The SCSL at the Security Council

On October 9th, Guatemala, as this month’s President of the UN Security Council, convened a meeting to discuss the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL). The SCSL is expected to close in approximately one year, shortly after the completion of appellate proceeding in the Charles Taylor case in September 2013, so this meeting focused on taking stock of the Court’s achievements and the court's transition into the Residual SCSL. There were several representatives of the SCSL present at the discussion, including the President, Justice Shireen Avis Fisher, Prosecutor Brenda Hollis, Registrar Binta Mansaray, and the Head of the Defence Office, Claire Hanciles. President Fisher (pictured right, photo credit) noted that all four SCSL principals are female – the first time in the history of international criminal tribunals.
President Fisher also highlighted an interesting independent nationwide survey conducted in Sierra Leone and Liberia at the end of May, designed to measure the impact and legacy of the SCSL. In that survey, 79% of the people surveyed believed that the SCSL has accomplished its mandate - President Fisher credits the SCSL’s extensive outreach program for this success. As well, 91% of Sierra Leoneans and 78% of Liberians surveyed believe that the SCSL has contributed to bringing peace in their countries. This certainly is positive news for the SCSL at a time when it is working to cement its legacy. President Fisher also stressed that the SCSL model is proof that positive complementarity works - a nod to the ongoing discussion in international criminal law circles of how national jurisdictions can utilize outside assistance to undertake prosecutions for serious crimes. 
Some common themes ran through the comments of President Fisher, Prosecutor Hollis, the Government of Sierra Leone and Security Council Member States, especially relating to funding and gender-sensitive justice. President Fisher announced that the SCSL is facing a $15 million shortfall in funding to conclude the court’s work. This financial crisis is making it difficult for the SCSL to plan for its completion and transition to a Residual SCSL. The US indicated that it is contributing a further $2 million in 2012, amounting to an overall contribution of $83 million since the court’s inception. Another major donor, the UK, stressed that “[f]unds are needed urgently. Longer-term, the Residual Special Court requires secure and sustainable funding in order to continue to protect witnesses, manage the detention of those convicted and protect archives.” It stated that the “United Kingdom is considering all funding options for the Special Court and the Residual Special Court and we urge other members of the Council, and all Member States, to do so as well.” While it is not clear what those funding options are, it is hoped that they relate to steady and reliable funding sources.
Like the SCSL, the Residual SCSL is to be funded through voluntary contributions. This leaves the Residual SCSL open to the same funding shortfalls continually faced by the SCSL over the past decade. President Fisher made an impassioned plea for attention to the Residual SCSL, stressing that “[r]esidual responsibilities are not an afterthought or burden.” Rather, they are absolutely crucial: if SCSL witnesses are not protected, this will have a negative impact on witness participation at all other international courts; if the archives are not protected, revisionist history will fill the void; and if the sentences of those convicted by the SCSL are not properly supervised, then the SCSL’s reputation as a just institution will erode, undermining the moral authority of all of its past work.

Newcomer to prosecutors' walk of fame

JAMESTOWN, New York –  The name of Fatou Bensouda is now part of a prosecutors' walk of fame.
As depicted in the photo above, Bensouda, who was sworn in as chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court this past June, yesterday placed a brick bearing her name in the pathway leading to the steps of the Robert H. Jackson Center here.
Thus opened the 6th annual International Humanitarian Law Dialogs, which runs through tomorrow and live webcasts of which are available here.
A brick also was placed in the name of another prosecutor whose mandate began earlier this year, Norman Farrell of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon; as Farrell could not attend, IHL Dialogs organizer David Crane did the honor.
Bensouda and Farrell thus joined a host of esteemed prosecutors, including officers of all the post-Cold War tribunals, as well as some persons who prosecuted at Nuremberg.Two of them also are depicted above: next to Bensouda is James Johnson, formerly the Deputy Prosecutor at the Sierra Leone court and now the head of the Jackson Center; behind her is H.W. William Caming, lead prosecutor in the Ministries Case litigated in the subsequent Nuremberg trials.
The location for this walk of fame is apt, for Jackson, as blogreaders well know, took leave from the U.S. Supreme Court in 1945 to serve for a year as Chief U.S. Prosecutor before the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg.
Following the ceremony, attendees were treated to a discussion of the Charles Taylor case, conducted by the four persons who led the investigation and prosecution of that case when they were, in turn, Prosecutor of the Sierra Leone court: Crane, Sir Desmond de Silva, Stephen Rapp, and Brenda Hollis. Keep watch at the Jackson Center website for the video of this event; it was fascinating, and will make a great teaching tool.

