John Traversi visit to Mexico to investigate human rights abuses

John Traversi returns from a visit to Mexico where he formed part of a Bar Human Rights Committee delegation, investigating reported abuses of human rights in that country. The purpose of the visit was to update a report (Recalling the Rule of Law 2010, see www.barhumanrights.org.uk) launched last year in the House of Lords. He spent time in Mexico City interviewing Federal ministers, prosecutors and the executive secretary of the National Commission for Human Rights, and travelled to the state of Guerrero where he met state officials and members of the local human rights community. In the state’s capital, Chilpancingo, he launched the Spanish version of the report. On his return to the capital, he attended a meeting with HM Ambassador and representatives of the Irish, Canadian and Italian embassies and later heard from a group of victims of human rights abuses.

Sergei Magnitsky’s mother demands justice against Russian authorities

Sergei Magnitsky's mother demands justice for the death of her son.
Bill Browder, CEO of Hermitage, will be speaking later this year at the 9 BRi conference and will tell the audience the chilling details of the death of this courageous lawyer at the hands of the Russian authorities, because he discovered a sophisticated fraud perpetrated by their own officials using the name of Hermitage. This fraud involved the police, tax authorities, lawyers and courts. It makes Gorky Park look like a picnic.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/8790371/Sergei-Magnitskys-mother-demands-Russian-murder-investigation.html

Steven Kay QC ICC opening statement in the confirmation hearing of Uhuru Kenyatta

21 September 2011 video of opening statement in ICC confirmation hearing.
Time limit set by the court for the presentation of 30 minutes.
Go to 9 Bedford Row International youtube site
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n73abyitlss

Steven Kay QC and Gillian Higgins file challenge to the jurisdiction in ICC Kenya case

The legal argument contesting jurisdiction at the ICC in the Kenya case has been filed by Steven Kay QC and Gillian Higgins of the ICLB and 9 Bedford Row International as counsel acting for Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta. The Defence challenge there is evidence of an organizational policy which is one of the key components for a non-State actor to be liable for charges alleging crimes against humanity.
Go to www.iclb.eu blog to download filing of argument

Steven Kay QC at Sri Lankan Lawyers Association Conference

Steven Kay QC will be presenting a speech upon the principles of complementarity at the ICC for the Sri Lankan Lawyers Association Conference on “Challenges to Reconciliation” - 11th October 2011 - 6:30-8:30pm, Grange Hotel, Southampton Row, London WC1
The panel also contains a Sri Lankan minister Rajeeva Wijaysinghe who will talk about the efforts the government has made in terms of reconciliation, peace and stability and lessons learnt in the Domestic Truth and Reconciliation committee.

Steven Kay QC to address The European Parliament Human Rights Committee for the Voice of Beslan

Monday 19 September 2011 at 15.00 in the European Parliament, Human Rights Sub Committee.
The Committee will be examining human rights in Russia and the North Caucasus.
Speakers: Ms Anna Udjarova, NGO “Memorial”, 2009 Sakharov Prize Winners
Mr Alexander Verkhovsky, Director of the SOVA Center
Video message by Ella Kesaeva, co-Chair of 'Voice of Beslan', organisation representing some of the families of the victims of the 2004 Beslan school siege
Mr Steven Kay QC, lawyer for Voice of Beslan in front of the European Court for Human Rights

In modern Russia many social groups experience problems with the enjoyment of their rights. Among the most vulnerable are minorities and those who lack a legal and formal status (citizenship, residency), who often live in extremely challenging social and economic conditions. These are mostly migrant workers, stateless migrants, undocumented citizens and those who have arrived from different Russian regions and are subjected to ethnic discrimination. Xenophobic attacks are constantly increasing, notably by nationalist groups, often targeting North Caucasus citizens. Human rights abuses are also allegedly committed by Russian and Russian-backed security forces, often in the name of anti-extremism. To highlight the culture of impunity surrounding such actions, and the often inadequate response of authorities, and to report on progress since the DROI Delegation visit in September 2010, representatives of the victims of the Beslan school siege will be heard by means of a video message from the organisation 'Voice of Beslan'. Steven Kay QC the lawyer representing Voice of Beslan in front of the European Court of Human Rights, where they have filed a lawsuit concerning the government's investigation of the attack, will update members on the court case.

Momcilo Perisic Convicted for Crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia

A Guest Post by Liam Sabec, LLB Student, University of Sussex

The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has convicted Momcilo Perišic, former Chief of General Staff of the Yugoslav Army from August 1993 to November 1998, for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia and sentenced him to 27 years’ imprisonment. The judgment is the first handed down against an official of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia for crimes committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Judge Moloto, presiding, stated that Yugoslav Army assistance to the Bosnia and Herzegovina-based Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) and the Croatia-based Army of Serbian Krajina (SVK) “became more centralised, structured and coordinated during General Perišic’s tenure” - including the creation of personnel centres to maintain the status of Yugoslav Army officers serving in the VRS and SVK.

