Tag: International Criminal Court (ICC)

The International Criminal Court: Libya Investigation Status

On May 4th the ICC Prosecutor reported to the U.N. Security Council regarding the status of his office’s investigation of “the situation in Libya since February 15, 2011.”[1] (As noted in a prior post, the ICC is investigating the Libya situation by virtue of the February 26, 2011, U.N. Security Council’s unanimous Resolution referring the situation in Libya to the ICC.[2])

The Prosecutor in his May 4th report said that soon he would be submitting his first application to the Court’s Pre-Trial Chamber for the issuance of arrest warrants in this investigation. The first such application will be against three individuals who appear to bear the greatest criminal responsibility for crimes against humanity in Libya since February 15th. These would be “those who ordered, incited, financed, or otherwise planned the commission of the alleged crimes.” He did not give the names of the three, but it is expected that one will be Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi.

According to the Prosecutor, the evidence provided a reasonable basis to believe that the regime’s security forces have been systematically shooting and killing at least 500 to 700 peaceful protesters and injuring many more, using the same modus operandi in multiple locations. In addition, the security forces are engaged in persecution by systematic arrests, torture, killings and enforced disappearances of civilians who have participated in demonstrations, or who are considered disloyal to the regime or who have talked to international media, activists or journalists.

Such conduct, if established at trial, constitutes crimes against humanity under Article 7 of the Court’s Rome Statute: “widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with [the accused’s] knowledge of the attack [involving] murder; . . . torture; . . . persecution against any identifiable group . . . on political . . . grounds . . .; [or] enforced disappearance of persons.”

The Prosecutor reported that such charges would be admissible in the ICC because there was no national investigation or prosecution of individuals for such conduct and there were no “interests of justice” that called for the Prosecutor not to investigate or prosecute individuals for these crimes.

The Prosecutor also noted that his office was still investigating other crimes against humanity as well as war crimes in Libya and implied that is office might be seeking other arrest warrants.

All 15 members of the Security Council at the May 4th meeting complimented the Prosecutor for his immediate, professional and thorough investigation of the Libyan situation and stressed the importance of further investigation and prosecutions. Interestingly the Indian representative said the Prosecutor should not be influenced by “non-judicial considerations” and should investigate the conduct of both sides to the conflict. More ominously, the South African representative said that the Prosecutor should investigate any actions by the NATO coalition that “fall outside the scope of [the Security Council’s resolutions on Libya]” and that violate the provisions of the Rome Statute.

By referring the Libyan situation to the Court, the Security Council clearly saw the ICC’s investigation and prosecution as one of several means to try to stop the horrible repression in Libya in addition to the Security Council’s establishing an arms embargo, travel ban, asset freeze and military imposition of a “no-fly zone” and authorizing “all necessary measures” to protect civilians.

On the other hand, some see ICC investigations and prosecutions as making it more difficult to end what has become a Libyan civil war in that they provide an additional motivation for Gaddafi and others to fight to the bitter end.[3]  At the May 4th Security Council meeting, the Chinese representative said the ICC needed to remember that “peaceful dialogue and negotiations are the best way forward towards a political solution to the crisis,” and the Nigerian representative made similar comments, saying that the prosecution must be “carefully calibrated to support the ongoing political efforts to find a peaceful solution.”

Stay tuned for further developments in Libya and at the ICC in The Hague.

[1]  ICC Press Release, The Office of the Prosecutor will request an arrest warrant against three individuals in the first Libya case (May 4, 2011, http://www2.icc-cpi.int/NR/exeres/DCBD3E2C-C592-4FB8-B7CB-E18E67F692D1.htm; ICC, First Report of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to the UN Security Council Pursuant to UNSCR 1970 (2011) (May 4, 2011); U.N. Security Council, 6528th Meeting (May 4, 2011), http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N11/321/42/PDF/N1132142.pdf?OpenElement. For background on the ICC, see Post: The International Criminal Court: Introduction (April 28, 2011).

[2]  Post: The International Criminal Court: Investigations and Prosecutions (April 28, 2011).

[3]  Sands, The ICC arrest warrants will make Gaddafi dig in his heals, Guardian (May 4, 2011), http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/may/04/icc-arrest-warrants-libya-gaddafi/print

The International Criminal Court: Investigations and Prosecutions

All of the ICC’s initial six investigations come from Africa.

Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo and Central African Republic. Three of the investigations arise from submissions to the Court by three of its African States Parties–Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic. These ICC investigations have led to the issuance of 10 arrest warrants. One of the subjects from Uganda died of natural causes. Five of the subjects of these warrants remain at large. Three of the Congolese subjects (Lubanga, Katanga and Chui) are now on trial at the ICC, with the closing arguments in the ICC’s first trial (Lubanga) scheduled for this coming August. In addition, the trial of Jean-Pierre Bemba for actions in the Central African Republic started this past November.[1]

Kenya. Another investigation relates to Kenya. On November 26, 2009, the Prosecutor on his own initiative asked the Pre-Trial Chamber for permission to open an investigation into post-election violence in Kenya in 2007-2008 as possible crimes against humanity. On March 31, 2010, that Chamber approved that application. A year later–March 8, 2011, the Pre-Trial Chamber authorized the issuance of summonses to six individuals.[2]

Darfur (Sudan) and Libya. The last two investigations –Darfur (Sudan) and Libya– arise from submissions to the Court by the U.N. Security Council under Article 13(b) of the Rome Statute and Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter. (The latter gives the Council responsibility for the maintenance of “international peace and security.”)

In the Darfur (Sudan) situation, the Court has issued seven arrest warrants against six persons. One of the subjects (Bahr Idriss Abu Garda) appeared voluntarily at the Court and was in pre-trial proceedings, but on February 8, 2010, the Pre-Trial Chamber declined to confirm the charges against him, thus ending his case subject to reopening by the Prosecutor if there is additional evidence to support the charges. Two others (both Darfur rebel commanders) voluntarily surrendered themselves to the ICC, and in March 2011, the Pre-Trial Chamber confirmed the charges against them and committed them to trial. Three others remain at large, and one of them (Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmed Al Bashir) is the current head of state.[3]

As the Security Council resolution on Darfur itself noted, the Council under Article 16 of the Rome Statute has the power to stop any “investigation or prosecution” by the ICC  for a period of 12 months after the Council adopts a resolution to that effect under Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter and to renew such a resolution ad infinitum. Yet in the over five years after its referral of the Darfur situation to the Court, the Council has not chosen to exercise this power after being kept advised of developments by the Prosecutor’s personal biannual reports to the Council.[4] This refusal to defer the prosecution of President Bashir is despite requests to do so from African and Arab states.

The last of the six ICC investigations relates to the current situation in Libya. On February 26, 2011, the U.N. Security Council adopted Resolution 1970 that, among other things, referred the Libyan situation since February 15, 2011, to the ICC’s Prosecutor, directed the Libyan authorities to cooperate fully with the Court and Prosecutor and invited the Prosecutor to make periodic reports about his actions in this matter to the Council. The resolution also stated that “nationals, current or former officials or personnel from a State outside [Libya], which is not a party to the Rome Statute . . . shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of that State for all alleged acts or omissions arising out of or related to operations in [Libya] established or authorized by the Council, unless such exclusive jurisdiction has been expressly waived by the State.”[5]

Two days later (February 28th) the Prosecutor stated that he had to decide whether to open an investigation regarding Libya and that he was collecting information to determine whether the necessary conditions for the Court’s jurisdiction were satisfied. [6] Another four days passed, and the Prosecutor on March 3rd announced that he was opening such an investigation.[7]

On May 4th the Prosecutor will report to the Security Council on the status of his Libyan investigation, including a possible request to the Pre-Trial Chamber to issue arrest warrants against those who appear to bear the greatest responsibility for crimes in Libya.

Preliminary examinations. In addition to these six investigations, the Office of the Prosecutor has conducted or currently is conducting preliminary examinations or analyses of situations in a number of other countries to determine if requests to the Pre-Trial Chamber should be made to commence investigations. These countries include Afghanistan, Chad, Colombia, Cote d’Ivorie, Georgia, Guinea, (Gaza) Palestine, Honduras and Nigeria. With respect to Afghanistan, which is a State Party to the Rome Statute, the Prosecutor has said that his office was looking into accusations of war crimes and crimes against humanity by the Taliban and by the U.S. and its allies.[8]

The Prosecutor also has declined to commence certain investigations that had been suggested by outsiders, and under Article 15(6) of the Statute the Prosecutor publicly has stated the reasons for these declinations. Two such instances are Iraq and Venezuela.