As prosecutors gather, thought on ICC & Arab world

The 6th International Humanitarian Law Dialogs, the annual gathering of international prosecutors and others that IntLawGrrls is proud to cosponsor,  kicks off today at the Chautaqua Institution in upstate New York.  A screening of IntLawGrrl Pamela Yates' Granito is the 1st event; rich dialogs with a host of prosecutors begins tomorrow, as detailed in the IHL Dialogs program.
Happy to announce that even if you can't make it to lovely Lake Chautauqua, you can watch many events tomorrow and Tuesday live via webcast here.
This year's theme is "Hybrid International Courts: A Tenth Anniversary Retrospective on the Special
Court for Sierra Leone." Nevertheless, many other issues swirling about the field of international criminal justice are sure to be discussed – among them, ongoing violence in Syria and repeated calls for an calls for an International Criminal Court-Syria referral, most recently from French President  François Hollande, just 2 days ago.
It's in that context that this passage jumped out:

'While the Arab countries are going through internal political and social upheavals and, in some cases, brutal armed conflicts, it is to be hoped that the ICC will reconsider its policy and put in place a clear strategy in relation to national judicial capacity building, an undertaking which is not currently a component of its work. This strategy should also contain an element that would lead the court to be perceived as a deterrent to stop the waves of bloodshed that have occurred so far in certain countries.
'The new emerging regimes and all others in the Arab countries witnessing political changes should consider ratifying the Rome Statute and building professional relationships between their representatives and the staff of the court. As we all know, international justice is costly. Through their contribution to the court’s budget and their use of the ICC national judicial capacity building project, Arab governments would be able to assist in the development of their own independent judicial capacities.'

So wrote Mohamed A. Lejmi, Senior Diplomatic Advisor for the Office of the Prosecutor at the Hague-based Special Tribunal for Lebanon, in an August 17 Tunisia Live op-ed entitled "A New Generation of International Prosecutors Brings New Challenges."
Lejmi began by making the important point that post-Cold War international criminal justice has matured to the extent that the Prosecutor of nearly every tribunal is now a person with significant international as well as national criminal justice experience – as he puts it, a person who has

'learned to function effectively within the blended common law/civil law regime that is characteristic of the international criminal justice system.'

(As detailed in the IHL Dialogs program, among the "new generation" of chief prosecutors named in Lejmi's op-ed and scheduled to take part in this week's IHL Dialogs are: Fatou Bensouda of the ICC, Serge Brammertz of the ICTY, and Brenda J. Hollis of the Special Court for Sierra Leone. They'll be joined by 2 others in this "generation," Robert Petit, formerly of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia and now at the Canadian Department of Justice, and Stephen Rapp, formerly of the Sierra Leone special court and now U.S. Ambassador for Global Justice, along with many other practitioners and academics. IntLawGrrls' own Leila Nadya Sadat will deliver the 2d Annual Katherine B. Fite Lecture.)
Lejmi's op-ed views this transformation in prosecutorial staffing, coupled with ongoing political change in the Arab world, as an opening for an effort to re-engage that region.

Go On! IntLawGrrls cosponsors 6th IHL Dialogs

(Go On! is an occasional item on symposia and other events of interest)

Delighted to announce that IntLawGrrls again will cosponsor the International Humanitarian Law Dialogs at a picturesque lakefront venue, the Chautauqua Institution in upstate New York. Chautauqua's near the home of another cosponsor, the Robert H. Jackson Center, named after the midtwentieth-century Supreme Court Justice who also served as Chief U.S. Prosecutor before the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg.
The theme of this year's 6th annual Dialogs, to be held August 26 to 28, is: Hybrid International Courts: A Tenth Anniversary Retrospective on the Special Court for Sierra Leone.
Exploring this theme and recapping recent international criminal law developments will be prosecutors from international criminal fora, representatives of nongovernmental organizations, and scholars. As demonstrated in prior posts, each year a number of IntLawGrrls contributors take part.
Many present and former international prosecutors are expected to take part this year. In addition to those mentioned as specific speakers in the program detailed below, prosecutors set to attend include the following from the:
► International Criminal Court, Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda (left), who contributed her December 2011 speech to the ICC Assembly of States Parties as an IntLawGrrls post;

► International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, former prosecutors H.W. William Caming and Benjamin B. Ferencz;

► Special Court for Sierra Leone, former prosecutor Desmond DeSilva;

► Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia: Co-Prosecutor Andrew T. Cayley and former Co-Prosecutor Robert Petit;
► International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and for the former Yugoslavia, former Chief Prosecutor Louise Arbour (right);

►International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, Hassan Jallow; and
► Special Tribunal for Lebanon, former prosecutor Daniel Bellemare.
Sessions on the current program include:

Sunday, August 26

► Showing of Granito: How to Nail a Dictator, an award-winning film on accountability in Guatemala. Earlier we posted here and here about the film, which was made by IntLawGrrls contributor Pamela Yates (left).

