Under fire, ICC prosecutor says to uphold fight against atrocities | Reuters - Nov. 23, 2016 |

The International Criminal Court's prosecutor said her investigations into alleged war crimes would not be impacted by the plans of three African countries to withdraw from the court and she would keep going after the perpetrators of atrocities.

Gambia, South Africa and Burundi notified the United Nations in October and November of their plans to withdraw from the ICC. The withdrawals become effective one year after the notification is filed.

To date, all but one of the court's 10 investigations have been in Africa and its five convicted suspects are from Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic and Mali.

The ICC rejects allegations of bias against African nations, arguing many of the cases were brought by African governments themselves and that it has 10 preliminary inquiries or investigations into alleged atrocities in Afghanistan, Colombia, Georgia, Iraq, the Palestinian Territories and Ukraine.

[...]
The ICC is a court of last resort, only intervening in member countries when national jurisdictions are unable or unwilling to prosecute mass atrocities.

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Former Liberian Leader Boycotts War Crimes Trial | PBS - June 2007 |

Taylor's assigned lawyer Karim Khan also left the courtroom, saying the former leader had withdrawn permission to have Khan represent him and was instead applying to serve as his own defense attorney.

The judge then ordered the trial to continue, and Chief Prosecutor Stephen Rapp began his opening statement.

Rapp countered Taylor's claims, saying that the former leader had been assigned a lawyer, assistant attorneys, a special investigator and court funds. "Everything that can be done is being done," Rapp said, according to the Associated Press.

Presiding Judge Julia Sebutinde of Uganda repeatedly cut short Khan's address and Taylor's letter, demanding an explanation of Taylor's absence.

Sebutinde ordered Khan to stay and represent Taylor through the first day of the trial, but he said he no longer had Taylor's authority and left.

Taylor, 59, has pleaded not guilty to 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity at the Special Court for Sierra Leone. Approximately 50,000 people died in the West African nation's civil war from 1991 to 2002.

"Even a 'Big Man' Must Face Justice" -- Lessons from the Trial of Charles Taylor | July 25, 2012 |

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Stupid guy, publishing personal information of Rights Forum leadership. Attracting rightwing terror ...

Beyond being a lobbyist ... dirty work for an occupier leaning towards fascism ... democracy my a$$. Confuses victimhood and being the perpetrator of war crimes and abuse of human rights on a daily basis. Free Palestine 🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸

Writes a blog to disqualify a human rights group ... The Rights Forum

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Perhaps a bit of plagiarizing these Australian authors ... 😆

Book Review |Boycotting Israel is Wrong: The progressive path to peace between Palestinians and Israelis | July 2015 |

Boycotting Israel is Wrong is a timely short book on the BDS phenomenon by Australian academics Philip Mendes and Nick Dyrenfurth.

It combines the force of a rigorously argued polemic with the authority of a properly footnoted academic paper, and in just 205 pages manages to provide a historic overview of the changing relationship between Zionism, Israel and the Western left; useful case studies of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) in Australia, the UK and the US; and a progressive dissection of the motives, ideology and methodology of the boycotters.

Mendes and Dyrenfurth pull no punches. They describe BDS as a `rather dubious moral successor' to the anti-apartheid movement, and `the worst of any of the conflict resolution solutions currently on offer.' They set out to prove that `at its core' it is `a thinly veiled campaign to resuscitate the so-called one state solution whereby the State of Israel would give way to an Arab-dominated Greater Palestine' and neatly do so by dissecting the superficially attractive three main aims of BDS - ending the occupation, full equality for Arab citizens, and securing the right of return - and how these are interpreted by the BDS movement in a way that is incompatible with Israel's continued existence. They conclude that the BDS movement has constructed a `fantasy world in which Israel is detached from its specifically Jewish roots, and then miraculously destroyed by the political equivalent of a remote control' thus overcoming the Left's 'historical opposition to racism' and the genocidal war that would be the only real way to destroy Israel.

Dutch Lobby Organisation CIDI Withdraws and Rectifies False Allegations Following Legal Action by Al-Haq

The extreme rightwing elements in Rutte IV cabinet already acted on DISINFORMATION and pulled funding of Palestinian human rights groups. Cowards.

🚨🚨 The Israeli Occupation Authorities just declared 6 leading Palestinian human rights organizations to be "terrorist organizations," including Defense for Children International, Al-Haq, Addameer for Prisoner Support, and the Union of Palestinian Women's Committees.
-- Mohammed El-Kurd (@m7mdkurd) October 22, 2021

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Israel/Palestine: UN experts call on governments to resume funding for six Palestinian CSOs designated by Israel as 'terrorist organisations' | OHCHR - April 25, 2022 |

In October 2021, the UN experts denounced Israel's designation of six Palestinian civil society organisations - Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, Al-Haq, Bisan Center for Research and Development, Defense for Children International - Palestine, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees and the Union of Palestinian Women Committees - as terrorist organizations. Israel's designation enables it to close the organisations, seize their assets, end their work and charge their leadership and staff with terrorist offences.

"Israel has had six months to substantiate its accusations and it has failed to deliver," the experts said. "We call on the funding governments and international organisations to swiftly conclude that Israel has not established its allegations and to announce that they will continue to financially and politically support these organisations and the communities and groups they serve."

Although Israel has not substantiated its allegations publicly or to the funding governments and international organizations, several of the funders have delayed their contributions to the Palestinian organisations while they investigate these claims. The European Union has formally suspended its funding for two of these organisations. This has undermined the work of these Palestinian organisations and has had an incalculable impact on the communities they support. There has been a lack of clarity about the duration of these steps, the experts said.

"We are deeply disturbed by Israel's apparent misuse of anti-terrorism legislation to attack some of the leading civil society organisations in Palestine. Such misuse must be rejected and countered," the experts said.

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Our joint report with @Addameer examines how Israel's widespread & systematic human rights violations in the OPT affect Palestinians with disabilities & highlights Israel's failure to comply with its obligation, as an Occupying Power#EndIsraeliApartheid [_link]

— Al-Haq الحق (@alhaq_org) August 22, 2023

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My most recent, extended diary of Israel's continued ABUSE of Palestinian human rights ...

Settler Extremism Blessed by Jerusalem Leaders

Decades of ugly scenes of settler attacks on Palestinian homes, olive groves and just simply brutality because it can with impunity ... call it "price tag" and the settler terrorists will be protected.

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Biden won't 'lie on the barbed wire' for Israeli protesters, Barak says | Mondoweiss |

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Russian war crimes investigation only exposes the cowardice of the ICC | The Guardian Letters |

The International Criminal Court's arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin and his commissioner for children's rights (ICC judges issue arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin over alleged war crimes, 17 March) represent an important milestone in demonstrating to the world how irrelevant, compromised and cowardly the ICC is.

Rather than being a beacon of international justice without favour or prejudice [Rome Statute], it seems that it prefers currying favour among its western sponsors and backers instead of casting the light of justice over the egregious war crimes and crimes against humanity that the US-led west has committed over the years.

The destruction of Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria come to mind, coupled with the illegal and criminal economic war of sanctions against Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Iran, Afghanistan etc, where the aim is to try to destroy these countries' economies and starve the people into bringing about a change of regime.

A more fitting description to go with its acronym is international court of cowardice.

Russell Caplan
Wood Green, London

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