The ICC is well on the way to establishing itself as an important actor in the interactive global struggle against impunity for the worst violators of international human rights.

[3] ICC Press Release, Pre-Trial Chamber I declines to confirm the charges against Bahar Idriss Abu Garda (Feb. 8, 2010), http://www.icc-cpi.int/menus/icc/press%20and%20media/press%20releases/news%20and%20highlights/pr495?lan=en-GB.

[4]  See AMICC, ICC Prosecutor Reports to the United Nations, http://www.amicc.org/icc_activities.html#unreports. These reports include discussions of the Prosecutor’s efforts (a) to determine whether Sudan has capable domestic institutions and procedures to handle the crimes in question and (b) to address whether the “interests of justice” call for continuation or termination of the investigations.

[5] U.N. Security Council, 6491st meeting (Feb. 26, 2011); U.N. Security Council, Resolution 1970 (2011)  ¶¶ 4-8 (Feb. 26, 2011).

[6] ICC, Statement by the Office of the Prosecutor on situation in Libya (Feb. 28, 2011).

[7]  ICC, ICC Prosecutor to open an investigation in Libya (March 2, 2011).

[8]  ICC, Office of the Prosecutor, http://www2.icc-cpi.int/Menus/ICC/Structure+of+the+Court/Office+of+the+Prosecutor; Lauria, Court Orders Probe of Afghan Attacks, Wall St. J., Sept. 10, 2009; ICC Office of Prosecutor, Letter to Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights (Jan. 12, 2010) (alleged crimes during the conflict in Gaza in December 2008 and January 2009), http://www2.icc-cpi.int/NR/rdonlyres/FF55CC8D-3E63-4D3F-B502-1DB2BC4D45FF/281439/LettertoUNHC1.pdf; ICC Office of the Prosecutor, ICC Prosecutor confirms situation in Guinea under examination (Oct. 14,  2009), http://www2.icc-cpi.int/Menus/ICC/Structure+of+the+Court/Office+of+the+Prosecutor/Comm+and+Ref/Guinea.

The International Criminal Court: Introduction

The ICC commenced operations as a permanent international institution on July 1, 2002, after 60 states had ratified its treaty (the Rome Statute). Now 116 states are States Parties for the Court.[1] The following is a geographical breakdown of those States Parties:

States Parties?

Yes No Total
Africa[2]    32 15   47
Asia[3]    15 37   52
Europe[4]    40   4   44
Latin America[5]    26   7   33
Middle East[6]      2 13   15
North America[7]      1   1     2
TOTAL[8] 116 77 193

Under the Rome Statute, the ICC has jurisdiction over the following crimes: genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes (Arts. 5-8).[9] The Statute provides detailed definitions of those crimes, which are very important developments in the relatively new area of international criminal law. Once in operation, the Court developed its Rules of Procedure and Evidence and The Elements of Crimes that provide additional due process protections for those accused of crimes by the Court.[10] These also are important contributions to this area of the law and to the ongoing global struggle against impunity for human rights violators.

An important exception to ICC jurisdiction over the above crimes exists under Article 17(1) where:

(a)    “The case is being investigated or prosecuted by a State which has jurisdiction over it, unless the State is unwilling or unable genuinely to carry out the investigation or prosecution;”

(b)   “The case has been investigated by a State which has jurisdiction over it and the State has decided not to prosecute the person concerned, unless the decision resulted from the unwillingness or inability of the State genuinely to prosecute;”

(c)    “The person concerned has already been tried for conduct which is the subject of the complaint, and a trial by the Court is not permitted under article 20, paragraph 3 . . . .” [11]

The above exception to ICC jurisdiction is known, in ICC parlance, as the principle of “complementarity.” In other words, the ICC is a court of last resort. To further this limited role, the ICC has been engaged in helping certain states to improve their own judicial ability to handle ICC-type cases. This is often referred to as “positive complementarity” within ICC circles.[12]