Monday, August 27
► Keynote speech by Hans Corell, former Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and U.N. Legal Counsel, introduced by Syracuse Law Professor David M. Crane, who was the 1st Chief Prosecutor of the Special Court and is the founder of the Dialogs.
► A dialogue with the current prosecutors, moderated by Professor Michael P. Scharf of Case Western Reserve University School of Law, another cosponsor.

► 1st Annual Clara Barton Lecture by Professor David J. Scheffer of Northwestern University School of Law, formerly the U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes. Introducing him will be Jennifer Khurana (right), Manager of the International Humanitarian Law Dissemination Unit at the American Red Cross. (Pleased to see this additional event, particularly given that Clara Barton is an IntLawGrrls foremother.)

► Panel on the Special Court for Sierra Leone, featuring; Scheffer; Stephen J. Rapp, currently the U.S. Ambassador-at-Large of the State Department's Office of Global Criminal Justice and formerly the Special Court's Chief Prosecutor, Binta Mansaray (left), Registrar of the Special Court; Professor Bankole Thompson of Eastern Kentucky University, formerly a Judge at the Special Court; and Raymond  M. Brown of the International Justice Project, formerly a Co-Lead Defense Counsel before the Special Court. Moderating will be Professor William Schabas of Middlesex University, London, and Leiden Law School, The Hague, and formerly a member of the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
► 2 breakout sessions on the porch of Chautauqua's lovely, circa-1881 Athanaeum Hotel: "The Challenge of Piracy" moderated by Scharf, as well as "Practitioners/Prosecutors" moderated by Andrew Beiter, head of the Summer Institute for Human Rights & Genocide Studies and the Jackson Center's Education Coordinator.
►  2d Annual Katherine B. Fite Lecture, delivered by IntLawGrrl Leila Nadya Sadat (right), Director of the Whitney R. Harris Institute at the Washington University School of Law, another Dialogs cosponsor. Moderating will be yours truly, Diane Marie Amann (below right), University of Georgia School of Law. This sessions is sponsored by IntLawGrrls in honor of Katherine B. Fite, a U.S. State Department lawyer who helped draft the Nuremberg Charter.

Tuesday, August 28
► Breakfast address by Professor M. Cherif Bassiouni of DePaul University College of Law, introduced by Mark Quarterman, Research Director of the Enough Project, another cosponsoring organization.
► "Recent Developments in International Criminal Law," by IntLawGrrl Valerie Oosterveld (left), a Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Western Ontario.
► 4 porch breakout sessions: "SCSL Outreach" with Crane and Mansaray as discussants and Oosterveld as moderator; "SCSL New Crimes/New Law" with Thompson and Special Court for Sierra Leone Chief Prosecutor Brenda Hollis (right) as discussants and Sadat as moderator; "Blood Diamonds" with Doug Farah of IBI Consultants and the International Assessment and Strategy Center, Ian Smillie of Diamond Development Initiative, and Alan White, former Chief Investigator at the Special Court as discussants; and "Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Process with Canada's former Minister of Justice, Irwin Cotler, Schabas, and me as discussants and Vanderbilt Law Professor Michael A. Newton as moderator.
► "The Future of the International Criminal Court," a luncheon address by ICC Judge Hans-Peter Kaul, introduced by Mark Ellis, Executive Director of teh International Bar Association.
► Issuance of the 6th Chautauqua Declaration, moderated by Elizabeth Andersen (right), Executive Director of the American Society of International Law, another cosponsor of the IHL Dialogs.
For more information, contact Carol Drake at cdrake@roberthjackson.org.

