On Nov. 18, just days before the 50th anniversary of United Nations Resolution 242, the U.S. State Department took its first step towards severing its ties with the Palestinian Liberation Organization.
The timing of this decision could not be any more profound.
While Zimbabwe was changing under various inexorable forces of power, the more sterile surrounds of The Hague and the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia offered the scene for a conviction.
The “Serb Warlord” or the “Butcher of Bosnia”, as he has been termed in various circles, had finally received a verdict few were doubting. One of the doubters was, naturally, the man himself, Ratko Mladić, who accused the judicial officers of incurable mendacity.
Seeking recognition of Palestine has been one of the Palestinian Authority’s diplomatic strategies which lose significance when juxtaposed against Mahmoud Abbas’s collaboration with the Israeli occupation. Behind statements of recognition lies silence and the tacit acceptance of Israel’s colonization of Palestinian land and forced displacement of the indigenous people. Other than the obsolete two-state paradigm, there has been little discussion of what such recognition actually means in practice, or whether it could generate a tangible outcome for Palestinians.
After hearing personal accounts of torture and sexual violence from survivors, a senior United Nations official on Sunday vowed to raise the issue of persecution of the Rohingya people in Myanmar with the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court is seeking an investigation of alleged war crimes committed in the war in Afghanistan, an unprecedented probe that could involve US troops.
Fatou Bensouda said in a statement that a preliminary examination found “a reasonable basis to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity” were committed in Afghanistan after US-led troops moved in following the September 11 attacks in 2001.
The Har Homa neighborhood, an illegal Israeli settlement in occupied east Jerusalem. (AP/Dan Balilty)
Israel may be committing a war crime by revoking residency permits for Palestinians in East Jerusalem, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday.
In a new report, the rights group said “deportation or forced transfers of any part of the population of an occupied territory could amount to war crimes under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court”.
Chemical/biological warfare is the term used to describe the use of chemical or biological agents as weapons to injure or kill humans, livestock, or plants. Chemical weapons are devices that use chemicals to inflict death or injury; biological weapons use pathogens or organisms that cause disease. Pathogens include bacteria, viruses, fungi, and toxins (poisons produced by animals or plants).
— Library of Congress, Science Reference Services
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson speaks at the U.S.-Saudi Arabia CEO Summit, April 19, 2017, at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington. Tillerson recently announced the possible closure of the Office of Global Criminal Justice.(AP/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Luis Moreno-Ocampo leaves after a swearing-in ceremony at The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands, Friday, June 15, 2012. (AP/Bas Czerwinski)
The former prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Luis Moreno Ocampo has said that the investigation being carried out by the ICC concerning the issue of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, will most likely result in condemnation of Israeli officials since the establishment of settlements is considered a continuing war crime.
