One of the benefits of working at the United Nations during the summer is that the Internship Program encourages the interns to attend many of the meetings that occur within the UN headquarters everyday. These meetings are typically closed door meetings regarding issues covering a wide array of areas that the UN is involved in. Some of the meetings I have seen on the UN daily journal cover areas such as disarmament, missiles, peacekeeping and human rights.
Last Friday, I had the opportunity to attend a briefing by the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. The ICC is one of the few international criminal tribunals that have been established to prosecute those who are accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity. (Incidentally, some of my supervisors were involved in the drafting work for the Rome Statutes of the ICC.) The briefing was attended by numerous representatives from the many Permanent Missions. (On a side note: There was also free lunch courtesy of the Permanent Missions of Australia and Liechtenstein.) The Prosecutor was represented by the head of the Jurisdiction, Complementarity and Cooperation Division.
She basically briefed us regarding the recent actions taken by the International Criminal Court regarding the issuance of arrest warrants against new suspects. Currently, the ICC has so far looked into situations in Uganda (the Lord's Resistance Army), the Democratic Republic of Congo (Thomas Lubanga, who is the first person to be arrested under the Rome Statutes), the Central African Republic and the Sudan (Humanitarian Affairs Minister Ahmad Harun and Janjaweed militia leader Ali Kushayb). After the meeting, it was interesting to hear several ambassadors make comments and ask questions. The briefing was off the record, so I cannot write about what was said. Let me say though that diplomatic language makes it difficult for a listener to realize that what is being said is actually already a form of criticism.
After the meeting, I also had an opportunity to speak with Professor Giusseppe Nesi, the Legal Adviser to the Permanent Mission of Italy to the United Nations. I remembered Professor Nesi because he was invited by one of my former international law professors to speak about the International Criminal Court for one of my classes in my previous school. I made sure to mention that we would invite Professor Nesi to give a talk at Fordham Law soon.
For those interested in getting more information regarding the International Criminal Court, visit: http://www.icc-cpi.int/
On a somewhat related note, Professor Richard Goldstone, who is a former Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, will be a Visiting Professor at Fordham Law School this coming fall. He will be teaching a course on international criminal law.
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