Judge Sow's struck statement & reflections on the Taylor judgment & the SCSL's legacies

(Another of IntLawGrrls' several posts on the Charles Taylor judgment, part of our Sierra Leone accountability series)

THE HAGUE – As IntLawGrrls contributors, former Taylor trial monitors, and now academics based in The Hague, the two of us, Jennifer Easterday and Sara Kendall, welcome this opportunity to share some observations from the delivery of the historic verdict in the trial against Charles Taylor, former President of Liberia.
On a typically cold and windy Dutch spring day, we went to watch the proceedings taking place Thursday at the premises of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in Leidschendam, an unassuming Hague suburb – the Special Court has been renting space there following its relocation from its original Hague home at the International Criminal Court.
The delivery of the judgment was well attended by current and former court personnel, representatives of civil society organizations such as the Open Society Justice Initiative and Human Rights Watch (including IntLawGrrl Elise Keppler), staff from the broader Hague-based tribunal community, legal advisers to diplomatic missions, academics, journalists, and family members of Charles Taylor.
Less present in the public gallery, however, were members of Sierra Leonean civil society organizations and other individuals who may have been more directly affected by the crimes that the Special Court was set up to adjudicate.
All four U.S. and British citizens who had served in the role of Prosecutor during the lifespan of the Special Court returned to The Hague for the reading. In the public gallery were Stephen J. Rapp – now U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues – and David Crane, the court’s first Prosecutor, whose interpretation of the Court’s mandate to try those ‘bearing the greatest responsibility’ for the crimes that occurred in Sierra Leone resulted in the indictment of thirteen individuals. Seated inside the courtroom were the current Prosecutor, Brenda Hollis, as well as past Prosecutor Desmond Da Silva.
All three defense counsel – Courtenay Griffiths, Terry Munyard, and Morris Anyah – and their legal assistants were present, as well.
Charles Taylor appeared calm and largely expressionless throughout the reading of the judgment, and he stood when prompted for the delivery of the verdict.
These lawyers, diplomats, academics, members of civil society and members of the press witnessed the reading of this judgment, which was interpreted largely in journalistic accounts as a success for the prosecution for the Chamber’s findings of guilt on all eleven counts. The prosecution’s failure to prove key modes of liability (such as joint criminal enterprise and command responsibility) remained largely absent from popular commentary.
The Taylor trial will certainly influence the legacies of the SCSL court – if we think of the court’s work in terms of multiple legacies (as noted by Viviane Dittrich of the London School of Economics at a recent conference in Pittsburgh on the Special Court), as opposed to a singular, dominant legacy.
The court’s impact on Sierra Leone and the broader West African region will undoubtedly be contested.
This was made clear by the dramatic conclusion to Wednesday’s proceedings.
Judge El Hadji Malik Sow (right), a Senegalese jurist who serves as alternate judge for Trial Chamber II, attempted to speak following the end of Presiding Judge Richard Lussick’s reading of the judgment. (photo credit) Those of us seated in the public gallery heard a few words from an unidentified speaker before the microphones were cut off, and through the glass we could hear him continuing to speak.
Shortly thereafter, what appeared to be a metal grate was lowered over the glass, so that we could not longer see into the courtroom. As people waited for press statements from the prosecution and the defense, a paper began to circulate with the statement from Judge Sow. Apparently the court stenographer had continued to type into the transcription program which appeared on the screens of those seated in the courtroom, and one of the legal assistants from the Taylor defense team copied the text and saved it out of concern that the Special Court would strike the judge’s statement from the official record (after receiving transcripts from yesterday’s proceedings, we can confirm that the comments were indeed struck from the record).
Judge Sow’s statement is copied here in its entirety from the disseminated sheet:

The Taylor Judgment and Child Soldiers

(My thanks for the opportunity to contribute this introductory post, another of IntLawGrrls' several posts on the Charles Taylor judgment, part of the Sierra Leone accountability series)

Trial Chamber II of the Special Court for Sierra Leone found Charles Taylor guilty yesterday of each of the eleven counts for which he was charged, including for conscripting or enlisting children under the age of 15 years into armed forces or groups, or using them to participate actively in hostilities.
 This is not the first conviction by the Special Court for this war crime, a violation of international humanitarian law, recognized under article 4(c) of its Statute. In fact, the Special Court broke new ground when it convicted three Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) leaders for these crimes, in 2007: the very first time individuals were found guilty by an international or hybrid court for recruiting or using ‘child-soldiers’ (Judgment of Trial Chamber II – AFRC case). These convictions were followed by others before the SCSL, ultimately paving the way for the recent decision of the International Criminal Court, which convicted Thomas Lubanga Dyilo for recruiting children under the age of 15 years into his armed group, or for using them to participate actively in hostilities.
The Taylor judgment has added to the growing jurisprudence on ‘child soldiers’ by convicting an individual for aiding and abetting others in the conscription or enlisting of children under 15 into armed forces/groups, or using them to participate actively in hostilities. It will be interesting to see, once the judgment is available, how the Chamber applied this mode of liability to a crime for which knowledge of the age of the victims is essential. From the summary judgment available here, it appears that the Chamber found that Charles Taylor knew that RUF soldiers, under the command of NPFL officers, abducted civilians in Sierra Leone, including children, forcing them to fight within the NPFL/RUF forces against the Sierra Leonean forces and ULIMO (para. 126 of the summary judgment). As early as August 1997, when he became President of Liberia, he was informed in detail of the crimes committed in Sierra Leone, including the abduction of children (para. 129 of the summary judgment).
When reading the judgment, judge Richard Lussick, the presiding judge, recalled that:

'[…] the operational strategy of the RUF and AFRC was characterised by a campaign of crimes against the Sierra Leonean civilian population, including murders, rapes, sexual slavery, looting, abductions, forced labor, conscription of child soldiers, amputations and other forms of physical violence and acts of terror. These crimes were inextricably linked to how the RUF and AFRC achieved their political and military objectives […They ] pursued a policy of committing crimes in order to achieve military gains at any civilian cost, and also politically in order to attract the attention of the international community and to heighten their negotiating stance with the Sierra Leonean government.'

(Paragraph 150 of the summary judgment). On this basis, the conscription of children in Sierra Leone seems to have served a dual goal; it was a way to pursue this policy of criminal campaign against Sierra Leonean civilians, victimizing children and their entire families; and in turn, the children, once associated with the armed groups, were used as instruments to commit atrocities and further this policy.
Brenda Hollis (right), the SCSL Prosecutor, commenting on the conviction for recruiting and using child soldiers, declared:

'Children were taken from their families, and not only used to fight, but also to commit crimes against their fellow Sierra Leoneans. This robbed these children of their childhood, and the judges have sent a clear message that this will never be tolerated.'

Another aspect of the judgment that should hopefully prove interesting is the Chamber’s approach to defining the terms ‘use to participate actively in hostilities’, and whether it confirms the earlier SCSL jurisprudence on this, or departs from it.
To date, ‘active participation’ has been interpreted somewhat expansively by the SCSL, apparently in an attempt to include the many roles performed by children associated with armed groups and forces, notably by girls, who may be ‘used’ as sexual slaves or in other non-combat roles. This broad understanding has been enthusiastically supported by those seeking to remedy past trends, where girls were too often excluded from the benefits of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programs because they could not turn in a gun. However, there is potentially a risk in too broadly defining ‘use to participate’ especially from an IHL targeting perspective, where individuals deemed to directly participate in hostilities lose their protection against direct attack. Perversely therefore, by trying to label more activities as child soldiering, one runs the risk of making more children open to attack.

Go On! Early Reflections on the Taylor Judgment

(Go On! is an occasional item on symposia and other events of interest)

Together with IntLawGrrls contributor Jennifer Easterday, yours truly, Sara Kendall, is pleased to announce that Leiden University’s Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies will be hosting an event in conjunction with the Open Society Justice Initiative following the delivery of the judgment in the trial of Charles Taylor at the Special Court for Sierra Leone.

For those of you in The Hague this Friday, one day after the trial judgment is pronounced, we invite you to join us for the early reflections of Brenda J. Hollis (below left), Prosecutor of the SCSL, as well as those of academics and representatives from the Sierra Leonean and international civil society communities.

Details are as follows:

Early Reflections on the Taylor Judgment

With Brenda J. Hollis, Prosecutor, Special Court for Sierra Leone

Friday, 27 April 2012

6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Lange Houtstraat 5-7, Room 403

Den Haag

Reception to follow at Barlow Bar & Restaurant, Plein 15-16, Den Haag.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Go On! On day of Lubanga verdict, "Atrocity Crimes Litigation 2011: Year in Review" at The Hague

(Go On! is an occasional item on symposia and other events of interest)

