Muammar Gaddafi is doing everything in his power to stop the Libyan revolution in its tracks. He has rejected dialogue in favour of brute force. The international community has condemned the violence in no uncertain terms. On Wednesday UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon spoke of serious violations of international law and human rights in Libya. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, called on Tuesday for an independent international investigation, condemning the "callousness with which Libyan authorities and their hired guns are reportedly shooting live rounds of ammunition at peaceful protesters".
Dr Pillay, a former judge at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, says such actions could constitute crimes against humanity. But the ICC’s current chief prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo says his hands are tied. This week he announced that the solution lies first and foremost in the hands of Libya; the ICC can only serve as a legal last resort.
New regime
The ICC can only intervene if Libya refuses or is unable to carry out its own investigation into the crimes. Until such times, Mr Ocampo can only wait on the sidelines. If Gaddafi is toppled, a new regime may want to bring him to justice before a Libyan court. Ocampo will only be able to act if Libya’s new leaders are unwilling or unable to take such steps.
But that scenario is still a long way off. This week Gaddafi declared that he would fight on until the last bullet. Mr Ocampo is bound by the Rome Statute, the 1998 treaty that led to the founding of the ICC. Gaddafi’s regime is not a signatory to the treaty and has therefore banished the prosecutor to the sidelines for the time being.
Yet there is still a chance that the ICC may come into action. First of all, the UN Security Council might instruct Mr Ocampo to carry out investigations in Libya. However, the Security Council is very much divided on the ICC. So far the UN has only asked Mr Ocampo to conduct investigations in the troubled Sudanese region of Darfur.
The other option lies in Tripoli itself. It is extremely unlikely that Gaddafi would ever accept the jurisdiction of the ICC, but a new Libyan regime might. The ball remains in Libya’s court: Ocampo will have to wait and see whether a new Libyan leadership will invite him to investigate the current political violence.
If the ICC takes on the case, it will focus on investigating whether crimes against humanity have been committed. Any crimes committed by Gaddafi before July 2002 will be beyond the court’s jurisdiction.
The International Criminal Court
•The International Criminal Court has been based in the Dutch city of The Hague since July 2002.
•The prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo, can only prosecute people suspected of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide committed after 1 July 2002.
•There are 114 signatories to the Rome Statute.
•Five suspects are currently being held at the UN detention facility in Scheveningen. Trials are ongoing against:
•Lubanga (DR Congo)
-Katanga & Ngudjolo Chui (DR Congo)
•Bemba (Central African Republic)
•The court' s most wanted suspects are:
•Omar al Bashir (Sudan) for war crimes and genocide
•Joseph Kony (Uganda) for war crimes committed by the LRA rebel group
No comments:
Post a Comment