The Trial Chamber, by majority, found Perišic guilty of aiding and abetting inhumane acts, acts of persecution and attacks on civilians in Sarajevo and Srebrenica, noting that he aware of both the campaign of shelling and sniping against civilians in Sarajevo and the probability of forcible transfer, killings and other abuses against Bosnian Muslims once Srebrenica had fallen under VRS control. The Trial Chamber concluded that “General Perišic repeatedly exercised his authority to provide logistical and personnel assistance that made it possible for the VRS to wage a war while he had knowledge that the VRS’s operations encompassed grave and systematic crimes against Muslim civilians”.

Perišic was also found guilty, on the basis of command responsibility, of murder and targeting, injuring and wounding civilians in regards to SVK rocket attacks on Zagreb in May 1995 which left 7 people dead and 100 injured. Perišic was found to have exercised effective control over Yugoslav Army officers serving in the SVK through his ability to issue command orders and initiate disciplinary proceedings. He was found guilty of failing to take reasonable measures to punish the perpetrators of the attacks despite being immediately notified of them.

However, the Trial Chamber unanimously acquitted Perišic of aiding and abetting extermination, as a crime against humanity, at Srebrenica on the grounds that it could not be demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt that he could have reasonably foreseen the systematic extermination of thousands of Muslims following VRS’s seizure of the town. Perišic was also acquitted of command responsibility in regards to crimes at Sarajevo and Srebrenica, the Trial Chamber finding that “Even though General Perišic had a collaborative relationship with Mladic and substantially aided his operations, the evidence does not establish that he exercised effective control over him”.

Both the defence and the prosecution have the right to appeal the decision. The proceedings are the 126th concluded by the Tribunal for serious violations of international humanitarian law committed on the territory of former Yugoslavia between 1991 and 2001, with proceeding ongoing for 35 accused.

For more information see:

www.icty.org/sid/10793

www.sofiaecho.com/2011/09/06/1150605_hague-tribunal-jails-perisic-for-crimes-in-bosnia-and-herzegovina-and-croatia

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14802449

The Confirmation Hearing in Kenya 2 is to start on 21 September 2011

The Confirmation Hearing in Kenya 2 is to start at the ICC in The Hague on 21 September 2011.
The 9 BRi members Steven Kay QC and Gillian Higgins will be representing the Deputy Prime Minister Mr Uhuru Kenyatta.
Watch the blog and this space for the developments in these interesting proceedings, where one of the Judges has already stated the case of the Prosecutor fails the jurisdiction test for the requirement of an organisational policy.
The Prosecutor's case rests on this issue and the majority of the Judges that have so far accepted jurisdiction have not yet heard from the Defence on the issue.
We will try and give you a day by day diary of the proceedings.

The STL President, Judge Antonio Cassese process to initiate trials in absentia

The STL President, Judge Cassese, convenes the Trial Chamber for the first time

The STL President, Judge Antonio Cassese, following a consultation with the Presiding Judge of the STL Trial Chamber, has today issued an order convening the STL Trial Chamber for the first time, in the case of Ayyash et al. It will be for the STL Pre-Trial Judge to ‘seize the Trial Chamber of the issue of whether to initiate proceedings in absentia’, and thereafter for the trial chamber to consider submissions from both the Prosecutor and the Head of the Defence Office. This will be with a view to determining whether or not the requirements of Rule 106 have been met, which would allow the STL to conduct proceedings in absentia.

The judges of the Trial Chamber have been named as Judge Robert Roth of Switzerland, the Presiding Judge of the Chamber; Judge Micheline Braidi of Lebanon; Judge David Re of Australia; Judge Janet Nosworthy of Jamaica, an alternate judge; and Judge Walid Akoum of Lebanon, an alternate judge.

David Young
9 Bedford Row International

ICC Prosecutor seeks to narrow Nature and Scope of the Confirmation Hearing

In this blog a few weeks ago I mentioned the paper exercise which seemed to be emerging as a practice of the Prosecution at the ICC, to reduce the effectiveness in the process of the Confirmation Hearing.
It seems my concerns have been realised in the Kenya 1 case where the Prosecutor has filed a motion containing observations to restrict the nature and scope of the Confirmation hearing. The filing seeks to restrict the importance of defence evidence and states:
"The purpose of the confirmation hearing is only to insure that the Prosecution’s evidence, at its highest, establishes that there exist “substantial grounds” to believe that the suspect committed the crimes charged.
Accordingly, the Defence cannot defeat confirmation by simply presenting witnesses or documents that purport to contradict the evidence put forth by the Prosecution at confirmation. The process of resolving contradictions in evidence, which requires a full airing of the evidence on both sides and a careful weighing and evaluation of all of the different pieces of evidence, occurs at trial."
If that be the case one wonders why the founding fathers of the ICC deemed it necessary to include the Defence in the process at all, unless they are mere spectators to a coronation. 2011.08.26- Obs scope conf hearing (ENG)-297