilians, in violation of international humanitarian law. By the end of 2017, more than 400,000 people have died and more than 11 million people have been displaced.

Courts in Spain, Germany and Sweden have all attempted to bring individuals to justice for war crimes committed, and in October the first individual was convicted in the conflict and sentenced to eight months in prison in Sweden. 2017 also saw the beginning of the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism (IIIM) to Assist in the Investigation and Prosecution of Those Responsible for the Most Serious Crimes in Syria, which was established by UN General Assembly at the end of 2016.
By Navneet Binning

Picture: Globe License: Public Domain

In 2017, the Law of War saw many new developments. These include: the closure of the ICTY, the increased threat of cyber warfare, attempts to eliminate nuclear weapons, and a movement to fight the spread of chemical weapons.

ICTY
The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Republic of Yugoslavia (ICTY) formally closed on December 21st 2017.  The ICTY was created to adjudicate claims of war crimes that occurred in the Balkans in the 1990’s. The ICTY was open for twenty-four years, delivered 161 indictments, and sentenced ninety individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, and other crimes.

The closure is particularly significant because it marks a shift in international law away from specific criminal tribunals; previously, individual criminal tribunals have been used to prosecute war crimes in the Balkans and Rwanda. International law experts hope that the closure of ICTY will be a catalyst towards the goal of establishing universal jurisdiction for war crimes in the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Cyber Warfare
In recent years, there has been an increasing fear of the threat of cyber warfare. In 2017, cyber warfare has threatened physical destruction of civilian and military assets. For example, terrorist groups could gain control of cyber switches and use them to derail trains.

However, most of cyber warfare has focused on undermining institutional integrity. In 2017, allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election created mass distrust in the American political system. Cyber warfare used to undermine institutional integrity is particularly concerning because it is difficult to defend oneself from and retaliate against such attacks.

Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons
In March and July 2017, the United Nations General Assembly met for a conference aimed to prohibit and, eventually, completely eliminate nuclear weapons. The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was approved on July 7th.

The treaty requires signatories to abstain from developing, possessing, and threatening the use of nuclear weapons. The treaty would also prohibit nations from transferring nuclear weapons between one another.

122 nations signed the treaty, but the nine nations who are known or believed to possess nuclear weapons did not. These nine nations are the United States, Russia, United Kingdom, China, France, India, Pakistan, North Korea, and Israel. A joint statement from the United States, United Kingdom, and France states that the nations do not intend to join the treaty.

Opponents of the treaty believe that it “disregards the realities of the international security environment” and fails to address the growing threat of North Korea’s nuclear programs. Opponents instead propose strengthening the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which was enacted in 1970 prohibits nations other than the five original nuclear powers (United States, Russia, United Kingdom, France, and China) from pursuing nuclear weapons and directs the five original nuclear powers to work towards nuclear disarmament.

Syria Missile Attack
On April 7, the United States, directed by President Trump, carried out a missile strike in Syria that killed more than eighty civilians. The attack was in response to the Syrian government’s use of chemical weapons against its civilians and to signal the United States’ disapproval of Syria’s use of chemical weapons.

The attack prompted wide criticisms, particularly from Russia. A spokesman for President Putin stated that the strike was a “significant blow” for the relationship between the United States and Russia and had no impact on combating international terrorism. Rather, the attack undermined efforts to establish an international coalition to fight the use of chemical weapons.

By Thea McDonald

Picture: Globe License: Public Domain


North Korea Tests Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles Potentially Capable of Reaching Any Location in Continental U.S.

Tensions between North Korea and the United States rose over the last year as the nations’ leaders exchanged threats and snarky comments. As American lawmakers considered options for managing the escalating threat and warned that initiating nuclear action against this rival could lead to grave consequences, North Korea built and tested its arsenal. During 2017, North Korea conducted 16 tests that included a total of 23 missiles. The 23rd missile, a Hwasong-15 tested near the end of November, reached an altitude of 2,800 miles, the highest altitude any North Korean missile has ever reached. According to CNN, KCNA, North Korea’s state-run news outlet reported that this missile is capable of reaching any location on the U.S. mainland and “meets the goal of the completion of the rocket weaponry system development.” This “successful” test spurred the United Nations Security Council to approve sanctions against the aggressor that limit the amount of refined oil North Korea can import and scrutinize shipping into and out of the country.


ISIS Defeated in Syria and Iraq

ISIS has terrorized parts of the world for years. Finally, in 2017, an international coalition took control of two key ISIS strongholds, Raqqa in Syria and Mosul in Iraq. According to U.S. News & World Report, 35,000 ISIS fighters held more than 17,000 square miles in the two states in January of 2017; by December, an estimated 1,000-3,000 fighters occupied a mere 2,000 square miles. This success came after months of fighting in both cities – fighting that killed as many as 11,000 civilians in Mosul alone. While much of the world celebrates the successes against the terrorist group, intelligence officers worldwide remain concerned about future potential ISIS-inspired “lone-wolf” attacks similar to those that have previously occurred in the U.S. and Europe.

