Today the International Court of Justice issued its ruling in the case Bosnia brought against Serbia for committing genocide in the early 1990s.
I have most of a Washington Post article and my thoughts over at www.livesinthebalance.com, but I wanted to hear what others think of this decision, so please post your thoughts in the comments section here!
The decision was as follows: The Court...
-Finds that Serbia has not committed genocide
-Finds that Serbia has not conspired to commit genocide, nor incited the commission of genocide
-Finds that Serbia has not been complicit in genocide
-Finds that Serbia has violated its obligations under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide by having failed to transfer Ratko Mladić, indicted for genocide and complicity in genocide, for trial by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, and thus having failed fully to co-operate with that Tribunal
-Finds that Serbia has violated its obligation to comply with the provisional measures ordered by the Court on 8 April and 13 September 1993 in this case, inasmuch as it failed to take all measures within its power to prevent genocide in Srebrenica in July 1995
-Decides that Serbia shall immediately take effective steps to ensure full compliance with its obligation under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide to punish acts of genocide as defined by Article II of the Convention, or any of the other acts proscribed by Article III of the Convention, and to transfer individuals accused of genocide or any of those other acts for trial by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, and to co-operate fully with that Tribunal
-Finds that, as regards the breaches by Serbia of the obligations referred to...above, the case is not one in which an order for payment of compensation, or, in respect of the violation referred to in subparagraph (5), a direction to provide assurances and guarantees of non-repetition, would be appropriate
What do you think?
Showing posts with label justice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label justice. Show all posts
Monday, February 26, 2007
Monday, January 29, 2007
Bring Justice to the Women of Darfur
This past weekend I attended the reading of a play called In Darfur by Winter Miller. The play focuses on the plight of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Darfur. In particular, it calls attention to the dangers Darfuri women face every day. The main character of the play is Hawa, a woman whose husband and son were killed with the rest of her family by the Janjaweed. Hawa was gang-raped and became pregnant. She does not know if the child belongs to her husband or to one of her rapists. Even after she reaches the IDP camp, she is not safe. On at least two occasions in the camp, she is beaten by soldiers inside the camp.
Rape has long been used as a tool of war because it is a demonstration of power and robs its victims of dignity. Often, a woman who has been raped is ostracized. The Janjaweed rapes black African women, hoping to impregnate them with Arab babies. Thus, rape in Darfur is not only demonstrates the oppressors' power in the region, but an attempt to eliminate the Africans living in Darfur. When the Janjaweed attacks a village, they kill, often after castrating, the men, and rape the women. Often, when women leave IDP camps to collect firewood or grass for their livestock, they are raped by Janjaweed soldiers lurking nearby. It is not only Janjaweed, however, who attack women. Soldiers in the rebel groups (such as the Sudanese Liberation Army) and the police protecting the camps are guilty as well. It is not possible to know exactly how many women have been raped, but one BBC reporter wrote last October that she had spoken with 21 women living in an IDP camp who had been raped in a period of two weeks. Other forms of violence against women include abduction and forced displacement. So far, the government in Khartoum is doing nothing to bring these rapists to justice. Write to President Omar al-Bashir and ask him to end the violence against women. Mail letters to this address:
His Excellency Lieutenant-General
Omr Hassan al-Bashir
President of the Republic of Sudan
President's Palace
PO Box 281
Khartoum
Sudan
For more extensive information on the condition of women in Darfur, visit www.amnestyusa.org/women/darfur.
Rape has long been used as a tool of war because it is a demonstration of power and robs its victims of dignity. Often, a woman who has been raped is ostracized. The Janjaweed rapes black African women, hoping to impregnate them with Arab babies. Thus, rape in Darfur is not only demonstrates the oppressors' power in the region, but an attempt to eliminate the Africans living in Darfur. When the Janjaweed attacks a village, they kill, often after castrating, the men, and rape the women. Often, when women leave IDP camps to collect firewood or grass for their livestock, they are raped by Janjaweed soldiers lurking nearby. It is not only Janjaweed, however, who attack women. Soldiers in the rebel groups (such as the Sudanese Liberation Army) and the police protecting the camps are guilty as well. It is not possible to know exactly how many women have been raped, but one BBC reporter wrote last October that she had spoken with 21 women living in an IDP camp who had been raped in a period of two weeks. Other forms of violence against women include abduction and forced displacement. So far, the government in Khartoum is doing nothing to bring these rapists to justice. Write to President Omar al-Bashir and ask him to end the violence against women. Mail letters to this address:
His Excellency Lieutenant-General
Omr Hassan al-Bashir
President of the Republic of Sudan
President's Palace
PO Box 281
Khartoum
Sudan
For more extensive information on the condition of women in Darfur, visit www.amnestyusa.org/women/darfur.
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