...international and constitutes a crime against the world, or if the act is transnational that affects the interests of more than one state (Global Solutions, n.d.). The contents of this essay will identify the various major global crimes and criminal issues that have a global impact on national and international justice systems and processes. In addition, the text will discuss the various international justice systems and how these global crimes and criminal issues are addressed. Fueled by open borders, global markets, and the advancement of telecommunications, international crime has become a rising universal problem. In 1995, President Clinton classified international crime as a danger to the national interest of the United States. Therefore, before and since then the federal government has been busy in a converging effort to address various major global crimes, such as human rights and war crimes, organized crime and narcotics, cybercrime, environmental crime, and terrorism (Global Solutions, n.d.). Human Rights and War Crimes are inhuman acts committed by an extensive or systematic attack aimed against individuals, such as genocide, crimes against humanity, slavery, torture, aggression, and war crimes. Organized crime is a profit-driven criminal organization or group who work together to commit illegal acts to achieve a common goal and most international organized crime involves narcotics violations including drug trafficking, drug manufacturing, and drug distribution are common...
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...Beyond the courtroom and differing conceptions of justice, the inflexibility of international criminal law to embrace local or indigenous culture and legal tradition cements the fact that victims needs will not be met. Centuries old customs concerning conflict resolution that may be integral to affected communities, make no appearance in international criminal justice. For example, the majority Nigeriens, the failure to consult a sarkin (tribal chief), and marabout (religious leader), in a gon (oracle) ceremony would leave the guilt or innocence of an alleged perpetrator in veritable doubt. Though many indigenous institutions for conflict resolution are considered subjective or contradictory by ‘enlightened’ outsiders, the fact remains that...
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...Assignment of 1 Year MBA – Semester – 2 Subject: International Law What are your perceptions on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights? Would you like to amend any of the articles or add a new article to the declaration? ‘CRIME AGAINST THE HUMANITY’, means that the acts of persecution or any large-scale atrocities against a body of people, as being the criminal offense above all others. Human rights are international norms that help to protect all people everywhere from severe political, legal and social abuses. The right to freedom of religion, the right to a fair trial when charged with crime, the right not to be tortured, and the right to engage in political activity are the fundamental human rights. The rights exist in morality and in law at the national and international levels. The main sources of the contemporary conception of human rights are the Universal declaration of Human rights, the treaties that followed in international organizations such as the United Nations, the Council of Europe, the Organization of American States, and the African Union. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights sets out number of human rights that countries should respect and protect, which are normally divided into six. They are Security rights that protect people against abuses of the legal system such as imprisonment without trial, secret trials and excessive punishments, liberty, rights that protect the liberty...
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...ICTR's Akayesu Verdict SYNOPSIS The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) heard Jean-Paul Akayesu accused of vicious gang rapes and genocide that took the lives of 2,000 Tutsis. The trial court chamber of three judges, two men and one woman, had an unprecedented opportunity to clarify whether rape during internal armed conflict constitutes genocide as well as a crime against humanity. Nongovernmental organizations worked to "engender" the Tribunal while holding accountable the Hutu leaders who orchestrated genocide. The critical 1998 verdict influenced states negotiating improved standards for the prosecution of sexual violence and the creation of a permanent International Criminal Court. "Rape and Genocide in Rwanda" addresses current issues of international law, human rights, women in politics, African Studies, judicial procedure, legal and moral reasoning. RAPE and Genocide IN RWANDA: The ICTR’s Akayesu Verdict CASE OUTLINE I. An Unprecedented Opportunity Glossary and Map II. Prior Responses to Sexual Violence in War A. From “Time Immemorial” to 1948 B. From the 1949 Geneva Conventions to an International Criminal Court III. Genocide In Rwanda A. A Colonial Legacy of Ethnic Division B. Mass Killing, Rape and the 1994 U.N. Withdrawal IV. The U.N. Creates a Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda V. The Trial of Jean-Paul Akayesu Trial Chronology and Key Individuals VI. Issues for Judgment ...