Ethnic Cleansing in Myanmar

The Rohingya Crisis worsened this year as more than 6,700 Rohingya were killed, and as many as 2,300 died of starvation and other nonviolent causes, between August and September at the hands of the Myanmar government. This ethnic group has faced severe violence and brutality from their predominantly Buddhist government and its military, which have attempted to disguise the atrocities against the Rohingya as responding to internal terrorist attacks. In fact, the Myanmar government invoked sovereignty, which the New York Times describes as “the single biggest loophole in international laws and norms against atrocities,” as its defense against other world governments organizing action. As government leaders across the world, including U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, called for the Myanmar government and military to halt the atrocities the have led more than 600,000 Rohingya to flee Myanmar for Bangladesh, sovereignty has “prevailed” for the Myanmar government by allowing Myanmar to “act within their borders and protect [its] interests.”


By Sara Probber


International Criminal Court (ICC)

The ICC has been taking on new and challenging cases.  However, this has undermined the support of various states for its mandate. There have been several cases that have demonstrated the ICC prosecutor’s more comprehensive ability to prosecute individuals for their crimes.   The ICC has seen expansions on several fronts including prosecuting individuals for new types of war crimes, prosecuting leaders, and working as a complement to domestic legal systems to impose more rigorous sentences.   Some landmark cases include:
  • Ahmad Faqi Al Mahdi charged him with ordering the destruction of monuments in Timbuktu. This is the first case to focus on cultural destruction as a war crime. 
  • Germaine Katanga, a warlord from the Democratic Republic of Congo, had been sentenced by the ICC to 12 years imprisonment and was due to be released early in January 2016.  He was transferred back to the DRC in December 2015 to serve the remainder of his sentence. In early February, the DRC requested leave from the ICC for the prosecution. On April 7, 2016, the President of the ICC approved the prosecution of Katanga by the DRC stating that the charges were different from those at the ICC. This is the first time the Court has been called upon to interpret and apply Article 108, Paragraph 1 of the Rome Statute, which requires ICC approval of prosecution of an individual in the custody of a State of enforcement. 
  • The trial of Laurent Gbagbo, the former president of the Côte d’Ivoire, began 28, 2016. This trial was the first time that the ICC has had a former head of state in trial facing charges. 
  • Dominic Ongwen, on January 22, 2016 was accused of 70 crimes including war crimes and crimes against humanity in proceedings intended to confirm the charges.
  • On February 12, 2016, the appeals chamber placed a limitation on the prosecution ruling that they could not use recorded statements by five witnesses who either recanted those statements or failed to show up in court. Accordingly, on April 5, 2016, the ICC dismissed the case against Ruto and arap Sang, who had been charged with three crimes against humanity related to the violence following Kenya’s disputed elections in 2007. 
  • On March 21, 2016, Jean-Pierre Bemba, who led the Congolese Liberation Movement, was convicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Central African Republic. This was the first conviction for the crime of rape at the ICC. He was sentenced to 18 years imprisonment.
The backlash from the broader prosecutorial scope has been widespread. ICC Memberships were in contention throughout 2016.  On January 27, 2016, the ICC authorized an investigation into the alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Russia in South Ossetia between July 1 and October 10, 2008. Russia de-signed the Rome Statute on November 16, 2016. In October, Burundi, Gambia, and South Africa also announced withdrawals, although in 2017 a court found South Africa’s withdrawal was unconstitutional so it is not settled. On November 14, 2016, the ICC prosecutor announced that there was a “reasonable basis to believe” American soldiers had committed war crimes in Afghanistan. The crimes likely to be considered would include torture if a full-fledged investigation were launched. 

National and Supranational
National and supranational bodies have taken on a prominent role in trying international criminals and internationally convicted individuals within their own borders.  However, cross-border cooperation has proved problematic for domestic justice systems.

Conviction of Hissène Habré
On May 30, Hissène Habré, the former Chadian president, was sentenced to life in prison by the Extraordinary African Chambers in the Senegalese court system. Charges included torture, war crimes, and crimes against humanity connected with his rule of Chad from 1982 to 1990.

Lithuanian War Crime Trials of Former Soviet Officials
On January 27, 2016, Lithuania began war crimes trials for 65 former Soviet military officials based on their actions during Lithuania’s 1991 independence movement. The actions of the Soviet Army resulted in 14 civilian deaths and more than 700 wounded individuals.  Russian officials have refused to assist and many of the accused will not attend the trial and instead by represented by court-appointed attorneys.