The ICC has 18 judges who are elected by the ICC’s Assembly of States Parties for a term of nine years. Seven are from Europe (and Other); five, Africa; four, Latin America and Caribbean; and two, Asia. The judges are assigned to the following three divisions of the Court:

  • The Pre-Trial Division, which has responsibility for various matters before trial. Six judges with predominantly criminal trial experience are assigned to this division, and they conduct the business in chambers of one or three judges.
  • The Trial Division, which has responsibility for conducting the trials. Eight judges with predominantly criminal trial experience are assigned to this division, and they conduct the business in chambers of three judges.
  • The Appeals Division, which has responsibility for handling any appeals from the other divisions. Five judges are assigned to this division, and all five judges conduct the appeals in the Appeals Chamber.[13]

An inherent problem for the ICC is its lack of an international police or military force to arrest subjects of warrants. But under Articles 59 and 89 of the Statute, a State Party has an obligation “to take steps to arrest” the person and to follow its own appropriate judicial procedure to determine the propriety of delivering the person to the ICC. This obligation obtains for any State Party where the subject may be found, not just the State Party where the alleged crime occurred. In addition, the Court under Article 89(1) may request the arrest of a subject by “any State on the territory of which that person may be found.”[14]

The Court’s Prosecutor is elected by the Assembly of State Parties for a single nine-year term. (Art. 42(4).) The Prosecutor has authority to conduct investigations into situations that are referred to the Court by the U.N. Security Council or a State Party under Articles 13(b) and 14 of the Rome Statute or upon his or her own initiative (proprio motu) under Article 15(1).

Under the Rome Statute the Prosecutor is invested with specific duties regarding investigations and prosecutions and is subject to various checks and balances from the Pre-Trial Chamber and others (States Parties and the U.N. Security Council when making referrals). All of these provisions are some of the protections provided to those who are accused by the ICC and should provide comfort to those like some in the U.S. who believe that there are no checks on a hypothetically biased Prosecutor.

The governing body for the ICC is the previously mentioned Assembly of States Parties, in which each party has one vote. This is separate and distinct from the United Nations or its General Assembly or Security Council or any other U.N. organ. (Art. 112.)

Future posts will discuss the Court’s current situations and cases, the 2010 Review Conference and definition of the crime of aggression and the U.S.’ relations with the Court.


[1]  ICC, The States Parties to the Rome Statute, http://www.icc-cpi.int/Menus/ASP/states+parties. This is the Court’s own website, which has extensive information about the ICC. Another useful website is the official one about the Rome Conference of 1998 that developed the treaty that governs the Court (the Rome Statute): http://untreaty.un.org/cod/icc/index.html. The list of States Parties has been updated to June 22, 2011.

[2] Seychelles will become the 31st African state to join the ICC on November 1, 2010. The principal African states that are notICC members are Algeria, Angola, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Libya, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan and Zimbabwe. (Compare id. with U.N., List of Member States of United Nations,http://www.un.org/en/members/index.shtml.

[3] The principal Asian states that are not ICC members are China, Democratic Republic of Korea, India, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam. Id.

[4] The principal European states that are not ICC members are Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine. Id.

[5]  The principal Latin American and Caribbean states that are not ICC members are Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua.  Id.

[6]  The only Middle Eastern states that are ICC members are Cyprus and Jordan.  Id.

[7]  Canada is the only North American state that is an ICC member. The U.S.A. is the only North American state that is not an ICC member.  Id.

[8]  There are 192 members of the U.N., and a non-member of the U.N. (Cook Islands) is an ICC State Party. Thus, the total number of states in the table is 193. Id.

[9]  The Rome Statute also grants the ICC jurisdiction over the crime of aggression, but since that crime was not defined in the Statute, the Court could not exercise that jurisdiction. (Art. 5(2).) At the Court’s 2010 Review Conference, such a definition was added. This will be the subject of a future post.

[11] Article 20(3) of the Rome Statute lifts the bar of prior prosecution in a domestic court when it was not in good faith, i.e., when it was done “for the purpose of shielding the person concerned from criminal responsibility for [ICC] crimes” or when it was not “conducted independently or impartially . . . and  [WAS] . . . conducted in a manner which. In the circumstances, was inconsistent with an intent to bring the person concerned to justice.”