Pleased to announce an exciting event in which yours truly has the honor of taking part:
The Atrocity Crimes Litigation Year in Review (2011) Conference, billed as a "discussion of atrocity crimes litigation of 2011 with leading practitioners and experts," will be held from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 14, 2012, at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, Dokter van der Stamstraat 1, in Leidschendam, adjacent to The Hague in the Netherlands. (credit for photo below of tribunal's building)
As this conference begins, we've just learned, Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court will "deliver its decision on the innocence or guilt of Thomas Lubanga Dyilo," the 1st person to stand trial at the ICC. That event promises rich discussion at our conference just up the road from the ICC.
The year-in-review conference began several year ago. Its founder, our colleague David Scheffer, held it at his home institution, Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago. This year will be the 1st that the Northwestern Law conference goes to The Hague, home to the ICC, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, and others among the tribunals to be reviewed.
The day will be web-linked to Northwestern students, and a recording will be available online in due course.
What's more, this year as in the past, the conference proceedings will form a forthcoming issue of the Northwestern Journal of International Human Rights (prior issues available here).
At center stage will be prosecutors and defense lawyers, who will report on, and debate, the year's developments at the various tribunals. My role is to serve as something of a backgrounder and color commentator, then to contribute a year's recap to the Journal. In this annual role, I'm honored to follow a couple IntLawGrrls, Beth Van Schaack (contribution here) and Valerie Oosterveld (contribution here), as well as our colleagues Göran Sluiter (contribution here) and William A. Schabas (contribution here).
Here's the full lineup for this year's event:
Moderator:
► David Scheffer, Mayer Brown/Robert A. Helman Professor of Law, Northwestern University School of Law
Panelists:
► Diane Marie Amann, Emily and Ernest Woodruff Chair in International Law, University of Georgia School of Law
► Caroline Buisman, Defence Counsel, International Criminal Court
► Andrew Cayley, International Co-Prosecutor, Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia
► Sara Criscitelli, Prosecution Coordinator, International Criminal Court
► Mark Harmon, recently retired from his post as Senior Trial Prosecutor, International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
► Brenda Hollis (far left), Chief Prosecutor, Special Court for Sierra Leone (photo credit)
► Hassan Jallow, Chief Prosecutor, International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
► Daryl Mundis, Chief of Prosecutions, Special Tribunal for Lebanon
Preregistration is required and closes March 5, 2012; click here.

IntLawGrrls' cosponsorship of 5th IHL Dialogs to launch annual Katherine B. Fite Lecture

This year adds an exciting new venture to IntLawGrrls' annual cosponsorship of a convocation of the women and men who prosecute persons charged with international crimes.
To be featured at next month's International Humanitarian Law Dialogs will be the 1st Annual Katherine B. Fite Lecture, a keynote address in honor of a pivotal lawyer at the International Military Tribunal.
Our colleague John Q. Barrett spoke about Katherine Boardman Fite (1905-1989), the 1st of several women at Nuremberg, at the 2009 IHL Dialogs. His consequent article on her contributions to international criminal law -- and on her experiences as one of very few professional women in the early days of the Nuremberg trials -- was published, as "Katherine B. Fite: The Leading Female Lawyer at London & Nuremberg," in the 3d IHL Dialogs Proceedings available here.
A 1930 Yale Law graduate, Fite was a State Department attorney assigned to work with the U.S. Chief Prosecutor, Justice Robert H. Jackson. (credit for above photo of Jackson and Fite) Her international law experience was critical to the 1945 drafting of the IMT Charter in London and the initial groundwork for the tribunal. Her papers, which include highly readable letters from Nuremberg to her parents in Massachusetts, were donated to the Truman Library and are available online here.
Honored to say that yours truly, IntLawGrrl Diane Marie Amann (left), will deliver the inaugural Fire Lecture. Other 'Grrls are sure to follow in the coming years.
As in past years (prior posts), this 5th installment of the IHL Dialogs will be held August 28-30 at the Chautauqua Institution in upstate New York, not far from the Robert H. Jackson Center, a chief cosponsor of the event. This year's conference title: "Widespread & Systematic!" Crimes Against Humanity in the Shadow of Modern International Criminal Law.
Again central to the Dialogs will be the gathering of present and former international prosecutors. Scheduled to return are:
► Fatou Bensouda (right), International Criminal Court (photo credit);
► Serge Brammertz, International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia;
► H.W. William Caming, who helped prosecute the Ministries Case before the U.S. Military Tribunal at Nuremberg;
► Andrew T. Cayley, Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia;
► Syracuse Law Professor David M. Crane, formerly of the Special Court for Sierra Leone and the founder of these Dialogs;
► Robert Petit, formerly of the ECCC; and
► Stephen J. Rapp, formerly of the Special Court for Sierra Leone and, since 2009, the U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues.
Scheduled new additions this year:
► Daniel A. Bellemare, Special Tribunal for Lebanon;
► Brenda J. Hollis (left), Special Court for Sierra Leone (photo credit); and
► Hassan Jallow, International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
Program highlights are as follows:

Sunday, August 28
► 2 p.m. Screening of The Response (2009), a film that uses as its script actual transcripts from detainee hearings of Combatant Status Review Tribunals at Guantánamo. Q&A to follow.