Extradition and Extraterritorial Jurisdiction
On May 10, 2016 the European Court of Justice ruled that in order to preserve the freedom of movement of European Union nationals, if the extradition of a national of one member state is sought by a non-member, the state to whom the request is made must give priority to the individual’s state of nationality. The purpose of this measure is to maintain the equality of treatment for nationals and non-nationals moving freely within the EU while still providing recourse for unlawful action by returning an individual for prosecution in his state of nationality. This ruling is not binding on subsequent decisions, but may set a difficult precedent for the United States, a nation whose laws permit the extradition of nationals. 

Syria
The United States has used active rhetoric regarding the Syria conflict, and has sought, domestically, to call for action.  However, in 2016 this was restricted to calls by the House of Representatives to direct a UN ambassador and condemnation and calls for investigations. 

The High Commissioner for Human Rights asserted that war crimes should not be part of any Syria amnesty on February 1, 2016. In mid-March the House of Representatives called on the President of the United States to direct his ambassador to the UN to promote the establishment of a war crimes tribunal, which, based on the resolution, might have jurisdiction over US nationals.

On March 17, 2016 John Kerry announced, during a news conference at the State Department, that, in his judgment, “Daesh is responsible for genocide against groups in areas under its control including Yazidis, Christians and Shia Muslims."  On October 7, Kerry accused Russia and Syria of war crimes and called for an investigation of their actions in Syria.

Kosovo
In mid-January the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that there will be a tribunal set up in the Hague to try alleged crimes committed by the Kosovo Liberation Army from 1999-2000.

On January 21, 2016, Oliver Ivanovic, who is considered a political moderate, was charged with war crimes and received a nine-year sentence from EU’s Rule of Law Mission (EULEX).  He was the leader of a paramilitary police force in 1999.  The four men accused alongside him were acquitted.  He is under house arrest pending appeal.

International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
The ICTY continued to issue rulings and began to transition further deliberations to the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (“MICT”) – the successor to the ICTY. On March 24, 2016, Following an eight-year trial by the ICTY, Radvoan Karadzic has been found guilty of 10 of the 11 charges brought against him and sentenced to 40 years in jail.  Of the two counts of genocide, the Bosnian Serb leader was found guilty of the count relating to Srebrenica. Karadzic plans to appeal his sentence.  

On March 31, 2016, the ICTY acquitted Vojislav Šešelj, President of the Serbian Radical Party of three counts of crimes against humanity and six counts of war crimes. He was accused of having committed the crimes as part of a Joint Criminal Enterprise, but the court ruled that the purpose of the enterprise was political and not clearly criminal resulting in the acquittal.

Goran Hadžić’s trial, which began in 2012 and included 14 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, was indefinitely stayed on April 6, 2016, after he was deemed unfit to stand trial due to an inoperable brain tumor. The trial was terminated after his death on July 12, 2016.

On December 15, 2015, the ICTY ordered a retrial for Jovika Stanišić and Franko Simatović.  The retrial will take place under the MICT.

The prosecution and defense Final Trial Briefs were filed in Ratko Mladic’s trial on October 25, 2016.  This is the final trial at the ICTY and after the trial judgment the MICT will assume jurisdiction. Mladic faces an 11-count indictment including charges of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. Closing arguments began December 5, 2016.
By Nicholas Nalbantian



Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Julian Nitzsche, Creative Commons License

On September 27, 2016, at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Gary Vikan presented his memoir: Sacred and Stolen. After twenty-seven years at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, including eighteen years as its director, we were given an inside view of the art world and the development of the international law of art theft.

Dr. Vikan began by recounting an earlier time, in the 1970s and 1980s, when the comfort level for purchasing stolen art was still high. Collectors were more concerned with whether any particular piece had been called “stolen” publicly rather than concerned for the reality surrounding the item. Such little care made the West a ready market for plundered works of artistic and historical significance. From 1975 to 1984, Dr. Vikan worked at the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, an American center for Byzantine art. During that time, Dr. Vikan witnessed the flood of plundered artifacts following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, a part of the more general effort to “de-Hellenize” Northern Cyprus.

Dr. Vikan’s talk focused on two particular episodes: In the first, he recounted the entertaining tale of how Vikan helped Dominique De Menile, the oil heiress, obtain thirteenth century frescos in 1983. Through her generosity, these plundered mosaics were housed in Houston, with permission from Cyprus, until 2012 when they were returned. However, the second episode more significantly highlights the contribution Dr. Vikan made to the jurisprudence of international art theft. This is the saga of the sixth century Kanakaria Mosaics.

The Kanakaria Mosaics were likely stolen from the Cypriot Church of the Panagia Kanakaria in 1979. In 1988, the mosaics were sold for $1.2 million in cash from a dubious German art dealer in Geneva to Peg Goldberg, an Indianapolis dealer in nineteenth and twentieth century paintings. Upon returning to the United States, Goldberg tried to sell the mosaics to the J. Paul Getty Museum in California for $20 million; such a high profile item sale alerted Cypriot authorities to the mosaic’s location.

