ICLN Newsletter - October 2002

 Content
 

- ICLN 1st Wednesday
- ICTR Case Law Database Launch
- New Institutional Partners of ICLN
- New UN High Commissioner on Human Rights visits ICLN Annual Conference 2002
- Publications on International Criminal Law
- Update on the ICC
- Serbian military court criticized for its judgment on war crimes: news from the Humanitarian Law Center
- Upcoming events
- ICLN Website
 
 
 
On behalf of the President of the International Criminal Law Network, Mr. M. Wladimiroff, we hereby kindly invite you for the 1st Wednesday of the 6th of November 2002. We have all confidence to repeat the success of the previous meetings!  The meeting will take place on the 6th of November from 5.00-7.00 pm at Sociëteit de Witte in The Hague. 

 

Daniel Thomas, Associate Professor University of Pittsburgh, will give a short lecture on:

 

"The ICC, the European Union, and the Politics of International Justice"

Would you like to attend this meeting? Please inform Marloes Vermeeren by e-mail (secretary@ICLN.net)

 
 
On Monday the 28th of October the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM) and the Willem Pompe Institute for Criminal Law and Criminology, both part of the Faculty of Law of Utrecht University, have launched the ICTR Case Law Database. The Project was born in response to the growing demand for available and accessible decisions of international criminal tribunals. The Rwanda database is paving the way for the creation of a similar databases for decisions of the ICTY and other emerging tribunals for the prosecution of international crimes. Further information concerning the ICTR Database Project can be found through the following email address: sim.documentation@law.uu.nl, or via the SIM website. ICLN believes this is a very welcome initiative and hopes that indeed similar action is taken with regard to the ICTY and future cases of the ICC. 
 

New Institutional Partners of ICLN

1. Dutch Ministry of Defense

ICLN is honoured to welcome two new institutional members in its midst. In addition, we are delighted to inform you that the Dutch Ministry of Defense has become a Public Founder of ICLN. Our public founders have a strong interest in the establishment of ICLN. We have all confidence these key organizations will provide useful input and insights into ICLN and broaden the scope of the network.

 

2. Europol
Europol is the European Union law enforcement organisation that handles criminal intelligence. Its aim is to improve the effectiveness and cooperation between the competent authorities of the Member States in preventing and combating serious international organised crime. The mission of Europol is to make a significant contribution to the European Union’s law enforcement action against organised crime, with an emphasis on targeting criminal organisations. Europol's importance is growing with further European initiatives towards Eurojust, and a growing involvement in peace and security. For more information on Europol, please visit :www.europol.eu.int. In the future more from Europol will be presented here.                                                                                                            

3. Colombian Commission of Jurists

The Colombian Commission of Jurists ("Comisión Colombiana de Juristas"), CCJ, is a non-governmental organization established in May 1988 under the name of Andean Commission of Jurists Colombian Section. The Colombian Commission of Jurists is an affiliate of the Andean Commission of Jurists, and the International Commission of Jurists, with its headquarters in Geneva. The consistency of the CCJ's work is recognized nation-wide in so far as this institution is called to take part in important human rights commissions in this country. An example of such activities is the following seminar: "The International Criminal Court and the defense of Human Rights". It is being organized by the Colombian Commission of Jurists and the Political Science and International Relations School of the Pontificia Universidad Javieriana. It will take place in Bogota (Colombia) from November 6 to 8, 2002. For more information please contact Colombian Commission of Jurists +571 376 8200 ext.142.

 

New UN High Commissioner on Human Rights visits ICLN Annual Conference 2002

The new UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, Mr. Sergio Vieira de Mello has formally confirmed his contribution to the ICLN Annual Conference 2002. This proves this conference will have a high impact on policy making towards the ICC.

The Conference will take place in the Peace Palace and the Netherlands Congress Centre in The Hague, 18-20 December 2002. The Chair on the Opening Day of the Conference will be Prof. Michael Scharf, Case Western Reserve University School of Law. Prof. Roy S. Lee, Columbia Law School, is preparing a Simulation Exercise for the last day of the Conference. The main themes of the conference are:

  • The ICC and its Impact on International Relations
  • The Institutional Framework of the ICC
  • Issue-analyses of the Selection of Cases, Judges and Defence Lawyers
  • The ICC and Forensic investigations

 

Speakers that have also formally confirmed their contribution to the conference include:

Richard Adams, Kai Ambos, Roger Clark, Barend Cohen, Wim Deetman, Carla Del Ponte, John Dugard,  Baltasar Garzón,  Elise Groulx, Hans Holthuis,  Michael Johnson,  Claude Jorda,  Michael Kennedy, Philippe Kirsch,  Ate Kloosterman,  Geert Jan Knoops, Albert Koeleman,  Ingvar Kopp,  Roy Lee, Sam Muller, Dick Oosting, William Pace,  Gavin Ruxton, Michael Scharf,  James Stewart,  Jurgen Storbeck,  Gerard Strijards, Otto Triffterer, Steven Upton, Sergio Vieira de Mello, Sharon Williams,  Michail Wladimiroff, Jan Wubben

 

You can now download a conference brochure and registration form from our website www.ICLN.net. We welcome your registrations by fax; 0031-70-3629768 or by regular mail: Koninginnegracht 22, 2514 AB DEN HAAG, The Netherlands. 

