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	2019 Human Rights Defenders Forum by The Carter Center   Oct. 2019   2019 Human Rights Defenders Forum: "Building Solidarity toward Equality for All"   Dozens of activists, peacemakers, and community leaders from 28 countries came together in October for the Carter Center's 12th Human Rights Defenders Forum.   Session topics included global protection for activists, challenges for women defenders and peacemakers, and the importance of mutually supporting civil, economic, political, and social rights.   Carter Center Statement from the 2019 Human Rights Defenders Forum   The Carter Center is calling for global solidarity with activists facing increasingly violent retribution for their work to advance humanrights and peace worldwide.   According to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, threats and attacks against activists have increased in recent years,with 431 documented killings in 2017 and 2018.   Activists have reported that attacks against them and their colleagues continue unabated because the perpetrators are rarely held accountable.   Former President Jimmy Carter has a message for those activists taking great risks: 'I want every human rights defender and peacemaker to know that their work is essential to overcomingthe present crises vexing our world'.   'We must all combine our efforts to offer meaningful solidarity to those on the frontlines of the struggle for human rights, climate justice, and peace'.   Forum participants call on local and national governments and international organizations to:   1) Increase efforts to protect activists who are threatened and attacked. Offer activists political, moral, and physical support in times of crisis. Create robust programs to support women activists. Stop impunity for violators, hold accountable those who attack human rights and peace activists.   2) Increase meaningful long-term support for their work. Activists report that the difficult work of movements and civil society organizations is hampered by drastic funding cuts by previously reliable sources.   In addition to issuing strong statements about human rights abuses, governments should also provide needed resources and other support. Philanthropic foundations also should increase flexible, long-term support.   http://www.cartercenter.org/news/upcoming_events/promo/hrd-forum-2019.html http://www.cartercenter.org/peace/human_rights/defenders/index.html http://forum.cartercenter.org/roundtables http://forum.cartercenter.org/discussions Visit the related web page
	ICC: fighting impunity for the world's most serious crimes under international law by ICC, ICJ, Human Rights Watch, UN News, agencies   June 2021   Human Rights Watch calls for U.S. to Bolster Justice for Grave Crimes Globally.   The United States should reaffirm support for justice for victims of grave international crimes around the world, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. As the administration of President Joe Biden renews the United States’ commitment to multilateralism, it should ensure that support for accountability for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide is a key component of a human-rights-focused foreign policy.   The 27-page report, “Essential Proposals to the Biden Administration to Advance International Justice,” outlines five areas in which the United States can demonstrate a consistent commitment to justice for victims of atrocities. Human Rights Watch details the ways the US government can advance this objective for specific countries like Ethiopia and Myanmar.   It also urges the US government to support the International Criminal Court (ICC), other international or hybrid institutions like the Special Criminal Court in the Central African Republic, and national prosecutions, including those brought under the principle of universal jurisdiction.   “President Biden has signaled a renewed commitment to work with allies and participate in multilateral institutions,” said Liz Evenson, associate international justice director at Human Rights Watch.   “Supporting justice for victims of the most serious international crimes should be at the forefront of the administration’s commitment.   As a component of the rule of law, international justice strengthens cooperation across governments and is central to the fight against impunity worldwide.”   Promoting accountability through criminal prosecutions is critical for victims and their families to obtain justice and plays a role in ending cycles of violence. US support has been critical to effective justice processes in countries around the world, from Bosnia to Sierra Leone.   Despite expressed bipartisan support for international justice, the US position on the ICC, the centerpiece of this evolving system, has changed over the last several administrations.   It has ranged from initial hostility under the George W. Bush administration to more open support and cooperation under the Obama administration. Under the Trump administration, the US levied punitive measures against ICC staff, including financial sanctions and entry bans, in an effort to thwart investigations in Afghanistan and Palestine.   When President Biden removed these unprecedented penalties in April 2021, he began what could be an overdue process of restoring US credibility on international justice.   The US government should help bolster accountability for war crimes and possible crimes against humanity in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, crimes against humanity and acts of genocide against the Rohingya in Myanmar, and other atrocities committed elsewhere, Human Rights Watch said.   This includes supporting UN-mandated investigative mechanisms and US re-engagement with the United Nations Human Rights Council, which has an essential role to play in promoting justice.   Human Rights Watch also makes specific country-by-country recommendations in its report to strengthen credible, fair proceedings before national and hybrid (that is, mixed international-national) courts.   