Category Archives: Courts

Legal Adviser Jonathan O’Donohue, with the important contributions of International Criminal Justice Clinic students Andy Kuoch and Stuart Dixon, examines the majority of the Pre-Trial Chamber’s ruling on jurisdiction, considers the Prosecutor’s decision to proceed with the preliminary examination and emphasises the need for further international justice efforts to address impunity in Myanmar.

In this final piece in our series commenting on the Bemba Appeals Judgment. Amnesty’s International Justice Team reflects on victims’ experience of this and other cases and argues that the focus must change from defining justice for victims solely as outcomes of cases towards improving their experience of the justice process as a whole.

In this fifth opinion piece reviewing the Bemba Appeal Judgment, Amnesty’s International Justice Team consider concerns that, following the decision, “remote commanders” may be able to evade criminal responsibility at the ICC in future cases. It argues that, although remoteness can be a relevant factor in applying the elements of Article 28, any conclusion that remote commanders should be held to a different standard is unsupported by the Statute.

In this fourth opinion piece on the Bemba Appeals Judgment , Amnesty’s International Justice Team considers the majority’s controversial findings on command responsibility in the context of the Trial Chamber’s problematic application of Article 28.

In this third opinion piece on the Bemba Appeals Judgment, Amnesty’s International Justice Team considers the majority’s criticisms of the Trial Chamber’s admission and adjudication of evidence. It considers measures that the ICC should take to clarify that ICC Rules require Chambers to determine the admissibility of all evidence promptly and transparently during the trial.

In this second opinion piece on the Bemba Appeals Judgment, Amnesty’s International Justice Team considers the majority’s finding that the conviction exceeded the scope of the charges confirmed pre-trial and its implications for future prosecutions of sexual and gender-based crimes.

With this article, Amnesty’s International Justice Team introduce its series of opinion pieces examining key issues arising from the Bemba Appeals Judgment. This first piece outlines some general reflections on the Judgment and reactions to it.  In particular, it emphasises the need for the ICC to look beyond the controversies of the Appeal Judgment in order to identify the lessons learned. 

Matt Cannock, Head of Amnesty’s Centre for International Justice, calls for an honest appraisal of the Court and Rome Statute’s first 20 years, a reinvigoration of a collective and even more inclusive ‘Post-Rome generation’ and creative reengagement with the Court with a view to the ‘ICC@40’

July 17th 2018 marks the 20th anniversary of the Rome Statute of the ICC. Amnesty International and HRW released a video to commemorate the occasion.

Over the next weeks, Amnesty International will issue opinion pieces examining the Office of the Prosecutor’s use of Article 19(3) and the substance of the question of jurisdiction it has posed to the Pre-Trial Chamber. In this first piece, Legal Adviser Jonathan O’Donohue joins others in expressing concern about the closed process so far and calls for greater transparency and consultation.