For more information, please check out the website www.ICLN.net or contact Joeri Maas, Project Manager of ICLN.  

 
 
ICLN Members receive a discount of 10%  (for more info please send an email to info@icln.net)
 
Surrendering to International Criminal Courts
Geert-Jan Alexander Knoops
ISBN 1-57105-152-X – 2002 - 440 p. - €125,-  
Hardcover
 
This innovative book provides an incisive, knowledgeable and comprehensive study of the promises and limitations of the emerging phenomenon of surrender of individuals to international criminal courts, such as the International Criminal Court of the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the International Criminal Court of Rwanda (ICTR), and the International Criminal Court (ICC). It is the first study on this area. With its searching appraisal of contemporary doctrinal and procedural issues of surrender law as well as the promises and pitfalls of the international surrender mechanism, this book is a timely and essential resource for any scholar and practioner working in the field of international criminal law.
 
Essential texts on international and European criminal law
G. Vermeulen
ISBN: 90 6215 794 7 - 2000 – 602 p. – € 19,95
Pocket book

This notebook comprises the principal policy documents and multilateral legal instruments on international and European criminal law, with a special focus on initiatives aimed at combating international or organized crime. It is meant to provide students as well as practitioners (judicial and law enforcement authorities, lawyers, researchers,…) throughout Europe with an accurate, up-to-date and low-budget edition of essential texts on these matters.

Dutch Publication:

Strafrechtelijke vervolging van ernstige schending van mensenrechten

S. Gutwirth & S. Smis (editors)

ISBN 90 6215 824 2 – 2002 - 188 p. - €49,-

 

De problematiek van de ernstige schendingen van mensenrechten is - helaas - brandend actueel. Met de komst van het Internationaal Strafhof (ICC), lijkt een nieuw hoofdstuk in de ontwikkeling van het internationale strafrecht te zijn begonnen. Advocaten, politici en gezaghebbende academici zorgen in dit boek voor een uitgebreid en gediversifieerd overzicht van de ontwikkelingen.

 
 
 
ICLN would like to point her members to the 30th Edition of the ICC Update in which you can  find more information about Regional Updates, Excerpts from the first Assembly of States Parties, Information on the Election of Judges, Upcoming Events, Resources, general CICC Information and many interesting updates are available within this document. This way a comprehensive overview of the latest developments is provided.
A downloadable version of the 30th Edition of the ICC Update, produced by the CICC Secretariat, is available at:
www.iccnow.org/html/ICCUpdate30Edfinal.pdf
 

Serbian military court criticized for its judgment on war crimes. 

The Humanitarian Law Center in Yugoslavia, one of ICLN's Institutional Members, would like to bring to your attention, the following:
On 11 October this year, the Military Court in Niš, central Serbia, handed down the first ruling in a case of a war crime committed during the armed conflict in Kosovo. The Court based its judgment on the confessions of Danilo Tešić and Mišel Seregi, formerly soldiers of the Yugoslav Army, to killing two unidentified Kosovo Albanian civilians and burning their bodies, and a statement made by Capt Rade Radojević during the investigation that the murders were ordered by a senior military security officer, Lt Col Zlatan Mančić.
This trial was important in both political and legal terms since it was the first before a military tribunal in Serbia for war crimes. The Humanitarian Law Center (HLC), however, has some serious reservations with regard to how the Court applied the Geneva Conventions and determined the facts of the case.
The Court, for instance, failed to identify the two murdered civilians although this could have been done by consulting the International Red Cross list of missing persons in Kosovo. Furthermore, the Court wrongly invoked the IV Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, which is applied in the case of international armed conflicts. The lenient sentences handed down by the Military Court reinforce the impression that the presiding judge and the members of his panel were biased in favor of the defendants. The Military Court in Niš thus failed to uphold a hallowed principle of justice - that the punishment must fit the crime.
The Humanitarian Law Center urges the Supreme Military Court to carefully examine the records of this case, to take into consideration the observations of the HLC, and to order a retrial before the Niš Military Court. I
 
 
9 November - The ICTY at ten: a critical assessment of the major rulings of the international criminal tribunal over the past decade. Regional meeting of the American Society of International Law. For more information please send an email to tansah@fac.nesl.edu
 
14-15 November - Terrorism and the Military: international legal implications. Conference organized by the International Society for military law and the law of war. For more information: www.soc-mil-law.org
 
6-10 December - Technology and its effects on criminal responsibility, security and criminal justice. For more information on this conference organized by the International Society for the Reform of Criminal Law, please visit www.isrcl.org
 
 
 
The ICLN Website is constantly in development and now includes:
  • A forum for discussions on recent developments in international criminal law (post your opinions at www.ICLN.net --> forum)   
  • Information about recent publications, with special discounts for ICLN Members 
  • Updated links section to various websites on international criminal law
  • An updated calendar with events in the field of international criminal justice
  • The brochure and registration form for the ICLN Annual Conference 2002 and a online outline of the program
Please visit the ICLN Website at www.ICLN.net.
 
 
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