[12] E.g., ICC, Resolution on Complementarity (RC/Res. 1 June 8, 2010), http://www.icc-cpi.int/iccdocs/asp_docs/Resolutions/RC-Res.1-ENG.pdf; AMICC, Report on the Review Conference of the International Criminal Court (June 25, 2010), http://www2.icc-cpi.int/Menus/ICC/Home; http://www.amicc.org.

[13] Rome Statute, Arts. 34-41; ICC, Chambers, http://www2.icc-cpi.int/Menus/ICC/Structure+of+the+Court/Chambers. (One-third of the first set of judges only had a term of three years; another third, six years; and the final third, the full nine-year term. (Art. 36(9)(b).)

[14] The recent Review Conference adopted a declaration that reemphasized the obligation of States Parties to arrest those subject to ICC arrest warrants. (ICC, Declaration on cooperation (RC/Decl.2 June 8, 2010), http://www.icc-cpi.int/iccdocs/asp_docs/Resolutions/RC-Decl.2-ENG.pdf.

International Criminal Justice: Introduction

Since the end of World War II, we the peoples of the world, acting through our nation-state governments, have codified or created numerous international human rights norms. This started with 1945’s Charter of the United Nations and 1948’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Other multilateral human rights treaties have followed, including the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, the International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.[1]

Given the world’s nation-state sovereignty basis, we the peoples of the world have grappled with the very real problem of how to enforce such norms in order to punish violators, to deter future violations, to provide redress to victims and survivors, and to investigate and promulgate the “truth” about past violations. The response has been the creation of various mechanisms, none of which is perfect: state reporting to U.N. Charter and treaty bodies for review, comment and recommendations; complaints by states and individuals to such bodies for recommended solutions; international investigations of specific countries or problems; civil litigation for money damages against violators in domestic courts and international courts like the Inter-American Court of Human Rights; and truth commissions.[2]

Another response has been seeking to subject violators to criminal sanctions (imprisonment) in national courts under the international law principle of universal jurisdiction whereby a nation’s courts have legitimate criminal jurisdiction over genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes no matter where in the world such crimes were committed. Criminal sanctions have also been imposed by international criminal tribunals like the Nuremberg and Tokyo War Crimes Tribunals at the end of World War II and more recently by so called ad hoc tribunals created by the U.N. Security Council (the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR)). Even more recently the International Criminal Court (ICC) has been created.[3] Collectively these mechanisms often are referred to as international criminal justice.

In future posts we will examine a Spanish court’s use of the universal jurisdiction principle to commence criminal investigations. In other posts we will analyze the International Criminal Court and its relations with the United States.

[1]  David Weissbrodt, Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, Joan Fitzpatrick, and Frank Newman, International Human Rights: Law, Policy and Process, ch. 1 (4th ed. 2009) [“Weissbrodt”].

[2]  Id. , chs. 4-6, 9, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16.

[3]  Id. at 11, 483-586. The text of the Rome Statute, which will be referenced throughout this article, is available at:  http://www.icc-cpi.int/NR/rdonlyres/EA9AEFF7-5752-4F84-BE94-0A655EB30E16/0/Rome_Statute_English.pdf.

My First Ten Years of Retirement

It is hard to believe that the 10th anniversary of my retirement from the practice of law is nearly here. I have no regrets. I made the correct decision. Here is my own grading of how I have met my retirement goals that I set 10 years ago.[1]

Being a good Grandfather. I now have four grandchildren, two in Minnesota and two in Ecuador. My wife and I obviously spend more time with the Minnesota kids, and our Ecuadorian grandson spent last Fall in Minnesota going to school with his cousins. We also frequently have traveled to Ecuador to see our family there although we have decided not to spend significant amounts of time there. I recently took my 10-year old Minnesota grandson to visit two federal judges and some friends at my former law firm and to observe parts of a trial and a court hearing.[2] I leave it to the grandkids to judge me on this goal, but I think I have done a pretty good job. I know I enjoy being a grandfather.

Being a good Father and Husband. I also have been making an effort to be a good father and husband. I am still working at it.

Learning Spanish. I have not taken the time to improve my very limited Spanish ability. I still wish that I were fluent in that language, but do not see myself taking the time to do this. Sorry.