Monday, August 29
► 9:20 a.m. Keynote address by DePaul Law Professor M. Cherif Bassiouni, head of the U.N. Human Rights Council Libya inquiry commission. Introduction by Ireland-Galway Law Professor William A. Schabas will introduce him.
► 10:30 a.m. Reports from the current prosecutors. Washington & Lee Law Professor Mark Drumbl will moderate.
► 1:30 p.m. Keynote speech by Northwestern Law Professor David A. Scheffer. Case Western Law Professor Michael Scharf will introduce him.
► 2:30 p.m. Bassiouni, Schabas, and Ambassador Hans Corell, former Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and Legal Counsel of the United Nations, will discuss the Crimes Against Humanity Initiative, on a panel moderated by the Initiative's founder and driving force, IntLawGrrls guest/alumna Leila Nadya Sadat (right).
► 8 p.m. Keynote speech by Corell, introduced by Leila.
Tuesday, August 30
► 8:30 a.m. As described above, yours truly will deliver the 1st Annual Katherine B. Fite Lecture.
► 9 a.m. IntLawGrrl Beth Van Schaack (left) presents an Update on International Criminal Law.
► 11 a.m. Breakout sessions with current prosecutors on issues in international criminal law.
► 1:30 p.m. Keynote speech by International Bar Association Executive Director Mark Ellis, introduced by Vanderbilt Law Professor Mike Newton.
► 2:30 p.m. Elizabeth Andersen (right), Executive Director and Executive Vice President of the American Society of International Law, another IHL Dialogs cosponsor, proclaims the 5th Chautauqua Declaration. (photo credit)

Details here. For registration and additional information, contact Carol Drake at cdrake@roberthjackson.org.

Closure of Taylor Trial

On Friday, Charles Taylor’s defence officially closed its case in the case of Prosecutor v. Taylor (Taylor, far right) at the Special Court for Sierra Leone. In his final submissions, Taylor’s lead counsel, Courtenay Griffiths, told the judges that "it has been accepted by us right from the outset that terrible crimes were committed in Sierra Leone. We share the concerns for the victims of these crimes, and we want to make clear that differences between the parties in the courtroom should not be exploited as evidence that either party naturally assumes a morally superior position. On that note, this is the case for Mr. Taylor."
Taylor is charged with responsibility for 11 counts, including the crimes against humanity of rape and sexual slavery, and the war crimes of recruitment and/or use of child soldiers and committing acts of terror. The defence formally opened on July 13, 2009, and Taylor took the stand in his own defence the next day. He remained on the stand until February 18, 2010. The defence called 21 witnesses on its behalf, ending with the testimony of Sam Flomo Kolleh, a Liberian national and former member of the Revolutionary United Front in Sierra Leone. The defence used Mr. Kolleh’s evidence to try to rebut the prosecution’s evidence that Taylor was responsible for providing support to the Revolutionary United Front.
Written final trial briefs will be filed in January 2011, with oral closing arguments for both parties scheduled for February 8-11, 2011. The trial judgment is expected in mid 2011. The trial began in 2008 at the premises of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, and then moved in May to the premises of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in nearby Leidschendam, Netherlands.
The Registrar of the Special Court, Binta Mansaray (right), noted that the closure of the defence case “is not only a major milestone in the Charles Taylor trial, but in the work of the court as a whole.” The end of the Taylor trial and any subsequent appeals will mark the end of the current work of the Special Court. The Special Court will then close and be succeeded by a residual mechanism in order to carry out legal and practical obligations that naturally continue after closure, such as victim protection and sentence enforcement monitoring. The Prosecutor, Brenda Hollis (left), also welcomed the closure of the defence case, expressing thanks to all of the witnesses who testified during both the prosecution and defence phases of the trial: “Their courage and willingness to take the stand and bear witness has been an inspiration. We in the Prosecution have always said that we fight for justice in the name of the victims, but they are the ones who have truly made justice possible.”
The Taylor trial has been lauded for its efficiency, which was directly related to the cooperation of Taylor. As well, Taylor’s lead defence counsel, Griffiths, has garnered attention for his effective – and dramatic - advocacy on his client’s behalf.
As I noted in an earlier post on the Taylor trial, the most difficult aspect of this case for the prosecution is adequately proving the linkages between Charles Taylor, who was in Liberia during the time period of the indictment, and the crimes committed in Sierra Leone. The prosecution brought linkage witnesses, and Taylor’s defence worked to raise doubts about that evidence.
In February, keep an eye on the incredibly helpful blog The Trial of Charles Taylor for updates on the closing arguments in the Taylor case. You can also watch the closing submissions through live streaming on the Special Court’s website.

Go On! IntLawGrrls @ 4th IHL Dialogs

(Go On! is an occasional item on symposia and other events of interest)

Delighted to announce that IntLawGrrls again will cosponsor the International Humanitarian Law Dialogs at the Chautauqua Institution in upstate New York, not far from another cosponsor, the Robert H. Jackson Center.

