On January 20, 2022, the First Section of the European Court of Human Rights issued its judgment in Milanković v. Croatia that there was no violation of Article 7 (no punishment without law) of the European Convention on Human Rights when Vladimir Milanković, in his role as Deputy Head of the Police Department, was convicted of war crimes on the basis of command responsibility for his role of failing to prevent those under his command from committing war crimes. According to a press release, the Court, after examining Milanković’s claims that the Basic Criminal Code had not...
International Law in Brief
International Law in Brief (ILIB) is a forum that provides updates on current developments in international law from the editors of ASIL's International Legal Materials.
On December 15, 2021, the European Commission adopted a proposal for a new directive on environmental crime. According to an EU press release, the proposal aims to oblige member states to take criminal measures to protect the environment more efficiently. The proposal, which aims to replace Directive 2008/99/EC, “sets new EU environmental criminal offences,” “clarifies existing definitions of environmental criminal offences,” proposes additional sanctions for environmental crimes, and aims to ensure effective investigations and criminal proceedings as well as to help “cross-border...
On December 10, 2021, Myanmar Accountability Project (MAP), submitted evidence to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and accused Myanmar Military Leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing of crimes against humanity. According to a MAP press release, MAP, in its submission, under Article 15 of the Rome Statute, presented evidences of systematic and wide-spread torture in Myanmar, and “urged the ICC to open a criminal investigation.” MAP is a human rights organization that works on “a small number of criminal cases against specific individuals.”
On December 9, 2021, the UK Uyghur Tribunal (Tribunal) issued its judgment on China’s possible responsibility for “international crimes against the Uyghurs and other Muslim Population in the Uyghur region.” The Tribunal, which was launched on September 3, 2020, is an independent people’s tribunal that investigates “‘ongoing atrocities and possible genocide’ against the Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other Turkic Muslim Populations.” According to summary of the judgment (the full judgment is not yet available), the Tribunal, after evaluating all evidence presented to it, ruled that torture of Uyghurs...
On December 9, 2021, The Council of the European Union (Council) adopted a resolution establishing the EU Asylum Agency. According to a Council press release, the Agency is aimed at improving the “functioning of the common European asylum system.” In practical turns, the resolution turns the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) into a formal Agency of the EU and strengthens its mandate. The resolution governs the tasks of the Agency, cooperation between the member states and national authorities, liaison officers in member states, third-country and country of origin information, a...
On December 2, 2021, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Court), in the case of Hossou v. Benin, ruled on whether the withdrawal by Benin of its Declaration accepting the jurisdiction of the Court to receive applications from individuals and NGOs was a violation of the applicants’ rights, and whether such actions violated the provisions of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and other human rights instruments. According to a Court press release, the Court upheld the objection of Benin on the Court’s material jurisdiction.
Benin argued that a state...
On December 7, 2021, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered provisional measures in the Armenia v. Azerbaijan and Azerbaijan v. Armenia cases. Armenia had requested the Court to adjudicate and declare the Azerbaijan violated the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) and that, as a consequence, Azerbaijan should cease its wrongful activity, comply with CERD, make reparations for resulting harms, apologize to Armenia, and offer assurance of no further violations. Armenia made similar requests and also alleged that Armenia had “...
On December 7, 2021, the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States (Commission) submitted its final report to President Biden. The Commission is comprised of a bipartisan group of experts whose task is to provide an analysis of the arguments for and against the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) reform. The Commission, in its final report, explains the history of the reform debate, “examines proposals to expand or otherwise alter the current structure” of the Court, and assesses proposals for introducing non-renewable term limits for SCOTUS justices. The...
On December 6, 2021, a Myanmar Court sentenced Aung San Suu Kyi to four years in prison (reduced to two years by junta chief Min Aung Hlaing). According to a UN press release, the court found Suu Kyi guilty of inciting dissent and breaking COVID-19 rules. The court also sentenced former Myanmar president Win Myint to imprisonment for the same charges.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet deplored the conviction and sentencing of Suu Kyi and requested her release. Bachelet said that the trial is politically motivated, with the military attempting to remove...
On December 2, 2021, the United Nations Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da’esh / Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (UNITAD) presented its seventh report on ISIL’s activities in Iraq. According to a UN press release, UNITAD collected evidence on the executions carried out by ISIL at Badush Central Prison in 2014. UNITAD concluded that “crimes committed by ISIL members at Badush Central Prison constitute” crimes against humanity and war crimes.
UNITAD also focused on “the development and use of chemical and biological weapons by ISIL, and the...