Germany, UNDP support criminal justice services in Iraq
Iraqi News , 17 Jan 2023
Germany and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) signed a donor agreement of 826,250 euro on strengthening Iraq’s criminal justice services and improving their capacities to conduct effective interviews in line with international human rights commitments, according to a press statement issued by the UNDP. The project promotes the application of the new regulations on unified Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for criminal investigations, the statement mentioned. Seeking to enhance criminal justice services in Iraq, the project offers capacity building for criminal investigation police officers, investigative judges, and relevant directorates, and extends the implementation of the Model Police Station Pilot Initiative from Baghdad and Basra to all over Iraq, the statement explained. “Strengthening law enforcement and criminal justice capacities must go hand in hand with human rights protection in order to build public trust in a sovereign, stable and democratic Iraqi State,” Chargé d’Affaires of the German Embassy in Baghdad, Philip Holzapfel, said.
Egypt hosts summit meeting on Palestine issue
Middle East Monitor, 17 Jan 2023
The leaders of Egypt, Palestine and Jordan held summit talks in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, on Tuesday to discuss Palestinian developments, Anadolu News Agency reports. An Egyptian presidential spokesman said the talks between President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi, President Mahmoud Abbas and King Abdullah II tackled challenges facing the Palestinian cause. Palestine “is facing challenges directed against Arabs, not only Palestinians and this was expressed by Israel’s new right-wing government through its measures and policies,” he told the state news agency, Wafa. On 6 January, the Israeli government imposed a package of sanctions against the Palestinian Authority in response to its bid to seek the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the nature of the decades-long Israeli Occupation.
Over 90 countries urge Israel to lift sanctions put on Palestinians after UN vote
The Times of Israel, 17 Jan 2023
More than 90 countries on Monday called on Israel to reverse steps taken against the Palestinian Authority over its push for an investigation into Israel at the United Nations. Late last month, the UN General Assembly approved a resolution promoted by the Palestinians requesting that the International Court of Justice weigh in on the Israel-Palestinian conflict, Israeli “annexation” and the “legal status of the occupation.” After the resolution passed, Israel decided to deduct funds from the Palestinian Authority for the benefit of Israeli terror victims, revoked the PA foreign minister’s special travel permit, and denied benefits to certain Palestinian officials, among other measures. “Regardless of each country’s position on the resolution, we reject punitive measures in response to a request for an advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice, and more broadly in response to a General Assembly resolution, and call for their immediate reversal,” the letter said.
The PA should face criminal and political charges for Banat’s killing
Middle East Monitor, 17 Jan 2023
The brother of murdered Palestinian activist Nizar Banat explained the family’s approach to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in December. “For those of us who live in corrupt countries where genuine justice is out of reach, the ICC remains our hope for an un-politicised investigation and prosecution of criminals,” said Ghassan Banat. Nizar Banat was one of the most vocal critics of the Palestinian Authority and a contender for the democratic elections which PA leader Mahmoud Abbas cancelled in early 2021. He was beaten to death by the PA security services in June the same year. The PA’s military court released on bail the 14 security services members involved in Banat’s killing, allegedly due to concerns about Covid-19 spreading in Palestinian jails. This prompted the Banat family to seek justice elsewhere.
Dominic Ongwen: how the case of a former child soldier exposed weaknesses in international criminal law
The Conversation , 16 Jan 2023
Guilt and innocence are rarely clear-cut, even in the most heinous of crimes. The recent appeal of Dominic Ongwen, former commander in the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), shines a light on the complexity of defence in international criminal law. In December, the International Criminal Court (ICC) refused Ongwen’s appeal, cementing his conviction and 25-year prison sentence for numerous charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Ongwen was convicted of some of the most egregious crimes in international law: rape, sexual slavery, torture, recruitment of child soldiers, and various crimes against people living in camps for those internally displaced. During his trial, Ongwen admitted that he had carried out the acts, but did not admit guilt. Instead, he relied upon two defences to argue for exoneration: mental disease and duress. The defences Ongwen used are part of the Rome Statute. The rejection of Ongwen’s appeal demonstrates that the bar for the defence of duress in respect of serious violations of international criminal law remains high, and potentially impossible to attain.
Palestine calls on ICC to complete probes into Israeli crimes, hold regime accountable
Press TV, 15 Jan 2023
The Palestinian foreign ministry has called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to complete its ongoing investigations into Israeli crimes against Palestinians and hold the occupying regime to account for its decades of violations of international law. The ministry, in a statement on Sunday, urged the international community to exert real pressure on the occupying regime to stop its bloody escalation against the Palestinian people, Ma’an news agency reported. The statement called on “the International Criminal Court to quickly complete its investigations in order to hold the occupying [regime] and the perpetrators accountable.” “The occupation practices extrajudicial killings, field executions, and firing live bullets at Palestinian citizens, with the aim of killing and degrading the lives of Palestinian citizens, under instructions from the political and military echelons of the occupying [regime],” it said.
