10 questions to the head of the International Criminal Court Chile EBO-Osuji

Judge Chile ebo-Osuji, President of the International Criminal Court, tells TIME that as far as is known, is the administration Trump not yet acted on its threat 11 June members of the Court sanction or their family members or block their visas for its investigation of alleged war crimes military and intelligence personnel of the United States in Afghanistan. But the judge also said the risk of such a measure can be a deterrent to the only court in the world have finally approved for war crimes to track individuals, including genocide, because private companies or organizations in the human rights goals Member States can only be through the courtyard of the cooperating requirements, EBO-Osuji Judge says he was not aware that the Department of Justice was to investigate the actions of his court, from General William Barr ad Prosecutor noted in June that the United States “substantial and had received credible information that the serious doubts over the course of a long history launch of financial corruption and crime at the highest levels of the (ICC charge) prosecutor.” in an interview with time the Hague on June 26, the judge EBO-Osuji Administration Trump did call on the US for its past as a shining forth “c Itta on the hill “, that is to follow the model for other democracies. He said he has no contact with the administration Trump but hopes after the announcement in June that the pressure of the 67 states, including the UK and Australia, which ensured the court despite the US action – and the pressure of the Americans themselves “last resort” – Trump could adjust convince his attacks on the government of the day: the Trump administration announced sanctions and visa restrictions on your staff, which can be a study in US shares Afghanistan side. They took the United States seen far from chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda year ago. But they have not done anything since the announcement in early June of this year? The prosecutor and three employees of his office were called to travel restrictions, and Executive Order states that people without this plan is said to be named. So we do not know if anything has happened that we have not said. We doubt that this is already enough damage has been done, saying that executive order. There is something very, very, very seriously. It should not happen to us, a court, in fact, where there is something totally new. Even the threat of coercion against a court does not happen in America. It happens in every country we know. And ‘one thing to call field names. This is borne some judges and courts all the time in every country …. But to begin to threaten or to assume an executive order says … at any time, people can be named on the list without prior notice, it is really something we think, fashion, fashion, fashion is the question. Do you anticipate the actions that threaten the administration’s priorities Trump in the way of your survey in Afghanistan or in the way the mission Court? For court officials themselves, we are determined to do the job …. The concern is always whether companies, activists for human rights that can take care of outsiders, … and feel fear doing it …. If we have external entities, such as companies that are keen to logistics supplies, equipment and services if this may be something that needs to feel they have to worry about are over, and then feel the cold of sanctions, and, where the difficulty. US Attorney General William Barr has said that there is evidence of some kind of malfunction of the ICC. Are you aware of any US investigation into your actions? Absolutely not. We felt that for the first time, the same time you have heard. It is one of those again, do not know if there is something, or is the usual kind of fear campaign that has accompanied these threats. I can only say that we have a strong mechanism to address behavior by employees and officials …. It ‘also involve a crime under the Rome Statute, including on corruption. The US president has called you might investigate a threat to national security because of the investigation of the chief prosecutor in the US actions in Afghanistan, and to search for what he considers the war crimes in the West Bank and Gaza. Because the judge has to follow the cases? On the issue of Afghanistan, let stand in stark terms. People often asked me why this case is important? I asked the question, is not it a political case is not, you know, equality of justice you are looking for here … because the court has been accused in the past to focus on the very African. Now they want to diversify their reach The short answer to this question :. killed more than 30,000 people in this war …. It is not political investigation? … it is a prosecutor for the victims say, sorry … .so many of you have died, and all sorts of other things happened to you. But unfortunately we can not do anything, because if we do, someone yelled at us? ‘They are the last resort. Are you saying that the Afghan judicial system and the US legal system have failed to adequately, these potential crimes and persons taken into account and forces them to investigate? Absolutely. This is the point. This is the point. The point was, the victims were not because justice has done all the time in this long devastating war received. It is the ICC prosecutor word took too long this thing. none of us care and justice that we long for. The ICC, as a last resort, has to do something about it. What to happen by US authorities must … ie, ICC, go away, we’ll do it ourselves, and we did. ‘But no one says that. All he wants is what they say, ‘No, go away’ Afghanistan has intensified now say they want to do …. so that continues to concern especially given between the prosecution and the judge to see if they actually say. :, Afghanistan, OK, the ICC action remain to give you time to do it ‘… Then they have to come and show the judges that they really do it .. Judge EBO-Osuji noted that the International Criminal Court has not yet decided whether act a Palestinian Authority request to investigate the responsibility of possible war crimes by Israel in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. the prosecutor asks the judge have jurisdiction to hear this case? And that’s what is pending before the court. There is no investigation is …. If they say, ‘No, there is no’ competence that the end of the matter is. If they say yes … then the prosecutor will decide what he does. The CPI in 2002 has cost $1.5 billion and counting since its inception, and has produced only eight convictions. the court did not determine a real threat to people who commit crimes of genocide with this record? Each holds about $1.5 billion over about 18 years of operation. If you break this down, you get something like $112 million or so a year … less than the police department budget of a medium-size city in the United States. So this is not a lot of money … in another scheme of things for an international organization, which is said to have a mandate. What we do is that we are a court. We are not a factory that produces beliefs …. We work on the basis of the evidence and the law, the standard of proof. We do not compromise on that …. We call it proof beyond a reasonable doubt. If the standard is not met, the judges acquit and that has happened is justice. But with the track record of just eight convictions, which is enough to commit a deterrent for people who are war crimes to fear your plate? We should not have to worry … We hope everyone will have to see this place as a place where, if the offenses were committed ultimately those who commit bad answer questions of responsibility. And that gives hope victims. We started in Rwanda [with the Security Council of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda] were there for 29 years where strong men who have the power of life and death, and there was no place for complain if he did something wrong, but now we have a place where victims can go for violations of their rights and complain … what I call loosen the grip of tyranny in our humanity. It is not an absolute panacea, a magic wand, and people will stop committing crimes … But we think people know that with the ICC in place, they will be more cautious. With us– Russia, China, India – all resistant to the Court’s work, is still relevant? This question is that we have discussed in the sense of irony a minute ago if the judge is a threat to the national security of the most powerful country in the world. Of course, that is, we know hyperbole characterize the extreme, the court in these terms. But the fact that all this is happening because … I am concerned about what is courting, perhaps answer this question one way. What to keep the signal it sends to the world – and would commit war crimes for people – that the attacks on the United States-ICC in this way? If the question is whether there are people who may feel enabled this behavior, of course, that is the case. But that’s why we hope the citizens of the United States will join in urging the government to rethink its approach to justice. The United States is. “City on the Hill” When John Winthrop in 1630 that moniker has been in the United States, I think it was that he does not speak of joy and glory of a shining city that the world would bow. No, it was that Puritan lawyer of a city on the hill speaks the example of good behavior for the rest of the world to set. So far the United States has done in showing respect for the rule of law, judicial independence, the creation of international criminal justice for the world. But that goes against everything we have done in this direction. And that is very, very worrying.
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