The theme of this year's 4th annual Dialogs, to be held August 29 to 31, is timely given the outcome of the International Criminal Court Review Conference in Uganda. IntLawGrrls wrote a Kampala series of posts about that conference, as well as a crime of aggression series about a key conference outcome, the adoption of provisions designed to make the crime punishable by the ICC.

The Dialogs' theme, in short, is: Crimes Against Peace - Aggression in the 21st Century.

Exploring it will be prosecutors from international criminal fora, plus many international criminal law scholars. (Prior IntLawGrrls posts.) Last year was a great opportunity to meet such colleagues at Chautauqua, a picturesque lakefront venue. It was also the source of 2 IntLawGrrls guest contributions: a trilogy of posts by Judge Patricia M. Wald (here, here, and here), plus a post by Judge Marilyn J. Kaman (here).

Many present and former international prosecutors are expected to take part this year. In addition to those mentioned as specific speakers in the program that follows, prosecutors set to attend include the following from the:

► International Criminal Court, Deputy Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda (left);

► International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, former prosecutor H.W. William Caming;

► Special Court for Sierra Leone, Chief Prosecutor Brenda Hollis (below right), recently in the news for calling a supermodel to testify at the ongoing Hague trial about diamonds received from defendant Charles Taylor, former President of Liberia, and former Chief Prosecutor David M. Crane, the founder of the Dialogs who's now a Professor of Law at Syracuse University, another cosponsor, and the founder of the Dialogs;

► Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia: Co-Prosecutor Andrew T. Cayley and former Co-Prosecutor Robert Petit; and
► International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and for the former Yugoslavia, former Chief Prosecutor Richard J. Goldstone.

Sessions on the current program include:

Sunday, August 29

► Showing of War Don Don, an award-winning HBO Documentary film about a Special Court trial in Sierra Leone, moderated by filmmaker Rebecca Richman Cohen (left).

Monday, August 29

► Keynote speech by Benjamin B. Ferencz, formerly a prosecutor at the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg and a lifelong activist on behalf of international criminal justice, introduced by Professor Michael P. Scharf of Case Western Reserve University School of Law, another cosponsor.

► Updates from all the current prosecutors, moderated by Professor John Q. Barrett, St. John's University School of Law.

► Keynote speech by Judge Hans-Peter Kaul, 2d Vice President of the International Criminal Court, introduced by Leila Nadya Sadat, an IntLawGrrl guest/alumna who contributed to our Kampala series, and Director of the Whitney R. Harris Institute at the Washington University School of Law, another Dialogs cosponsor.

► Dialog on the crime of aggression, with Ferencz, John Washburn, Convener of the American Non-Governmental Organizations Coalition for the International Criminal Court, and William R. Pace, Convenor of the Coalition for an International Criminal Court, moderated by Professor David J. Scheffer of Northwestern University School of Law, formerly U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes.
► Keynote address by Stephen J. Rapp, currently the U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes, and formerly the Chief Prosecutor at the Special Court for Sierra Leone, introduced by David Sullivan of Enough Project, another cosponsoring organization.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

► Year in Review -- International Criminal Law, by IntLawGrrl Valerie Oosterveld (left), a Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Western Ontario, and frequent contributor to our Kampala series.

► Keynote speech by Professor William Schabas, Irish Centre for Human Rights, National University of Ireland, Galway.

► Issuance of the 4th Chautauqua Declaration & Conclusion of Dialogs, hosted by IntLawGrrl Diane Marie Amann (yours truly, also a Kampala series contributor), Professor of Law at the University of California, Davis, wearing my hat as a Vice President of the American Society of International Law, another cosponsor of the IHL Dialogs.

For more information, contact Carol Drake at cdrake@roberthjackson.org.

Brenda Hollis - Chief Prosecutor

While we're on the subject of women in high places, the United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, recently named Brenda Hollis as Chief Prosecutor for the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL). Hollis takes over from Stephen Rapp, who is serving as Ambassador-At-Large for War Crimes in the Obama Administration. Hollis had served as a principal trial attorney in the Office of the Prosecutor in the SCSL, where she heads up the legal team prosecuting ex-Liberian President Charles Taylor, under indictment for war crimes and crimes against humanity as we've discussed here and here. Prior to that, she was a legal consultant on international law and criminal procedure, training judges, prosecutors and investigators at courts and international tribunals in Indonesia, Iraq and Cambodia. She was also senior trial attorney at the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia (ICTY) from 1994-2001, serving as lead counsel in preparing the case against former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic. (More on Hollis's background is available here).

Congratulations!