Once located, the Autocephalous Greek Orthodox Church brought suit in federal district court in Indianapolis in 1989 for the return of the mosaics. In an illustration of how the law treats the issue of plundered art like any other stolen item, the action of replevin had to begin with the court considering whether Indiana applied the O’Keeffe v. Snyder rule on the statute of limitations. The court determined that the O’Keeffe v. Snyder rule did apply, which meant that the statute of limitations began upon discovery of the mosaics by the Orthodox Church, rather than running from their date of theft. Dr. Vikan was called as an expert witness to explain whether these mosaics were sufficiently suspicious to defeat Goldberg’s defense that she was a good faith purchaser. Judge Nolan was unconvinced by Goldberg and ruled in favor of the Orthodox Church. Goldberg appealed, but the Seventh Circuit affirmed:

“Lest this result seem too harsh, we should note that those who wish to purchase art work on the international market...are not without means by which to protect themselves. Especially when circumstances are as suspicious as those that faced Peg Goldberg, prospective purchasers would do best to do more than make a few last-minute phone calls. As testified to at trial, in a transaction like this, ‘All the red flags are up, all the red lights are on, all the sirens are blaring.’”

With the Seventh Circuit quoting the testimony of Dr. Vikan – "All the red flags are up, all the red lights are on, all the sirens are blaring." –  he has made a noted contribution to the growing customary international law on art theft as the choices made by the United States may influence other states’ courts in the future. The international law of art theft has seen improvement since the 1970s, but is still lacking in many regards.

Dr. Vikan’s experiences with the occupation of northern Cyprus can inform how to deal with the current trade of plundered artifacts from Syria and Iraq.  Art theft is the third highest-netting criminal enterprise after drugs and guns, and a number of valuable pieces remain on the market as a result. The governmental instinct is that of restriction, such as Cyprus’ foreign minister  Ioannis Kasoulides’ request that the UN Security Council “apply universal limitations on the trade and transfer of artefacts originating from all conflict zone, with the obligation of proof of legitimate trade resting on the traders, auction houses and buyers and not on the originating state.” The hope is that cutting off market access will remove a stream of income available to ISIS. Combating terrorism is important, but we should perhaps take a more nuanced approach than the one espoused by Kasoulides.

ISIS has been destroying antiquities like the Temple of Baalshamin or the contents of the Mosul Museum. Their movement is iconoclastic and they wish to remove evidence of pre-Islamic civilization. Yet, should we follow Kasoulides’ lead, we risk the further destruction of Syrian and Iraqi history. Dr. Vikan shared his belief that there is value in providing safe harbor to these items of national and cultural significance, a notion that it is better that the sixth century mosaics eventually return to Nicosia than risk their permanent destruction at the hands of nationalists or iconoclasts. So too recovered relics should be protected by states without conflict zones rather than rejecting them out of hand. The U.S. government passed the Protect and Preserve International Cultural Property Act in September 2016, which, in part, adopted this tendency. The Act includes provisions that allow for the waiver of import restrictions if “the President determines that, for purposes of protecting and preserving such material, the material should be temporarily located in the United States.” This is the goal epitomized by Dominique De Menile. The law should allow for these cultural relics to be protected in the stable states, without taking title to the item, in the hope that these antiquities will someday be returned to their home region.

As for items that are already in the United States illegitimately, there needs to be a process of recovery superior to the one the Cypriote government went through with the Goldbergs. There are laws in place aimed at preventing the theft of the historical objects, including the 1970 UNESCO Convention requiring the repatriation of objects illegally removed from many countries. However, the process is still cumbersome and can take four to five years for an identified piece to be returned to Egypt. The Protect and Preserve International Cultural Property Act was a step in the right direction, but more needs to be done to aid the recovered pieces to be returned to their rightful homes.

The book “Sacred and Stolen: Confessions of a Museum Director” by Dr. Gary Vikan was published September 20, 2016.



By William Stroupe

Investigations of the vast trove of leaked documents from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca have revealed widespread assistance in clients’ efforts to evade sanctions. The firm registers offshore corporations under its own name, keeping owners’ names out of publicly reported information. After the imposition of sanctions, the firm continued to work for entities and individuals with ties to some of the world’s most oppressive regimes. In addition to sanctioned entities in Zimbabwe and Iran, this includes a corporation owned by North Korean officials under U.S. sanctions for activities related to nuclear proliferation, six owned by embattled Syrian dictator Bashar Al-Assad’s billionaire cousin, and another owned by a close friend of Vladimir Putin and thought to be operated on the Russian autocrat’s behalf.  Investigation into the cache of over 11.5 million documents is ongoing.