{"id":163662,"date":"2020-06-29T12:00:33","date_gmt":"2020-06-29T11:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=163662"},"modified":"2024-06-12T21:25:14","modified_gmt":"2024-06-12T20:25:14","slug":"us-sanctions-against-international-court-staff-a-direct-attack-on-judicial-independence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2020\/06\/us-sanctions-against-international-court-staff-a-direct-attack-on-judicial-independence\/","title":{"rendered":"US Sanctions against International Court Staff a \u2018Direct Attack\u2019 on Judicial Independence"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"field field-name-field-news-story-lead field-type-text-long field-label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field-items\">\n<div class=\"field-item even\">\n<blockquote><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/un-news-logo-e1568706362531.png\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-109474\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/un-news-logo-e1568706362531.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>25 Jun 2020 &#8211; <em>The decision by the United States to authorize sanctions targeting staff at the International Criminal Court (<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.icc-cpi.int\/\" >ICC<\/a>) is \u201ca direct attack to the institution\u2019s judicial independence\u201d, UN human rights experts said today.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div class=\"paragraphs-items paragraphs-items-field-news-story paragraphs-items-field-news-story-full paragraphs-items-full\">\n<div class=\"field field-name-field-news-story field-type-paragraphs field-label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field-items\">\n<div class=\"field-item even\">\n<div class=\"entity entity-paragraphs-item paragraphs-item-one-column-text\">\n<div class=\"content\">\n<div class=\"field field-name-field-text-column field-type-text-long field-label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field-items\">\n<div class=\"field-item even\">\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Washington announced this month that it would launch an economic and legal offensive against ICC officials investigating alleged war crimes committed by all sides in the conflict in Afghanistan, including US troops.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cThe implementation of such policies by the US has the sole aim of exerting pressure on an institution whose role is to seek justice against crimes of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of aggression\u201d,<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ohchr.org\/EN\/pages\/home.aspx\" >said<\/a> Diego Garc\u00eda-Say\u00e1n, UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, speaking on behalf of the 34 experts.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cIt\u2019s a further step in pressuring the ICC and coercing its officials in the context of independent and objective investigations and impartial judicial proceedings.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/IntlCrimCourt?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" >@IntlCrimCourt<\/a>\u2019s judicial independence is threatened by <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/US?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" >#US<\/a> Government sanction and visa measures against individual staff. It also risks jeopardising access to justice for victims of war atrocities \u2013 UN experts. Learn more: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/JUMrio0YKX\" >https:\/\/t.co\/JUMrio0YKX<\/a> <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/MeAWi9hw9X\" >pic.twitter.com\/MeAWi9hw9X<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; UN Special Procedures (@UN_SPExperts) <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/UN_SPExperts\/status\/1276145666658635776?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" >June 25, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Afghanistan probe \u2018important\u2019<\/h3>\n<p>The ICC, which is based in The Hague, in the Netherlands, prosecutes the most serious crimes of concern to the international community, including cases related to conflict in the Central African Republic, Darfur and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.<\/p>\n<p>It was established in July 1998 under a treaty known as the Rome Statute, which more than 120 countries have signed. The US is not a party.<\/p>\n<p>The ICC\u2019s Appeals Chambers authorized the Afghanistan probe in March, overturning an earlier decision.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at the time, Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda called it<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201can important day for the cause of justice in the situation of Afghanistan, for the Court, and for international criminal justice more broadly.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3>Assets blocked, visas revoked<\/h3>\n<p>In response to the court\u2019s decision, US President Donald Trump issued an Executive Order on 11 June, blocking the financial assets of certain ICC staff and imposing visa restrictions on them and their immediate family members.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at a press conference that day, US Attorney-General William Barr said the measures \u201care an important first step in holding the ICC accountable for exceeding its mandate and violating the sovereignty of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The president of the body which oversees the\u00a0 ICC, O-Gon Kwon, has denounced the measures, stating \u201cthey undermine our common endeavour to fight impunity and to ensure accountability for mass atrocities.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>\u2018Broad spectrum\u2019 of rights violated<\/h3>\n<p>The UN experts said sanctions targeting international judges and international civil servants violate their privileges and immunities, as well as \u201ca broad spectrum\u201d of rights.<\/p>\n<p>Specifically, the Executive Order \u201cwould result in the violation of the prohibition of punishment for acts that did not constitute criminal offences at the moment of their commission, the right to a fair trial, the right to freedom of movement and the right to privacy and family life,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n<p>They also recalled that the US has warned it would \u201cexact consequences\u201d against the ICC for any \u201cillegitimate\u201d investigations into Israeli practices in the occupied Palestinian territory.<\/p>\n<p>The experts, who are neither UN staff nor paid by the Organization, have been in contact with the US authorities on these issues.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/news.un.org\/en\/story\/2020\/06\/1067142\" >Go to Original &#8211; 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":"<p>25 Jun 2020 &#8211; The decision by the United States to authorize sanctions targeting staff at the International Criminal Court (ICC) is \u201ca direct attack to the institution\u2019s judicial independence\u201d, UN human rights experts said today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":109474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[93,867,1854,2395,651,769,923,124,95,70,965],"class_list":["post-163662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-united-nations","tag-afghanistan","tag-anglo-america","tag-crimes-against-humanity","tag-international-criminal-court-icc","tag-justice","tag-military-supremacy","tag-sanctions","tag-united-nations","tag-us-military","tag-usa","tag-war-crimes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163662","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=163662"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":264276,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163662\/revisions\/264276"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}