ICC

ICC prosecutor tactics criticized by rights groups

The president of Human Rights Watch, mediation advisors, and other NGO leaders have recently begun to more openly criticize prosecutorial and other judgments made by International Criminal Court (ICC) chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo.

Moreno-Ocampo has already received sharp criticism from both the League of Arab States (LAS) and the African Union (AU) for his decision to seek the arrest of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

These international bodies assert that the indictment of a sitting head of state would set a dangerous and destabilizing precedent. New concerns reported Monday focus on Moreno-Ocampo's alleged employment misconduct and aggressive prosecutorial methods. Critics reportedly believe the behavior could threaten the credibility of the court. Also Monday, al-Bashir appeared at an African economic conference held in Turkey, and some rights groups called on Turkey to support the ICC.

Earlier this month, Moreno-Ocampo criticized the Sudanese government's attempt to conduct its own probe into Darfur human rights violations. Sudan could potentially remove war crimes suspects like al-Bashir from the ICC's jurisdiction if its domestic courts employ safeguards to ensure accountability and respect for human rights, as outlined in Article 16 of the ICC's Rome Statute.

The UN Security Council has repeatedly asked Sudan to comply with the investigation of al-Bashir, but Sudan has refused to do so, calling Moreno-Ocampo a "terrorist" and suggesting that he should be removed from office. Before al-Bashir's indictment the Sudanese government had already rejected the ICC's jurisdiction and refused to surrender two previously-named war crimes suspects.

(Published by Jurist - august 19, 2008)