ConflictBarometer_2016

MEASURES OF CONFLICT RESOLUTION
Equatorial Guinea claimed to use as its diplomatic mission
in France. According to Equatorial Guinea, the French activities
violated the sovereignty of Equatorial Guinea as well as
the diplomatic immunity and protection of both Mangue and
the building in question. Three months later, on September
30, Equatorial Guinea requested the ICJ to institute provisional
measures against France as the ongoing trial of Mangue
and the confiscation of the building ''create a real and imminent
risk of irreparable prejudice to the rights of Equatorial
Guinea.” The public hearings on that request were concluded
on October 19 and the Court concluded on December 7 that
France has to ''take all measures at its disposal” to protect the
premises.
Third, on June 15, the Islamic Republic of Iran filed an application
against the US, claiming the latter's violation of the Treaty
of Amity, Economic Relations, and Consular Rights [→ Iran –
USA]. According to Iran, the US ''has adopted a number of legislative
and executive acts that have the practical effect of
subjecting the assets and interests of Iran and Iranian entities,
including those of the Central Bank of Iran (also known
as ''Bank Markazi”), to enforcement proceedings in the United
States,” thereby disrespecting the bilateral contractual obligations
entered in 1955.
Twice the court published judgments regarding procedural
matters. On March 17, the Court found that it had jurisdiction
over two cases between Nicaragua and Colombia [→
Nicaragua – Colombia (sea border)]. The first case related to
the question of delimitation of the continental shelf between
Nicaragua and Colombia beyond 200 nautical miles from the
Nicaraguan coast, while the second dispute concerned alleged
violations of Nicaragua's sovereign rights and maritime
spaces in the Caribbean Sea.
On October 5, the court delivered three judgments concerning
its jurisdiction and admissibility of three applications by
the Marshall Islands against the United Kingdom, Pakistan,
and India respectively. The Marshall Islands claimed that the
three countries were ''not fulfilling their obligations with respect
to the cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early
date and to nuclear disarmament” when they conducted nuclear
tests at Bikini and Enewetak Atolls from 1946 until 1958.
In 2014, the Marshall Islands filed the same claims against
China, North Korea, France, Israel, Russia, and the US, yet, only
the UK, Pakistan, and India accepted the ICJ's compulsory jurisdiction
under Article 36, Paragraph 2 of the Statute of the
Court. While the Court recognized the massive suffering of
the Marshall Islands and its people by the nuclear tests, it
upheld the objections to its jurisdiction brought forward by
each of the three countries, arguing that no dispute between
the Marshall Islands and the three countries regarding the
1968 Non-Proliferation Treaty could be identified. However,
the bench was split and the decision was only reached when
President Ronny Abraham handed in a casting vote. sst
INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT
In 2016, the International Criminal Court (ICC) handed out
verdicts in the cases of ''The Prosecutor v. Jean-Pierre Bemba
Gombo” and ''The Prosecutor v. Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi” and
dismissed the case against Kenya's Deputy President William
Ruto due to lack of evidence. Furthermore, it started the
trial against Laurent Gbagbo, Charles Blé Goudé, and Dominic
Ongwen, and opened a new investigation into the situation of
Georgia in 2008.
On January 26, the Pre-Trial Chamber approved the request
by the prosecutor to open an investigation into alleged crimes
occurring on the territory of Georgia between 1 July 2008 and
10 October 2008 [→ Russia – Georgia]. Authorization by the
Pre-Trial Chamber was one of three possible options of how
to open an investigation by the prosecutor (propio motu), the
other two being self-referral by the state party and referral by
the UNSC. On April 25, the Prosecutor opened a preliminary
examination into the situation in Burundi, based on massive
instances of violence since April 2015, which resulted in 430
deaths, at least 3,400 arrests and 230,000 displaced persons
[→ Burundi (opposition)]. On September 21, the government
of Gabon referred the situation in Gabon since May to the
Court, requesting the Prosecutor to ''to open an investigation
without delay.'' Most prominently, the violent riots surrounding
the presidential election on August 30 were included in
the time period [→ Gabon (opposition groups)]. From October
16 to 20, the Office of the Prosecutor undertook a mission
to the DRC in order to investigate recent violence in Kinshasa.
The ICC investigated the situation in the DRC since 2004.
On March 21, Trial Chamber III found Jean-Pierre Bemba
Gombo, former DRC presidential candidate, guilty of committing
two counts of crimes against humanity (murder and rape)
and three counts of war crimes (murder, rape, and pillaging).
The verdict was an historic event in criminal justice as it was
the first time the ICC considered sexual violence as a weapon
of war and also included sexual violence against male persons.
The ICC sentenced Bemba to 18 years of imprisonment
on June 21.
On September 27, Trial Chamber VIII found Islamist militant
Al Mahdi guilty of co-perpetrating the war crime of intentionally
directing attacks against historic monuments and buildings
dedicated to religion, including nine mausoleums and
the Sidi Yahia mosque in Timbuktu, Mali [→ Mali (CMA et al.
/ Azawad); Algeria, Mali et al. (AQIM et al.)]. Al Mahdi pled
guilty to the charge of intentionally directing attacks on the
cultural sites in June and July 2012, when Timbuktu was occupied
by militant Islamist groups Ansar Dine and al-Qaeda in
the Islamic Maghreb. This verdict was the first time an international
criminal court focused solely on the destruction of
cultural heritage as a war crime. The ICC sentenced Al Mahdi
to nine years imprisonment, deducting his time already spent
under arrest in The Hague since September 2015.
Over the course of the year, several countries criticized the
Court for being a political instrument of the West and biased
against African countries. In October, Burundi, Gambia,
and South Africa announced their withdrawal from the
Court, while Russia withdrew its signature, which would have
been the first step to an eventual ratification of the Rome
Statute. Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte announced
that his country might follow Russia. At the end of the year,
the ICC registered ten preliminary examinations and ten situations
under investigation in total, while five cases were in
the trial phase. sst
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