Meaningful support for international justice needs to include the ICC, Human Rights Watch said. While lifting the Trump administration sanctions, the Biden administration made clear that the United States continues to oppose the “ICC’s actions” in Afghanistan and Palestine, and more generally any ICC jurisdiction over the nationals of states that have not joined the ICC.   The ICC has opened investigations in both these situations, although the investigation in Afghanistan is currently on hold. These investigations could include scrutiny of alleged crimes committed by US and Israeli nationals, respectively. US objections to the ICC’s jurisdiction have no basis in the law and reinforce impunity.   The Biden administration should view these investigations through the lens of countering impunity for the worst human rights abuses. The investigations are by no means limited to crimes allegedly committed by US and Israeli nationals, but could extend to crimes committed against civilians by multiple actors, including the Taliban, Afghan government forces, and Palestinian armed groups, providing a long-awaited path to justice for victims.   Through procedures in the ICC’s founding treaty, the Rome Statute, the United States could seek to preempt ICC scrutiny of conduct by US nationals by genuinely investigating and appropriately prosecuting alleged crimes committed in connection with the Afghanistan conflict. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has recognized in principle that the US should “lead by the power of our example.”   To persuade other countries to seek accountability for grave crimes, and to have credibility in standing for justice internationally, the US should commit to genuinely confront its past abuses in relation to the conflict in Afghanistan and to put in place policies that prevent future abuses, Human Rights Watch said.   “As the court of last resort, the ICC has a critical role to play and the Biden administration should not allow narrow concerns about certain investigations to undermine its broader commitment to accountability,” Evenson said. “The Biden administration should demonstrate it is serious about a human-rights-centered foreign policy by standing with its allies in supporting justice for victims of serious international crimes and making ICC cooperation the rule.”   http://www.hrw.org/news/2021/06/24/us-bolster-justice-grave-crimes-globally http://www.fidh.org/en/issues/international-justice/accountability-for-sexual-and-gender-based-crimes-at-the-icc-an http://www.fidh.org/en/issues/international-justice/international-criminal-court-icc/the-justice-survivors-need-open-letter-to-the-new-icc-prosecutor   Feb. 2021   The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and more than 70 other non-governmental organisations, faith-based groups, and academic institutions urge the Biden Administration to engage constructively with the International Criminal Court (ICC). The statement reads:   The undersigned organizations urge the Biden Administration to engage constructively with the International Criminal Court (ICC). The U.S. government’s support for the ICC could help secure justice for victims in situations from Myanmar to Darfur, just as it helped facilitate the February 4 historic conviction of a former leader of an armed rebel group for war crimes and crimes against humanity in northern Uganda.   There is an immediate need to act to reset U.S. policy regarding the ICC. Most urgently, we are alarmed by recent calls for the U.S. government to maintain or even expand the sanctions put into place by the Trump administration in June 2020 currently targeting the court’s work.   These actions were an unprecedented attack on the court’s mandate to deliver justice and the rule of law globally, an abuse of the U.S. government’s financial powers, and a betrayal of the U.S. legacy in establishing institutions of international justice. They were also an attack on those who engage with the court, including human rights defenders and victims. These extraordinary measures have put the U.S. at odds with many of its closest allies. They also have been challenged on constitutional grounds domestically.   Keeping in place the executive order authorizing sanctions would be inconsistent with the new administration’s laudable commitments to respecting the rule of law and pursuing multilateral cooperation in support of U.S. interests. It would also transform a shameful but temporary action into a standing license for other governments to attack multilateral institutions when they disagree with those bodies’ actions.   We call upon the U.S. government to rescind Executive Order 13928 and all sanctions measures against ICC officials at the earliest possible opportunity. We appeal for constructive engagement with the ICC and we urge the Biden administration and members of Congress to support that approach.   http://www.icj.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/USA-Biden-Joint-Statement-2021-ENG.pdf   Sep. 2020   International Criminal Court condemns US economic sanctions   The International Criminal Court ("ICC" or "Court") condemns the economic sanctions imposed by the US earlier today on the Court's Prosecutor and a member of her Office.   The new measures, announced pursuant to the US Executive Order 13928 dated 11 June 2020, are another attempt to interfere with the Court's judicial and prosecutorial independence and crucial work to address grave crimes of concern to the international community as mandated under the ICC Rome Statute.   These coercive acts, directed at an international judicial institution and its civil servants, are unprecedented and constitute serious attacks against the Court, the Rome Statute system of international criminal justice, and the rule of law more generally.   The Court continues to stand firmly by its personnel and its mission of fighting impunity for the world's most serious crimes under international law, independently and impartially, in accordance with its mandate. In doing so, the Court benefits from the strong support and commitment of two thirds of the world's States which are parties to the Rome Statute. http://bit.ly/3m2wNUv   June 2020   President O-Gon Kwon rejects measures taken against ICC   On 11 June 2020 the Government of the United States announced new measures against the International Criminal Court (ICC). These measures are unprecedented. They undermine our common endeavor to fight impunity and to ensure accountability for mass atrocities. I deeply regret measures targeting Court officials, staff and their families.   