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...The ICC’s Intervention in Northern Uganda: Beyond the Simplicity of Peace vs. Justice Paper by David Lanz The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy May 2007 The ICC in Northern Uganda David Lanz Introduction The creation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) via the entry into force of the Rome Statute on July 1st 2002 sparked enthusiasm. For M. Cherif Bassiouni, “The ICC combines humanistic values and policy considerations essential for the attainment of the goals of justice, redress and prevention as well as the need for the restoration of world order and world peace.”1 Ironically, five years after its creation, the Court has been accused of being an impediment to what it was created to promote: peace. With regards to Northern Uganda, Bassiouni remarks that the ICC indictments against five senior members of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), “was received negatively by some individuals involved in the Ugandan peace process,” who “have argued that it has undercut their efforts to advance peace initiatives.”2 The claim that the ICC’s intervention in Northern Uganda obstructs peace seems obvious. It is expressed in its simplicity by Father Carlos Rodriguez: “nobody can convince a rebel leader to come to the negotiating table and at the same time tell him that when the war ends he will be brought to trial.”3 This paper examines the criticism that the ICC obstructs peace in Northern Uganda. It aims to go beyond the simplistic framework of peace vs. justice, which...
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...Sec A #1 – -One out of five female students on college campuses will experience sexual assault. If there was a university-wide reading of “S. A Novel About the Balkans” by Slakenka Drakulic, it would change campus culture for the better. The women affected by war essentially have no name, no life, and are nothing, but humiliated by male soldiers. This is the case in sexual assault on campus. In Reading S, it would allow for women to feel more comfortable about talking of rape, and bring light to the spectrum, instead of rape being the extreme. It would bring awareness to students on how going through war takes away a persons name, and life. On investingwest.org, many women at a campus explain their experiences after being sexually assaulted. “Both women say the schools’ handling of their cases compounded their trauma, and both point to insensitive handling that ranged from inappropriate questioning to being required to go through mediation sitting near the man they had accused” This is in issue among many campuses, and a sexual assault seminar should be apart of every school orientation, women should feel comfortable to talk about rape. Each character in the novel only has their first initial as their name besides two characters, Maj and Brit who were not apart of the war. “Were not human anymore, thinks S. the camp has stopped us from feeling human. How will we ever get used to living outside the camp again?” (Drakulic 130) from this quote alone we are able to understand...
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...At first I was not fond of Night I usually like a book that has some kind of mystery or romance involved. With Night I already had an idea of how the book will end and I would not understand any way to pull a romantic notion from it. This book would definitely not be a first choice of mine. Even though I did enjoy reading it and believe that the events should never be forgotten, it is important for our societies to remember the victims along with the dwindling number of survivors. I was very impressed with the wording used; the word choice was very strong. It is amazing that his wife was able to translate and use words with so much power and strength. I had the same feelings and questions after reading Night as I have had after reading Ann Frank’s diary or watching Schindler’s list. How could this happen? What would drive any one to these thoughts or actions and believe it is right, good, or even acceptable. I wonder how Adolf Hitler would have felt if Jews had decided to eradicate Austrian/ Germans? What would he have done, would he have died or survived? I googled Adolf Hitler and there are several websites saying his father was ½ Jewish. There is even a video on UTube about Hitler being part Jewish. With a name like Adolf, some of his facial characteristics, and hair as dark as his why, would he want to annihilate a mass of people who are similar to him? I am not sure if Hitler truly was part Jewish, but if he was, did he know? How would he react if he was alive, the allegations...