Law Teaching. I had a goal of teaching law in Ecuador. I was interviewed by a university in Quito about teaching law in the English language, but I was not offered a position. My son who lives there went to the interview with me in case I needed an interpreter, and afterwards he said he thought that my positive comments about liberation theology may not have been appreciated by the university officials. In retrospect, I am not unhappy with this result. I would have had to work very hard to organize and teach one or more courses in this foreign country.

Moreover, this development opened the door for my having the opportunity to co-teach one course (international human rights law) at the University of Minnesota Law School for nine years (2002-10). This built on my experience as a federal court litigator and as a pro bono asylum lawyer. It also allowed me to work with, and become friends of, other professors at the Law School and many U.S. and foreign students. One of the foreign students was a Hubert Humphrey Fellow from Brazil who was a Professor of Law and Criminology at the Catholic university in Rio de Janeiro, and at her subsequent invitation, I presented a paper on the Truth Commission for El Salvador at a conference in Rio in 2009. In addition, through my work at the University of Minnesota I developed a strong interest in, and some expertise about, the International Criminal Court, and I have made many presentations about the ICC and have served as the Provisional Organizer for the Minnesota Alliance for the ICC.[3]

I recently decided that I would retire from this teaching job even though I have thoroughly enjoyed it. I wanted to have more time for writing as discussed below.

Human rights legal work. Without the support of a law firm, including its professional liability insurance, I decided I was not able to do pro bono legal work in retirement. But as mentioned above, I have been able to teach human rights and learn more about the subject myself. I also have developed an interest in the ICC and found a way to make use of that interest.

News “distributor.” Although not one of my goals from 2001, I have developed a practice in retirement of regularly reading many news sources online (New York Times, Washington Post, Huffington Post (Politics page), Wall Street Journal, Guardian (from the U.K.) and Granma (English translation of Cuba’s major national newspaper) and occasionally others (New York Review of Books, Atlantic and Harpers). After doing this for a while, I started sending by email interesting articles on human rights, the ICC, immigration, Cuba and Africa to friends who were interested in these subjects.

Arbitrator. Another retirement activity I had not anticipated in 2001 was being an arbitrator. But I have done so for disputes between investors and financial firms through the Financial Institutions Regulatory Authority (FINRA; f/k/a National Association of Securities Dealers), usually as chair of a panel of three arbitrators, and I have enjoyed this challenge. I try to act like the arbitrators and judges I respected in my practice: fair, impartial, respectful of the law, organized, decisive and clear (unlike some of the judges on the TV show “The Good Wife”).

Recently, however, I decided that I no longer wanted to spend my time working on other people’s problems and will not take any more cases. Sounds like my 2001 decision to retire from practicing law.

Obituary writer. Yet another surprising development over the last half-year has been being an obituary writer. As a member of my Grinnell College class’ 50th reunion committee, I have been responsible for writing or commissioning obituaries for our 53 deceased classmates. This used my factual research and writing skills from lawyering. I also came to see this activity in some cases as one of pastoral care for the families of the departed.

International travel. In addition to many trips to Ecuador and my trip to Brazil, my wife and I have been on many other fascinating international trips in the last 10 years. They include an Elder Hostel trip about Mozart to the Czech Republic and Austria, Turkey, Spain, England and Scotland, South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Canada, Mexico, El Salvador and Peru plus my church mission trips to Cuba and Cameroon. These were great, educational experiences.  I was really glad that I was in good health to be able to take these trips. I also have been able to chair a committee that supervises the global partnerships of Westminster Presbyterian Church.

Historical research and writing. I wanted to conclude my research about Joseph Welch and Edward Burling and write articles about them. I have done so, as was mentioned in a prior post.[4] I will share some of the key points of that research in future posts. On the other hand, I have not yet been able to do additional research on two of my ancestors, but it is still a goal.

Personal journal and memoirs. I have not been able to make much progress on the goal of writing a personal journal and memoirs. I was hung up on the issue of how do I organize or structure such a writing project. Recently, however, I started this blog and have found it a great way to do the writing that I wanted to do. I do not have to worry about how I might organize all of these thoughts. It is really exciting to be able to write this blog.

Physical exercise. I have been more diligent in my personal exercise program although I should be doing more.