The Court is independent and impartial. The ICC is a court of law. It operates in strict adherence to the provisions of the Rome Statute.   The Rome Statute system recognizes the primary jurisdiction of States to investigate and prosecute atrocity crimes. As a court of last resort, the ICC is complementary to national jurisdictions. This is a cornerstone of the Statute.   To further strengthen the Rome Statute system, the Assembly of States Parties and the Court have embarked on a wide-ranging review process. The aim is to ensure effective and efficient accountability for atrocity crimes.   I call upon the States Parties and all the stakeholders in the Rome Statute system to reiterate once more our relentless commitment to uphold and defend the principles and values enshrined in the Statute and to preserve its integrity undeterred by any measures and threats against the Court and its officials, staff and their families.   (The Assembly of States Parties is the management oversight and legislative body of the ICC. It is comprised of representatives of States that have ratified or acceded to the Rome Statute. President Kwon was elected President of the Assembly for a three year mandate in December 2017). http://bit.ly/2DHlfEM   Sep. 2020   US Sanctions International Criminal Court Prosecutor. (Human Rights Watch)   The Trump administration’s unprecedented imposition of asset freezes on prosecutors at the International Criminal Court (ICC) shows an egregious disregard for victims of the world’s worst crimes, Human Rights Watch said today. On September 2, 2020, the administration announced that the United States had designated the ICC prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, and the head of the Office of the Prosecutor’s Jurisdiction, Complementarity, and Cooperation Division, Phakiso Mochochoko, for sanctions.   The US action gives effect to a sweeping executive order issued on June 11 by President Donald Trump, which declared a dubious national emergency and authorized asset freezes and family entry bans that could be imposed against certain ICC officials. The Trump administration had repeatedly threatened action to thwart ICC investigations in Afghanistan and Palestine into conduct by US and Israeli nationals, and revoked the ICC prosecutor’s US visa in 2019.   “The Trump administration’s perverse use of sanctions, devised for alleged terrorists and drug kingpins, against prosecutors seeking justice for grave international crimes, magnifies the failure of the US to prosecute torture,” said Richard Dicker, international justice director at Human Rights Watch. “The administration’s conjuring up a ‘national emergency’ to punish war crimes prosecutors shows utter disregard for the victims.”   The ICC is the permanent international court created to try people accused of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of aggression. Following the atrocities in Rwanda and in the former Yugoslavia in the mid-1990s, concerned governments set up the ICC to bring those responsible for serious international crimes, including senior officials, to justice. Currently, 123 countries have joined the court, nearly two-thirds the membership of the United Nations. The court has opened investigations into alleged atrocities in 12 countries, including Sudan, Myanmar, and Afghanistan.   In response to Trump’s executive order in June, 67 ICC member countries, including key US allies, issued a joint cross-regional statement expressing “unwavering support for the court as an independent and impartial judicial institution.” This was accompanied by statements from the European Union, the president of the ICC’s Assembly of States Parties, and nongovernmental organizations in the US and globally. ICC member countries have repeatedly affirmed their support for the court.   These sanctions seriously affect those targeted, who not only lose access to their assets in the US but are also cut off from commercial and financial dealings with “US persons,” including banks and other companies. US sanctions also have a chilling effect on non-US banks and other companies outside of US jurisdiction who fear losing access themselves to the US banking system if they do not help the US to effectively export the sanctions measures.   The June executive order is designed not only to intimidate court officials and staff involved in critical investigations of the court but also to chill broader cooperation with the ICC, Human Rights Watch said. The order authorizes sanctions against non-US persons who assist in investigations to which the US administration objects.   The US, which is not a member state of the court’s foundational Rome Statute, objects to ICC authority over nationals of non-member countries unless a UN Security Council resolution authorizes it. Afghanistan, however, is an ICC member country, which gives the court authority to investigate and prosecute crimes committed by anyone – regardless of nationality – on Afghan territory or otherwise connected to the conflict.   Significantly, the ICC is a court of last resort, stepping in only if national authorities do not conduct genuine domestic proceedings. The Afghan government has asked the ICC prosecutor to defer her investigation, asserting that Afghan authorities can conduct credible national proceedings, although the Afghan government has not demonstrated the capacity and willingness to do so.   Senior-level US civilian and military officials who could bear responsibility for authorizing the well-documented torture and other ill-treatment of detainees in connection with the conflict in Afghanistan, or for failing to punish those who carried out abuses, have not been held to account before US courts.   