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...KONY 2012, a campaign movement to make indicted Ugandan war criminal and International Criminal Court fugitive Joseph Kony globally known in order to have him arrested by December 2012. On April 20th, 2012 there was an incident called “Cover the night” where supporters were to cover up their towns with posters and materials involving the KONY 2012 movement. Barely anyone had anything to report about this, the few instances where the KONY posters were put up. There were a number of two or three stories of people ripping the posters down; there was so much controversy and hatred that was developing from this whole situation. This whole KONY 2012 campaign has really gone down to hell, except for one aspect the guy behind it. Jason Russell; who is now infamous for being drunk, public indecency, and vandalizing cars. He made some money off of this, but that aside what I really want to point out is what the real problem like this when movement like this come about. This KONY idealistically very good, no one wants to see children being taken away from their parents. Taken to war camps, trained to fight against their neighbors in their original home county, stuff like that should be stopped. But here's the real problem, no one cares. Now that maybe a broad assertion, but let's think about that. If the world as conglomerate community really got together and the majority thought was to stop like this from happening. Why the hell the world sit idle by, while years turn into decades...
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...I. INTRODUCTION The main instruments of International Humanitarian Law (hereafter referred to as IHL) are the four Geneva Conventions of 12 August 19491 for the protection of war victims. These treaties which are universally accepted, protect the wounded, the sick, prisoners of war and civilians in enemy hands. They also protect medical services personnel such as medical personnel, medical units and establishments, and medical means of transport. As a matter of fact this kind of concern for the humanitarian aspect can be found in our ancient epics like the Mahabharata, where the rules of conduct of war as to the timing of attack and the prohibition attacking the unarmed were strictly laid down. The laws of Manu, a compilation of encyclopedic scope, which the British Professor Duncan M. Derrett a known authority on Hindu Law describes as a text "which constitutes India's greatest achievement in the field of jurisprudence" and regards this work as one of the world's premier compositions in ancient law, more valuable in every sense than Hammurabi and able to hold its own in comparison to the covenant and Priestly codes of Moses2 . Manu, while describing the duties of a King, warns against unusual cruelty even against an enemy in warfare, and has this to say, "fighting in a battle, he should not kill his enemies with weapons that are concealed, barbed, or smeared with poison or whose points blaze with fire. He should not kill anyone who has climbed on a...
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...full story and your perception was the same of the pigs, that the wolf was evil. But only recently have authors published books which tell the story from the wolfs point of view. Which helps you develop your own thoughts on how the event really took place. Based on the wolfs perception of the time of day, how it occurred, and the end result of the story of the three little pigs. In the U.S. there are approximately 6,500,000 car accidents per year, all of which involve two or more people. Based on how the accident happened and if there were any witnesses to the event. Affects rejection of a license, Prison time, and how much money you get/have to pay. So people will often lie and change the original story to protect themselves. So the court must get a second opinion or second viewpoint of the situation to further investigate the accident. Receiving two sides of the story is very crucial in that situation because a lot depends on the truth. The film's purpose was to...
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...For my part of the report on the crisis in Darfur I will be explaining what exactly the crisis is going on in that part of the world. I will be looking at both sides of the conflict to give the rest of the class the opportunity to form their own opinion on the crisis. The conflict started when a group of angry rebels began to bomb certain government targets, claiming that the Darfur region was being neglected by the government because of the regions ethnicity. The rebels claim is that the government is oppressing the black Africans in favor of the Arabs in the region. Also the Janjaweed have been going through that part of Sudan performing the ethnic cleansing of black Africans. Refugees from Darfur say that after air raids by the Sudan government the Janjaweed would ride into the villages on horsebacks and camels. And would proceed to slaughter the men, rape the women and steal whatever they could find. Many women have complained about being kidnapped and held as sex slaves for more than a week and then were released. In light of this; millions of citizens have fled their destroyed villages to camps that are near Darfur’s main towns. But still the Janjaweed still patrol outside the town waiting for any man or woman to wander to far and then will kill the man and rape the woman. Also some of the citizens have fled to the neighboring country of Chad. In total researchers believe that nearly 200,000 people have been killed, but UN officials believe that the number is about 300...
