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Peace vs. Justice or Peace & Justice: The ICC in Northern Uganda
posted by Bill Burke-White
Does international criminal justice promote the settlement of on-going conflicts or does it, in contrast, stand in the way of peace agreements? This question has become one of the most pressing in the fields of international criminal law and transitional justice. The debate is perhaps best illustrated in Uganda where in mid-2006, after a twenty-year civil war, the Lords Resistance Army (LRA), a rebel group that plagued northern Uganda with twenty years of violence, has become engaged in the most serious peace negotiations to date. In the eyes of some at least, the International Criminal Court (ICC) indictments against the LRA now stand in the way of a final peace deal.
Having just returned from a second field research trip to Uganda to investigate this tension between peace and justice, I thought I would use this entry to offer some preliminary thoughts that are the subject of a current work in progress. Specifically, I want first to address briefly the nature of the ICC’s impact on the conflict and the peace talks and, second, to suggest a possible means of achieving both peace and justice in Uganda.
By way of background, in December 2003, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni referred crimes committed in Northern Uganda to the ICC. Subsequent to the Ugandan referral and an investigation by the ICC, the Court returned indictments against five LRA leaders. Soon thereafter, in late June 2006, the LRA expressed willingness to engage in a new round of peace talks with the Ugandan government. This latest round of negotiations quickly came to appear far more promising than any of the previous efforts. However, the LRA leadership has repeatedly stated that the withdrawal of ICC indictments remains a prerequisite to ultimate settlement. In late June 2007, the Ugandan Government and the LRA reached an agreement laying out the principles of justice and accountability for settlement of the conflict, which contemplated domestic proceedings with alternative sentences and possibly even the use of traditional justice mechanisms. Despite the flexibility with respect to justice and accountability indicated in the agreement, almost to the day, the ICC Prosecutor took an extremely firm line in a major public address in Nuremberg, Germany, essentially excluding any possibility that his office would seek to have the warrants withdrawn. In the words of the Prosecutor: “for each situation in which the ICC is exercising jurisdiction, we can hear voices challenging judicial decisions, their timing, their timeliness, asking the Prosecution to use its discretionary powers to adjust to the situations on the ground. . . . These proposals are not consistent with the Rome Statute. They undermine the law that states committed to.”
February 11, 2008 at 12:06 am
Posted in: International & Comparative Law
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International Law and the New Russia
posted by Bill Burke-White
First, let me take this opportunity to thank Concurring Opinions for the opportunity to join as a guest blogger this month. I am looking forward to bringing a bit of international law (and perhaps international politics) to the blog over the coming weeks.
Having just returned from Moscow, I thought I would open my month of blogging with a few thoughts on international law and the new Russia. Russia today is challenging international law and, particularly the trans-Atlantic consensus of transparency, democracy, and human rights, in fundamental ways. It would appear that Russia is attempting to use its newfound power—largely derived from its oil and gas resources—to reshape the international legal system to its own benefit. It is high time that both international lawyers and politicians start paying attention to developments in Russia and looking for ways to constrain Russia’s newfound ambition and power.
A bit of history puts Russia’s place in the international political and legal systems in context. During the 1990s, Russia essentially collapsed inward. Governmental institutions were weak, the economy was a disaster, crime spiraled out of control, and the military was in shambles. The West and, particularly, the United States largely neglected Russia during this period, failing to mount anything close the post-WWII Marshall Plan, that could have brought Russia back into the community of democracies. US claims to victory in the Cold War and Russia’s exclusion from the power centers of Washington, London, and Brussels, left the Russian people with a deep sense of alienation and even humiliation.
Upon assuming the Presidency in 2000, Vladimir Putin set Russia on a new course aimed at reviving its status as a world power. Putin recognized that the consolidation of state power in the Kremlin and the development of Russia’s oil and gas industry could allow Russia to reassert its place on the global stage. A combination of ruthless will, strong-arm tactics, and an extraordinary increase in oil prices allowed Putin to realize these goals. He quickly consolidated state authority through what the Russians term “vertical power”, reducing the authority of regional governors, undermining the independence of the State Duma (parliament) and the courts, and establishing leading state-run monopolies in the natural resource sector. In so doing, he amassed extraordinary popular support among the Russian people who, for the first time in nearly two decades, find themselves with global influence—now derived from oil, not the Red Army—and, for the first time in nearly a century, are amassing wealth at unimaginable rates. As elections approach on March 2nd, the new Russia has extraordinary energy power and the will to use its newfound influence. Putin himself has a cult of personality that allows him and his anointed successor, Dmitry Medvedev, to wield that power almost exclusively as they see fit.
So what does the new Russia mean for international law?
February 6, 2008 at 12:09 am
Posted in: International & Comparative Law
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