Geneva Solutions’s monthly “war criminal hunt” in collaboration with the Geneva-based NGO Civitas Maxima. This month, a Belgian court sent a strong message to perpetrators of international crimes in its conviction and sentencing of five Guatemalan former military and political officials, all of whom were tried in absentia. During Guatemala’s decades-long civil war in which over 200,000 people are estimated to have lost their lives or been forcibly disappeared at the hands of the country's leaders, four Belgian missionaries were targeted by the officials. Three were killed, while the one survi ..read more

Geneva Solutions’s monthly “war criminal hunt” in collaboration with the Geneva-based NGO Civitas Maxima. At a time when the conflict in the Middle East is becoming more intense by the day, the United Nations, the international mechanism that should be the guarantor of international peace and security, continues to demonstrate its inability to live up to its role. As for the International Criminal Court (ICC), it will have to contend with the hostility demonstrated by certain European governments in its investigations into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is likely that sooner or later, c ..read more

Geneva Solutions’s monthly “war criminal hunt” in collaboration with the Geneva-based NGO Civitas Maxima. As the war in Gaza escalates and the number of civilian casualties increases by the day, those of us who work in the field of international criminal justice can only wonder if, where, and when the war crimes that are being and have been committed will ever be prosecuted. In view of the explosive political nature of the situation, it seems likely that any country where a legal case were to be initiated by a national court under the principle of universal jurisdiction would face immense pol ..read more

Geneva Solutions’s monthly “war criminal hunt” in collaboration with the Geneva-based NGO Civitas Maxima. These past weeks, there has been considerable movement on the international justice front in countries such as France and Switzerland. When victims of international crimes are unable to find justice in their own countries, some manage to find it elsewhere. Either states, for the most part in Europe, pursue such cases through universal jurisdiction, or the International Criminal Court holds its own trials in the Hague. However, this raises the question as to whether justice for internation ..read more

Geneva Solutions’s monthly “war criminal hunt” in collaboration with the Geneva-based NGO Civitas Maxima. Switzerland’s Federal Criminal Court (FCC) revealed this month that an international arrest warrant was launched last year against Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s uncle in connection with war crimes committed in the city of Hama in 1982. The wanted notice for Riffat al-Assad, issued in July 2022 by the Federal Office of Justice (FOJ) on the FCC’s orders, has only just been made public after being kept confidential to increase its chances of success. Between 10,000 and 40,000 people are ..read more

Geneva Solutions’s monthly “war criminal hunt” in collaboration with the Geneva-based NGO Civitas Maxima. “In Buenos Aires, Argentina, victims are seeking justice against the perpetrators of the atrocities that forced 750,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee Myanmar in 2017. Argentina's constitution provides for universal jurisdiction for international crimes, through which the judiciary was able to open its investigations in 2021. This case is a prime example of how vital this legal principle is: These atrocities are not being prosecuted in Myanmar, so victims of international crimes are turning to ..read more

Geneva Solutions’s monthly “war criminal hunt” in collaboration with the Geneva-based NGO Civitas Maxima. The decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue an arrest warrant against Vladimir Putin was the most striking news of the month. Given that the ICC does not have jurisdiction over the crime of aggression of the war in Ukraine, there were question marks around whether chief prosecutor Karim Khan would be able to convince the judges to issue an arrest warrant directly against the Russian president. A little over a year after the beginning of the conflict, Khan and his team ..read more

Russia has committed extensive war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity in Ukraine including systematic killing, torture and deportation of children, a UN-mandated investigation has found. In their latest report released on Thursday, a commission appointed by the UN Human Rights Council last year found that Russia has committed “numerous violations of international humanitarian law and violations of international human rights law, in addition to a wide range of war crimes.” Based on more than 500 interviews, satellite images and visits to destruction sites, graves and detention centres ..read more

The Center for Civil Liberties was jointly awarded the Nobel peace prize in October for its work documenting war crimes in Ukraine. As the world prepares to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion on February 24, the NGO's executive director, Oleksandra Romantsova, says it will not stop seeking justice. After Russian-backed forces invaded eastern Ukraine in 2014, the Center for Civil Liberties (CCL) was the first human rights group to send teams to Crimea and the Donbas to investigate the disappearance of Kremlin critics, journalists and activists, monitor political priso ..read more

Geneva Solutions’s monthly “war criminal hunt” round-up, in collaboration with Geneva-based NGO Civitas Maxima. “Once again our monthly round-up is a testimony of the importance of extra-territorial cases for international crimes, with cases on Ukraine, Liberia, and Kenya making significant progress this past month. As I type, I am with my colleagues at a Paris court representing Civitas Maxima, plaintiff in a landmark case for torture and crimes against humanity committed in Liberia. Whether it will be an acquittal or a conviction, this is the first trial for crimes against humanity connecte ..read more