{"id":162814,"date":"2020-06-15T12:00:59","date_gmt":"2020-06-15T11:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=162814"},"modified":"2024-06-12T21:25:16","modified_gmt":"2024-06-12T20:25:16","slug":"international-criminal-court-oversight-chief-deeply-regrets-us-decision-to-target-officials-investigating-afghanistan-war-crimes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2020\/06\/international-criminal-court-oversight-chief-deeply-regrets-us-decision-to-target-officials-investigating-afghanistan-war-crimes\/","title":{"rendered":"International Criminal Court Oversight Chief \u2018Deeply Regrets\u2019 US Decision to Target Officials Investigating Afghanistan War Crimes"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/a>13 Jun 2020 – Responding<\/a> to the decision of the United States Government to sanction International Criminal Court (ICC) officials and their family members, O-Gon Kwon, President of the Assembly of States Parties, the body that oversees the ICC, denounced the measures which, he said, undermine the \u201cendeavour to fight impunity and to ensure accountability for mass atrocities\u201d.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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The decision, announced on Thursday by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, national security adviser, Robert O\u2019Brien, defence secretary, Mark Esper and attorney general, William Barr, targets ICC officials investigating war crimes allegedly committed in Afghanistan by all sides, including the US, and will also see visa restrictions imposed on their families.<\/p>\n

The ICC investigation, given the green light<\/a> to proceed in March,\u00a0will be led by ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, who made the request to to the ICC\u2019s Pre-Trial Chamber in November 2017.<\/p>\n

At the time, her Office cited grave crimes \u201cand the absence of relevant national proceedings against those who appear to be most responsible for the most serious crimes\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr. Kwon affirmed the independence and impartiality of the Court, which Mr. Barr questioned during Thursday\u2019s presentation, during which he reportedly referred to the ICC as \u201clittle more than a political tool employed by unaccountable international elites\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Court, said Mr. Kwon, operates under a system called the Rome Statute, which recognizes that States have primary jurisdiction, when it comes to the investigation and prosecution of atrocity crimes: the ICC, he explained, is a court of last resort, and complementary to national jurisdictions.<\/p>\n

He added that the Court, and the Assembly of States Parties, have embarked on a review, aimed at strengthening the Rome Statute, and ensuring effective and efficient accountability for atrocity crimes.<\/p>\n

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The entrance of the International Criminal Court is seen in The Hague, March 3, 2011. [File: Reuters]<\/p><\/div>\n

Impact on investigations and trials<\/h3>\n

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR<\/a>), also expressed regret at the US decision on Thursday, with spokesperson Rupert Colville telling reporters at a briefing in Geneva that they would have an impact on investigations and trials underway in the ICC.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe independence of the ICC and its ability to operate without interference has to be guaranteed\u201d, he said, \u201cso that it can decide matters without any improper influences, inducements, pressures, threats or interferences, direct or indirect, from any quarter or for any reason\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr. Colville added that \u201cvictims of gross human rights violations and serious violations of international humanitarian law and their families have the right to redress and to the truth\u201d.<\/p>\n

Go to Original – news.un.org<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

13 Jun 2020 – Responding to the decision of the US government to sanction ICC officials and their families, O-Gon Kwon, president of the body that oversees the ICC, denounced the measures which, he said, undermine the \u201cendeavour to fight impunity and to ensure accountability for mass atrocities\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":105678,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[93,2395,923,95,70,965],"class_list":["post-162814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-united-nations","tag-afghanistan","tag-international-criminal-court-icc","tag-sanctions","tag-us-military","tag-usa","tag-war-crimes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162814"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162814\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":264283,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162814\/revisions\/264283"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}