Earlier this week ICC President Sang-Hyun Song addressed the U.N. General Assembly highlighting the many achievements of the ICC over the past year, and the challenges it faces. In particular he urged the nations to cooperate in arresting the eight individuals wanted by the court for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. As we mentioned several weeks ago, a Kenyan business man brought a case to a Mombasa court challenging the authority of the ICC under Kenya's new constitution. The High Court in Mombassa ruled that it has no jurisdiction to question the authority of the ICC in Kenya and denied the man's request. The controversy surrounding the ICC's request for evidence from high-level security officials has seemingly been resolved this week. The government issued a special gazette on Monday that will allow the ICC to interview the officers and record them on video. However, the officers have been permitted to decline to answer questions that they believe may implicate them or compromise national security. In other news, the Intergovernmental Authority for Development Conference (Igad) has been moved from Kenya, a member state of the ICC, to Ethiopia, a non-member state. Many suspect that the move was made to assist the attendance of Omar al-Bashir, and to absolve responsibility for Kenya to arrest him if he chooses to attend. In the wake of this decision a senior member of Sudan's ruling party has stated that the government will "never" cooperate with the ICC. Finally, the Lubanga trial, which has now resumed, has been temporarily slowed again. Witness testimony, which was scheduled to be presented this week, has been postponed because the witnesses weren't ready to take the stand. The trial court ruled that the trial would resume on Monday. Photo credit: BBC News.
No comments:
Post a Comment