IPI Policy Forum discussing recent developments in various regions of the world and the nexus between peace and justice.
The event was organized as part of the joint Peace & Justice Mission to the USA of the City of The Hague, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Dutch Ministry of Security and Justice, and the international courts and tribunals residing in The Hague.
Welcome Remarks: Jozias J. van Aartsen, Mayor of The Hague
Panelists:
Peter Tomka, President of the International Court of Justice (ICJ)
Willem J.M. van Genugten, Dean of the Hague Institute for …

[Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga is seen behind his lawyers in the courtroom of the International Criminal Court at The Hague March 14, 2012. REUTERS/Evert-Jan Daniels/Pool]
By the time the first verdict of the decade-old International Criminal Court was finally handed down on March 14, broader implications of this pioneering case were being recognized by human rights groups and international lawyers. In the courtroom, the judges found the Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga Dyilo guilty of conscripting children under the age of 15 and sending them into a guerrilla war of extreme brutality. …

By the time the first verdict of the decade-old International Criminal Court was finally handed down on March 14, broader implications of this pioneering case were being recognized by human rights groups and international lawyers. In the courtroom, the judges found the Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga Dyilo guilty of conscripting children under the age of 15 and sending them into a guerrilla war of extreme brutality. Will this conviction make a difference and what does the case say about the functioning of the …

It is hard to look at the International Criminal Court’s conviction of former Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga for enlisting child soldiers into his militia more than a decade ago and not consider it a positive step on the road towards justice. Perhaps, too, it marks a point where it is time for a conversation about some fundamental international justice questions: What is justice and justice at what cost?
The Lubanga verdict, a first for the decade-old International Criminal Court, comes on the heels of the viral YouTube video Kony2012 that introduced …

The international criminal court has delivered the first verdict in its 10-year history, finding a Congolese warlord guilty of recruiting child soldiers.
Thomas Lubanga was convicted of snatching children from the street and turning them into killers. He showed no emotion as the presiding judge, Adrian Fulford, read out the verdict.
In a unanimous decision, the three judges said evidence proved that as head of the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC) and its military wing, Lubanga had been responsible for the conscription of child soldiers active …

(AFP)
THE HAGUE — The International Criminal Court will issue a verdict in the trial of Congolese militia leader Thomas Lubanga on March 14, the tribunal’s first judgment since it was launched almost a decade ago.[Photo: Thomas Lubanga faces two war crimes charges for enlisting child soldiers to fight for his militia (AFP/ANP/File, Ed Oudenaarden)]
“The decision on the innocence or guilt of Thomas Lubanga will be delivered on March 14 by ICC judges,” the Hague-based court said in a statement, adding the public hearing was to start at 10:00 am (0900 …

Media Advisory: 29.02.2012
ICC-CPI-20120229-MA118
Situation: Democratic Republic of the Congo
Case: The Prosecutor v. Thomas Lubanga Dyilo
Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court (ICC) will deliver its decision on the innocence or guilt of Thomas Lubanga Dyilo (in accordance with article 74 of the Rome Statute) in a public hearing on 14 March 2012 at 10.00 a.m. (The Hague local time). Practical information on how to attend such session will be announced in a separate media advisory at a later stage.
The trial against Mr Lubanga Dyilo is the first trial before the ICC. …

The trial of Jean-Pierre Bemba will be critical for the future of the international law doctrine of “command responsibility” – the basis for holding political and military leaders guilty for the atrocities committed by their troops with their acquiescence (often by nods and winks), but without their direct approval.
Troops loyal to Mr Bemba certainly crossed over to the Central African Republic in 2002 and committed mass murder and mass rape. One legal issue for the court will be whether he can be held …

Genocide is understood by most to be the gravest crime against humanity it is possible to commit.
It is the mass extermination of a whole group of people, an attempt to destroy an entire group and wipe them out of existence.
But at the heart of this simple idea is a complicated tangle of legal definitions.
This has led to conflicting views on when a mass killing, or forced movement, of people can be called genocide.
There are people who say that there was only one genocide during the last century.
Others say there were …

AT LAST, it’s out. Or rather, as is the way with these things, large chunks of it have been leaked to the press. The report by the United Nations high commissioner for human rights into war crimes and human-rights abuses during Congo’s wars from 1996 to 2003 has been long in the making, and is also long in the reading—about 600 pages, apparently. The collapse of the country then known as Zaire in the mid-1990s precipitated Africa’s first continental war, involving eight countries, and caused the …