International Justice Tribune | Bemba at the ICC: How much is 18 years?

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Human rights organisations have all stressed that this is the highest sentence handed down by the ICC to date but also pointed out that with the credit given for the eight years Bemba already spent in detention, he is eligible for early release already in 2020 when he will have served two thirds of his sentence.

“Obviously the sentence was less than requested by the prosecutor who sought 25 years and the victims representatives (who wanted even more) but it is higher then what the defence sought and it's the longest sentence by the ICC so far. We need to factor that in,” said Carrie Comer of rights watchdog FIDH.

“I think we need to look beyond the number and look at the content of the ruling. Look at the aggravating circumstances the judges found the particularly cruel manner of the rapes, the vulnerability of the victims and take the deterrent message from that,” she told IJT.

Carrie ComerJune 23, 2016ICC, Bemba, War Crimes, SGBC, CAR

AFP | U.N. war crimes court gets Timbuktu monuments case

[...] “I think this is an extremely powerful case,” said Stephen Rapp, former U.S. ambassador-at-large for war crimes. “In these sorts of conflicts, the destruction of religious, cultural or historical objects, and the patrimony of the people, is another way in which you destroy a civilization, destroy a religion — the kind of things on which life is based in our societies.”

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Carrie Comer, permanent representative to the ICC for the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), said it is a “fascinating case.”

“We definitely believe that the destruction of cultural property and heritage is indeed a war crime,” she said. “However, it is a bit of challenge for those of us who work with victims in Mali because the destruction of cultural property is not the only thing that this man has been accused of.”

Carrie ComerFebruary 28, 2016ICC, Mali, War Crimes, Cultural Property, SGBC

FIDH | Ending impunity in Eastern Ukraine: new report reveals the urgency to open an ICC investigation

(Kyiv, Paris) FIDH and Center for Civil Liberties (CCL, Ukraine) report exposes severe atrocities perpetrated by various armed groups against the civilian population in Eastern Ukraine. These new documented human rights violations may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity and need to be urgently investigated by the International Criminal Court (ICC). FIDH and CCL will present the report at a press conference in Kyiv on Friday October 23rd and will provide recommendations on how to ensure a full and impartial investigation of crimes committed in Ukraine since the beginning of the conflict. [...]

The Hague, Netherlands

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