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...Is America’s opposition to the ICC an unjustifiable justification? Mohamed Kunowah Kiellow From the early nineties up to the present day, international criminal law has made major developments ‘unknown since Nuremberg Tribunal’: norms have been changed, refined or even expanded. Moreover, after the Cold War, institutions have been established and norm-creating judgements passed both domestically and internationally. The setting up of the Yugoslavia and Rwanda Tribunals is an example of such international institutions created. The Pinochet decision is an example of such norm-creating judgements. The adoption of the Rome Statute International Criminal Court, which came into force on 1 July 2002, crystallised all these developments. This day will be a red-letter day in the history of international criminal law. On this day, a permanent international criminal court came into existence. This Court has enjoyed broad and enthusiastic support from governments and non-governmental organisations around the globe. However, not all states were happy about all provisions in the Rome Statute. One major country which refused to ratify this milestone treaty is America; an opposition which many termed as a blow dealt to the effectiveness of the Court. America sees itself as the sole remaining world super power which should be involved in promoting peace all around the world. It is of the conviction that its involvement in peace keeping processes is highly needed if they are to succeed....
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...“Hate and intolerance are the catalysts for the destruction of a family, of a culture, and a nation”, by Werner Gellert, chair of The New Mexico Holocaust and Intolerance Museum and Study Center. (history:www.nmholocaustmuseum.com) It is vital to remember and pass to a new generation the history and lessons of the Holocaust since over 5.7 million Jewish people had their lives taken away by a man who was intolerant of their religion. The largest numbers of victims of the Holocaust were Polish citizens. Adolf Hitler tried to destroy a nation by destroying families who were targeted because of their religion and culture. George Santayana said, “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” (history: quoteland.com) This quote explains why the lessons and history of the Holocaust need to be passed on to student’s today and future generations of students. Students need to clearly understand why Hitler wanted to rid Europe of the Jewish people, what was done to them in the concentration camps, how the families were split apart, and how he tried to destroy the Jewish religion and culture. The Holocaust plays an important role in world history. The word genocide was developed after events in Europe, between 1933 and 1945, called for a legal concept to be used to describe the “deliberate destruction of a larger group.” Genocide became a crime punishable under international law. (Genocide:britannica.com) The United Nations had difficulty defining the term “war...
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...Unfortunately, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) also called World Court was not the first Court. Before its creation in 1946, the Council of the League had the permission and responsibility to establish a Permanent Court of International Justice in 1920after the committee had spent months revising and examining the Court’s constitution. The protocol establishing it was adopted by the Assembly of the League in 1920 and ratified by the requisite Council of states in 1921. All the procedures started way back in 1794 with Jay Treaty and The Hague Peace Conferences and the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in 1899. (http://www.icj-cij.org) According to EBSCO (2010); “the court was empowered to render judgments in disputes between states that were voluntarily submitted to it and to give advisory opinions in any matters referred to it by the Council or the Assembly of the League.” The Court contains fifteen judges nominated by the General Assembly and the Security Council and they serve a period of nine years but can be reelected each judge should be from a different state. Nine of those judges represent a quorum. The ICJ is able to make its own rules. Cases can be brought before the ICJ by all members of the UN. A special agreement is required by the two parties or one party can only send a written application to the registrar. After that, The ICJ can choose to hear witnesses or to hire investigators to report back on the case. (International Court of Justice, 2002) The only...
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...history. It has only been in the last 2 centuries that certain acts that were committed during war were found to be so reprehensible that they were labeled war crimes. Even thought these acts were committed during the "fog of war", they still merited punishment in a court of law in the eyes of the international community. When military and political leaders began to systematically target large civilian groups because of their nationality, ethnicity, gender or religion, then the international community began to see the necessity of holding political leaders accountable for their political decisions in a court of law, (Hauss, 2003). After World War II, when the atrocities of the Holocaust became well known, the victorious Allied powers decided to hold war crimes tribunals to punish the political and military leaders of Germany and Japan. The Nuremberg and Tokyo trials were the first of their kind in establishing international precedent for the prosecution of war crimes. Later war crimes that were committed in Yugoslavia and Rwanda resulted in the creation of separate tribunals by the United Nations to punish the leaders who perpetrated these acts. Attempts are being made to set up an International Criminal Court, but several powerful countries, including the United States, have refused to support its establishment. Introduction The history of war crimes tribunals only begins after World War II, when the Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals were established. The...
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