Because the ICC prosecutor’s office is assessing Afghanistan’s request and because of restrictions related to the Covid-19 pandemic, the court is not currently conducting active investigative steps in the country.   “ICC members have banded together before to stand with victims and defend the court’s mandate from unprincipled attacks, including from the US,” Dicker said. “These governments should stand ready to do all it takes to ensure the ICC remains on course so that no one, even from the most powerful countries, is above the law.”   http://www.hrw.org/news/2020/09/02/us-sanctions-international-criminal-court-prosecutor http://www.icj.org/us-must-end-attacks-on-international-criminal-court-and-staff/ http://www.globalr2p.org/publications/r2p-the-dream-and-the-reality/   * International Bar Assocation: http://bit.ly/3bz8oRA   June 2020   US attacks against the International Criminal Court a threat to judicial independence – UN experts.   The unprecedented decision by the United States Government to target and sanction individual staff of the International Criminal Court (ICC) is a direct attack to the institution’s judicial independence and could undermine victims’ access to justice, UN human rights experts* said today.   “The 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,” said Diego García-Sayán, the UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers. “It’s a further step in pressuring the ICC and coercing its officials in the context of independent and objective investigations and impartial judicial proceedings.”   Following a 5 March 2020 decision by the ICC’s Appeals Chamber, which authorised a probe of alleged war crimes in Afghanistan committed by all sides in the conflict, including American forces, the US Administration this month announced it was launching an economic and legal offensive against the Court.   On 11 June 2020, in response to the Appeals Chamber’s decision, the US President issued Executive Order 13928 on Blocking Property of Certain Persons Associated with the International Criminal Court. The US Government declared it would revoke or deny visas to members of the ICC involved in investigations against US troops in Afghanistan or elsewhere, and sanction any person “directly engaged in any effort by the ICC to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute any United States personnel without the consent of the United States”.   US Attorney-General William Barr said the moves were aimed at “holding the ICC accountable for exceeding its mandate and violating the sovereignty of the United States”.   In December 2019, the US Administration had warned that it would “exact consequences” against the ICC for any “illegitimate” investigations into Israeli practices in the occupied Palestinian territory.   “The use of unilateral sanctions against international judges and international civil servants constitutes a clear violation not only of their privileges and immunities, but also of a broad spectrum of rights of the targeted individuals”, the experts said. “In particular, the enforcement of E.O. 13928 would 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.   “These threats constitute improper interference with the independence of the ICC and could also have potential adverse impacts on human rights defenders, civil society organisations and victims’ representatives who might be discouraged from cooperating with the ICC and, consequently, hinder the possibility of victims of atrocity crimes to access justice”. http://bit.ly/328yM1B   Sep. 2018   Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji, President of the International Criminal Court (ICC) underscores in an interview with UN News that “humanity cries for justice,” and that “no country can do it alone.”   He pointed out that there are more conflicts in the world today than in 1998, when the Rome Statute established the Court to address genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.   Judge Eboe-Osuji deflected the significance of remarks reportedly made by the US national security advisor earlier this month, that the ICC was an “illegitimate court,” urging countries to focus on why the Rome Statue was adopted.   In response to the advisor John Bolton’s reported remarks indicating that the US would be prepared to ban ICC judges and prosecutors from entering the country, should a proposed investigation into alleged US war crimes in Afghanistan go ahead, the Judge calmly responded that it was “unfortunate that that kind of threat was made,” but again stressed the importance of focusing on “why we have the Rome Statute.”   “The world needs the United States in the ICC…[especially] because they have a long history and experience of supporting these sorts of efforts to address violations,” he said, noting the Nuremburg trials after the Second World War, in which the American judicial system “led the way.”   Judge Eboe-Osuji also pointed out that in response to problems in the former Yugoslavia, genocide in Rwanda and war crimes committed in the Sierra Leone civil war, “the United States played a strong role in insisting that justice must be done post-conflict, and that was done.”   “We do want them to come to the ICC and do the same thing, they know how to do it, they know how to assist.”   “That is what is more important,” he stated, “we have to keep our eyes on the ball.”   “We cannot be distracted, by whatever reasons some people feel irritated by what the Court does,” adding that it would continue to do its work.   He said it was important “for everyone to keep in mind that there are strong systems in place around the Rome Statue that ensures that there is no unfair prosecution against anyone.”   “There is no need for anyone to get carried away at the beginning of the process, even before any preliminary examination or investigation has been begun,” he said, elaborating on the very long process of the Court.   “Humanity cries for justice,” he said, adding that “no country can do it alone…The world needs a collective effort to solve collective problems.” http://bit.ly/35fqBT1 http://www.coalitionfortheicc.org/ Visit the related web page
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