Social Science Research Council

Regarding the ICC’s likely indictment of Sudanese President Omar al Bashir, one of the main concerns expressed in this forum is that it would cause Khartoum to lash out and inflict further atrocities on civilians, worsening the security and humanitarian situations in Darfur. While echoing Chad Hazlett’s claim that it is near-impossible to predict [...]

While advocates and human rights groups focused on Darfur may applaud reports of Sudan’s President, Omar Bashir, being indicted by the International Criminal Court, they should think again about their enthusiasm. The question all of us must ask who care about what happens to the long suffering Sudanese people is this: what are [...]

On Monday, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno Ocampo, will ask the Court to indict a very senior official of the Sudan Government—most probably President Omar al Bashir himself.
Moreno Ocampo is taking a bold and momentous step for global human rights and for Sudan. It is also controversial and fraught with [...]

Indicting Bashir would be a risky move to be sure. One gamble, well articulated in this forum, is that it will have negative consequences for peacemaking and for Sudan’s politics. According to this prediction, we must regrettably put off concerns over achieving justice for now – or at least find less radical means of obtaining [...]

Should the ICC next week indict Sudanese President al-Bashir for war crimes it will make history. But it will not be unprecedented. In May 1999 the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
(ICTY) was the first international tribunal to indict a sitting head of state. The ICTY charged Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and four other [...]

This contribution to the ongoing debate over the promise—and—limits of holding Sudan’s President Omar al Bashir individually accountable before the International Criminal Court (ICC) for international crimes perpetrated in Darfur considers two further modes of liability in international law that Luis Moreno Ocampo’s Office of the Prosecutor could invoke, namely the doctrines of command and [...]

A famous sign on President Truman’s desk said ‘the buck stops here’. The principle is reflected in several dimensions of international criminal justice. Under article 28 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, leaders can be held responsible for the crimes committed by their subordinates, to the extent that they consciously disregarded information [...]

If Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir were to be indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) — as is rumoured — it would not be entirely a leap into the unknown. There are relevant precedents, providing some food for thought.
Most obviously, another African head of state, Charles Taylor, was indicted by another international [...]

Posted by Abdalbasit Saeed.
The truths, reflections, analysis or misjudgments and predispositions in this rejoinder are the sole responsibility of the author. They do not, however, examine the validity or justification of the initial ‘Civilization Mission’ slogan by the regime of the National Islamic Front (NIF) at its point of inception in June 1989. The discussion [...]

Pity the prosecutor. In the last few days, the very first case that Mr. Luis Moreno Ocampo has brought before the judges of the ICC is in the process of being thrown out because the prosecution failed to share evidence with the defense. We will learn in a few days whether the accused, the notorious [...]