On March 18, 2015, 187 United Nations member states adopted the “Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030” at the UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Japan. The framework, described by the UN as “the first major agreement of the Post-2015 development agenda,” includes seven targets to be achieved over the next fifteen years— “a substantial reduction in global disaster mortality; a substantial reduction in numbers of affected people; a reduction in economic losses in relation to global GDP; substantial reduction in disaster damage to critical infrastructure and...
International Law in Brief
International Law in Brief (ILIB) is a forum that provides updates on current developments in international law from the editors of ASIL's International Legal Materials.
On March 5, 2015, a U.S. federal parole board consisting of representatives from the departments of Defense, State, Justice, and Homeland Security, and the National Intelligence directorate, cleared Saeed Sarem Jarabh, a Yemeni national formerly believed to have been Osama bin Laden’s bodyguard, for release from the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba where he has been held since 2002. In its final determination, the Periodic Review Board recommended his transfer to a third country after considering that Jarabh “was a low level fighter [who] lacked a leadership position in al-Qa'ida...
On March 19, 2015, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) released a report on “the human rights situation in Iraq in the light of abuses committed by the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant and associated groups.” According to the press release, the OHCHR found that the “Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) may have committed all three of the most serious international crimes – namely war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.” The report notes the investigation team found “that widespread abuses committed by ISIL include...
On March 18, 2015, Russian President Vladimir Putin and President of the Republic of South Ossetia Leonid Tibilov signed the Agreement between the Russian Federation and the Republic of South Ossetia on Alliance and Integration. According to the Kremlin’s press release, “[u]nder the Agreement, the two countries will establish a common defence and security space, allow free movement across the Russia-South Ossetia border, integrate their customs services, develop cooperation between their interior ministries, and simplify the procedures for obtaining Russian citizenship.” The twenty-five...
On March 13, 2015, in Prosecutor v. Kenyatta, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court withdrew charges against Uhuru Kenyatta, the president of Kenya, for insufficient evidence. According to the press release, the Trial Chamber indicated that “although the proceedings shall be terminated, the Court retains jurisdiction over any interference with a witness or with the collection of evidence and that the protective measures ordered for witnesses and/or victims shall continue, subject to the review by the Court.” Kenyatta was accused of crimes against humanity, including...
On March 11, 2015, in the Matter of Gen. Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova, the Board of Immigration Appeals, the United States’ highest administrative body for the interpretation of immigration laws, ruled that Carlos Casanova, a former El Salvadorian defense minister, could be deported for his role in the crimes committed during the El Salvador civil war in the 1980s. Noting sections of the Immigration and Nationality Act that do not permit persons who have committed extrajudicial killings to be admitted to the United States, the Board held that Casanova could be deported because “...
On March 11, 2015, the International Criminal Court issued its decision granting the prosecutor’s request to join the cases of Laurent Gbagbo, former president of Côte d'Ivoire and Charles Blé Goudé, an Ivorian politician, who are both accused of crimes against humanity committed between 2010 and 2011 in Côte d'Ivoire. According to the press release, the pair “had charges confirmed against them which arise from the same allegations, namely crimes allegedly committed during the same four incidents by the same direct perpetrators who targeted the same victims" and “largely the same evidence...
On March 10, 2015, an Ivory Coast court sentenced Simone Gbagbo, former first lady of the Ivory Coast, to twenty years in prison. According to one report, Gbagbo was tried and convicted for “undermining state security” for the role she played during the 2010–2011 post-election violence that killed almost 3,000 people. In 2012, the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for her arrest in relation to charges of four counts of crimes against humanity, but the Ivory Coast later decided to try her domestically. Her husband, former Ivory Coast president, Laurent Gbagbo, awaits trial for...
On March 9, 2015, in Prosecutor v. Al Bashir, the Pre-Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court (the Court) decided that by not arresting and surrendering Omar al-Bashir to the Court, the Republic of Sudan had failed to cooperate with the Court. According to the press release, the Chamber notified the Security Council and “stressed that if there is no follow up action on the part of the UNSC, any referral by the Council to the ICC under Chapter VII of the UN Charter would never achieve its ultimate goal, namely, to put an end to impunity.”
On March 4, 2015, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom unanimously rejected the U.K. government’s designation of Jamaica as safe for a rejected gay asylum seeker in R v. Secretary of State for the Home Department. According to the press summary, Jamar Brown, a citizen of Jamaica, sought asylum in the United Kingdom on the ground that as a homosexual he would be persecuted if returned to Jamaica. Pending the resolution of his claim, he was detained and his case was fast tracked pursuant to section 94 of the Nationality, Immigration, and Asylum Act under which Jamaica had been...