Int'l Criminal Law in the News

[updated below] As you all will likely have heard, Col. Qaddafi's son and heir was captured by militia forces in Libya late this week. The Libyan government has suggested that he will be turned over to the International Criminal Court for prosecution, for crimes against humanity among other things, and the Chief Prosecutor is headed to Libya to begin discussions towards that end. Today however, the militia that is holding him is reported to be resisting calls to surrender him to the government.

Meanwhile, also this week, a former Mayor of a town in Rwanda was convicted by the ICTR for genocide and crimes against humanity, for his part in the killing of some 6,000 Tutsis in the Rwanda genocide of 1994.

On another continent, the U.N.-established tribunal to try crimes of genocide in Cambodia announced this week that the trial against Pol Pot's sister-in-law would not proceed, as she is unfit to stand trial. The tribunal has run into difficulty in the last few months due to reports of government interference in the tribunal's process.

[update] In line with the necessity that the administration of international criminal law is consistent with fundamental human rights and the rule of law, consider this editorial in The New York Times regarding the determination of habeus applications of detainees in GITMO, who are being held in large part on reasons grounded in international law principles.

Earlier this year, The Guardian reviewed the extent to which threats of possible arrest and prosecution have impacted on the travel plans of George W. Bush, Rumsfeld, and others, for among other things the treatment of detainees in GITMO.