On May 29, 2014, diplomats stated that the U.N. Security Council is considering a draft resolution that would provide immediate cross-border aid in Syria without government approval. The draft resolution comes shortly after the February passage of Security Council Resolution 2139, which demanded “that all parties, in particular the Syrian authorities, promptly allow rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access . . . across conflict lines and across borders.” According to a news article, the draft resolution, under Chapter 7, “would authorize deliveries into Syria at specific points from...
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 May 29, 2014, Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan signed the Eurasian Economic Union Treaty, formally creating the Eurasian Economic Union. According to a press release, the treaty creates “a common space where goods, services, capital and work force can move freely” and in which “[t]he three states will follow a coordinated policy in such key branches of the economy as energy, industry, agriculture and transport.” The treaty will enter into force January 1, 2015.
On May 21, 2014, the Appeals Chamber of the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (the Chamber) denied the appeal of Radovan Stanković against the decision of the Referral Bench of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) to dismiss his request to return his case to the ICTY. Stanković, a former member of the Miljevina battalion, was indicted by the ICTY in 1996 and faced charges of crimes against humanity and violations of the laws or customs of war. The ICTY transferred his case to the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) in 2005, the Appellate Panel...
On May 27, 2014, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (the Court) decided the case of Marguš v. Croatia, declaring inadmissible the claim that that there had been a violation of Article 4 of Protocol No, 7 (the right not to be tried or punished twice) of the European Convention on Human Rights (the ECHR) when Croatia convicted Marguš, a former commander of the Croatian army, of war crimes in 2007, having granted him an amnesty in 1997 pursuant to the General Amnesty Act (unofficial translation). According to the press release, the Court underlined that “where a...
On May 27, 2014, the Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice of the European Union (the Court) decided (not yet available in English) the Zoran Spasic case, holding that the rule found in Title III, Chapter 3, of the Convention Implementing the Schengen Agreement (CISA), which restricts the application of the ne bis in idem principle to cases in which the penalty imposed in a Member State has been enforced or is actually in the process of being enforced, is not contrary to the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. According to the press release, the Court...
On May 23, 2014, Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court (ICC) sentenced (French only) Germain Katanga to a total of twelve years’ imprisonment. He was found guilty (French only) in March 2014, as an accessory, of one count of crimes against humanity and four counts or war crimes during the attack on the village of Bogoro, in the Ituri district of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. According to the press release, “the Chamber stressed that the crimes committed . . . in Bogoro were committed with particular cruelty” and that Mr. Katanga “had made a significant contribution...
On May 23, 2014, the UK Court of Appeal (the Court) delivered the latest ruling in the case brought by the Chagos Islanders, Bancoult v. Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. The Court held that a “cable” sent by the US Embassy in London to departments of the US Federal Government, the US Embassy in Mauritius and to the US military, which was published on Wikileaks, was admissible. The Court held, inter alia, that the provision of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which renders certain diplomatic communications “inviolable,” would not be...
On May 23, 2014, independent United Nations human rights experts dealing with issues of slavery, migrants, and trafficking called on governments to adopt a legally binding treaty to address forced labor. According to a news article, the experts stressed that “[a] legally binding protocol is essential to fight forced labour and represents a crucial opportunity for more coherent international action to advance the eradication of slavery-like practices around the world.” According to new data released this week by a U.N. International Labour Office report , nearly 21 million people are...
On May 22, 2014, the Senate in the Dominican Republic unanimously passed a bill granting citizenship to Dominican-born children of immigrants. According to a news article, President Danilo Medina proposed the bill due to international outcry over a September 2013 ruling (Spanish language only) by the Constitutional Court of the Dominican Republic that denied citizenship to Dominicans of Haitian descent. According to a news article, “[t]hose born between 1929 and 1997 with proper documentation will be granted full citizenship; those born between 1997 and 2010 will need to apply for...
On May 21, 2014, the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) confirmed the decision of Pre-Trial Chamber I, declaring admissible the case against Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi. According to the press release, “the Appeals Chamber was of the view that the Pre-Trial Chamber did not err in either fact or law when it concluded that Libya had fallen short of substantiating, by means of evidence of a sufficient degree of specificity and probative value, that Libya's investigation covers the same case that is before the Court.” President Song wrote a separate opinion and Judge Ušacka...