Financial planning and management. With the assistance of an able investment professional, I have developed appropriate methods for financial planning and management for retirement. Like nearly everyone else, we suffered financially in the recent deep recession, but we have made progress since then. I know that I am fortunate when I read articles about the many people who have not saved enough for retirement or who lost their pensions or retirement savings in the recent deep recession or through collapse of their former employers or financial fraud or who struggle to survive with investments in bank CD’s or federal securities that now pay virtually nothing in interest.

In short, I am happy with my efforts to meet my retirement goals over the last 10 years. Now I need to continue my pursuit of these now modified goals during the next phase of my life.

[1] Post: Retiring from Lawyering (4/22/11).

[2] This trip to the federal courthouse and my former law firm was inspired, in part, by recent comments of Mary Robinson, the former U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights. Post: Tip for Grandparents (4/11/11).

[3] The Minnesota Alliance is part of the American NGO Coalition for the International Criminal Court or AMICC, http://www.amicc.org.

[4] Post: Adventures of a History Detective (4/5/11).

 

Former U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Supports U.N. Security Council on Libya

Mary Robinson, the former U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (1997-2002), this week expressed her support of the recent U.N. Security Council’s actions on Libya.[1]

On February 26, 2011, the Council unanimously adopted Resolution 1970, which among other things, referred the Libyan situation since February 15, 2011, to the International Criminal Court’s Prosecutor, directed the Libyan authorities to cooperate fully with the Court and Prosecutor and invited the Prosecutor to make periodic reports about his actions in this matter to the Council.[2] This action, Robinson said, was unusual, but demonstrated the usefulness of having a permanent international criminal court that could be called upon in ongoing situations involving the most serious crimes of international concern and that could help to stop those crimes before they become worse. She also recognized, on the other hand, that the referral might complicate efforts to get Colonel Gadhafi and others to abdicate power by fleeing to another country because of the possibility of criminal charges by the ICC.

Less than three weeks later, the Council, 10 to 0 (with 5 abstentions), approved Resolution 1973, which authorized U.N. members to take all necessary measures to protect civilians under threat of attack in Libya by establishing a no-fly zone, but excluding a foreign occupation force.[3] Robinson asserted that this action was a proper exercise of the emerging international principle of the duty or right to protect or humanitarian intervention because of the imminent threat by the Gadhafi regime to kill many of its own people, especially in Benghazi. She also cautioned against expanding these military measures into intervention on the ground.

In addition, Robinson applauded this year’s “Arab Spring.” The uprisings in the Middle East included many women and demonstrate, she said, that men and women all over the world want human dignity, freedom and human rights as well as a decent living. The desire for human rights is indeed universal. It is not some Western set of values that is imposed on other societies.

Mary Robinson is also the former President of Ireland (1990-97). In 2002 she founded Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative that aimed “to put human rights standards at the heart of global governance and policy-making and to ensure that the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable are addressed on the global stage.”[4] After that organization finished its work in 2010, Robinson founded The Mary Robinson Foundation–Climate Justice for “thought, leadership, education and advocacy on the struggle to secure global justice for those many victims of climate change who are usually forgotten – the poor, the disempowered and the marginalised across the world.”[5]

[1] Robinson’s remarks at the University of Minnesota and on Minnesota Public Radio are available at http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2011/04/08/midmorning1; http://cce.umn.edu/LearningLife/Listen-to-Past-Events/index.html (forthcoming).

[2] U.N. Security Council, 6491st meeting (Feb. 26, 2011), http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N11/245/28/PDF/N1124528.pdf?OpenElement; U.N. Security Council, Resolution 1970 (2011) ¶¶ 4-8 (Feb. 26, 2011), http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N11/245/58/PDF/N1124558.pdf?OpenElement.

[3] U.N. Security Council, 6498th meeting (March 17, 2011), http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/PRO/N11/267/18/PDF/N1126718.pdf?OpenElement; U.N. Security Council, Resolution 1973 (2011) ¶¶ 4-8 (March 17, 2011), http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N11/268/39/PDF/N1126839.pdf?OpenElement. The five Security Council members that abstained were Brazil, China, Germany, India and the Russian Federation.

[4] Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative, http://www.realizingrights.org.

[5] The Mary Robinson Foundation–Climate Justice, http://www.mrfcj.org.