News Clips- November 25, 2016

Civil Society Following protests over the weekend and statements from the United Nations, Turkey withdrew a bill that would have granted amnesty to some perpetrators of child sexual assault. [Guardian] Thousands of protesters in Malaysia demonstrated against the prime minister, resulting in 15 arrests. [Washington Post] Authorities have started using tear gas and water cannons against refugee protesters in Bulgaria.

Read more

UN Commission Urges Security Council Referral of Eritrea to ICC

The United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in Eritrea has again called on the UN Security Council to refer the situation in Eritrea to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for adjudication of possible crimes against humanity committed by State officials since 1991. Speaking on behalf of the former three-member commission, whose mandate ended in June 2016, Sheila Keetharuth

Read more

Burundi, South Africa to Withdraw from International Criminal Court

Both Burundi and South Africa announced in the last two weeks that they intend to withdraw from the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC). On October 12, 2016, 94 of 110 parliamentary members in Burundi voted in support of retracting Burundi’s membership as a State party to the ICC’s treaty, the Rome Statute. [ICC Press Release] On October 18,

Read more

ICC Finds Jean-Pierre Bemba, Four Others Guilty of Witness Tampering

In its first decision concerning witness tampering, Trial Chamber VII of the International Criminal Court (ICC) found Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo and four others guilty of offenses against the administration of justice under Article 70 of the Rome Statute. [ICC Press Release: Guilty] The holding of October 19 found that Bemba and the four other accused had bribed witnesses and presented

Read more

ICC Convicts Al-Mahdi of War Crime for Destroying Cultural Sites

On 27 September 2016, the International Criminal Court (ICC), in its first-ever case regarding the war crime of attacking protected objects, found Ahmad Al-Mahdi guilty as a co-perpetrator of the destruction of 10 religious and historic sites in Timbuktu, Mali and sentenced him to nine years’ imprisonment. See ICC, Prosecutor v. Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi, ICC-01/12-01/15, Judgment and Sentence,

Read more