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UK urged to reform war crimes prosecution laws

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] War crimes suspects entering or residing in the UK are often immune from prosecution for their acts, according to a report released Monday by Aegis Trust. The report refers to a "significant number" of alleged war criminals and perpetrators of genocide in the UK that hail from Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Iraq, Zimbabwe, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan, and the former Yugoslavia. According to the report, these suspected criminals often escape prosecution because such crimes cannot be tried in the UK if committed before 2001 or if the perpetrator is not a UK resident. The report argues that these policies conflict with UK laws concerning crimes committed during international armed conflicts and laws in the US and Canada, which allow for jurisdiction over such crimes based on presence in the country rather than on residence. The report proposes to "strengthen UK law" by amending the International Criminal Court Act 2001 to allow jurisdiction over anyone who is present in the UK and to allow war crimes to be prosecuted regardless of when they were committed. Removing the current 2001 statutory bar would allow for the prosecution of those suspected of involvement in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Although the government's position remains unclear, members of Parliament have been considering similar amendments to the law with sufficient support. The report addresses the implementation of the new policies: These reforms will not make the UK a global prosecutor. The suspect will need to be present in the UK, the Director of Public Prosecutions and Attorney General will retain their role in assessing the strength of the evidence and whether or not proceedings are in the public interest, and there are no proposals to remove head of state or diplomatic immunities.While the report acknowledges that transferring suspects to the International Criminal Court (ICC) or other international tribunals may be preferable, it maintains that such transfers are often not possible. The international criminal tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia are coming to an end and the ICC may not have the capacity to take all of the UK cases, resulting in prosecuting only high-profile suspects.Other countries have also struggled with establishing procedures to prosecute war criminals. Kenya is supposed to establish a tribunal to try perpetrators of the 2007 post-election violence by August, as mandated by former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan. In May, Canada convicted Rwandan Hutu Desire Munyaneza, the first person tried under their Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act, for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. The Canadian legislation was ratified to fulfill the country's obligations to the ICC. In April, the government of Bangladesh said that it was working with the UN to organize war crimes prosecutions arising out of the country's 1971 War of Independence against Pakistan and considering trying the cases in the ICC.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on June 16, 2009 (boomark / email).