Prosecuting Heads Of State

Since 1990, 65 former heads of state or government have been legitimately prosecuted for serious human rights or financial crimes. Many of these leaders were brought to trial in reasonably free and fair judicial processes, and some served time in prison as a result. This book explores the reasons for the meteoric rise in trials of senior leaders and the motivations, public dramas, and intrigues that accompanied efforts to bring them to justice. Drawing on an analysis of the 65 cases, the book examines the emergence of regional trends in Europe and Latin America and contains case studies of high-profile trials of former government leaders: Augusto Pinochet (Chile), Alberto Fujimori (Peru), Slobodan Milosevic (former Yugoslavia), Charles Taylor (Liberia and Sierra Leone), and Saddam Hussein (Iraq) – studies written by experts who closely followed their cases and their impacts on wider societies. This is the only book that examines the rise in the number of domestic and international trials globally and tells the tales in readable prose and with fascinating details.

Ramona Pedretti offers, for the first time, a comprehensive assessment of the rules of customary international law relating to immunity of Heads of State and other State officials in the context of crimes pursuant to international law and their relationship with core principles of international law. The book gives the reader a full picture of this topical issue which is located at the heart of today's development of international law. It contains an in-depth evaluation of a vast amount of relevant material, ranging from domestic laws to judicial decisions of domestic and international courts. The fact that the International Law Commission is deliberating the issue with a view to drafting an international treaty underscores the book's importance and timeliness.

The practice of prosecuting sitting Heads of State (SHoS) by the International Criminal Court (ICC) represents a revolutionary and morally compelling pursuit of justice for those who commit the most heinous crimes known to humanity, regardless of their status. This book embarks on an exploration of the intricate political dynamics surrounding this complex practice, delving into six pivotal cases where the ICC grappled with the idea of prosecuting SHoS. These cases include Uganda, Sudan, Kenya, Libya, Syria, and Russia, encompassing all instances where the ICC directly targeted SHoS, as well as two cases where the Court was unable or unwilling to act. The investigation focuses on the multifaceted political complexities involved in initiating investigations against SHoS. It also delves into the far-reaching domestic and international consequences these prosecutions carried, profoundly impacting both the host societies and the international arena.

This book shines light on the role of 'de facto international prosecutors' as an emerging phenomenon.

Explores how the first treaty-based UN international tribunal's judges innovatively applied the law to perpetrators of international crimes in one of the worst conflicts in recent history.

During the 1980s, thousands of Chadian citizens were detained, tortured, and raped by then-President Hiss�ne Habr�'s security forces. Decades later, Habr� was finally prosecuted for his role in these atrocities not in his own country or in The Hague, but across the African continent, at the Extraordinary African Chambers in Senegal. By some accounts, Habr�'s trial and conviction by a specially built court in Dakar is the most significant achievement of global criminal justice in the past decade. Simply creating a court and commencing a trial against a deposed head of state was an extraordinary success. With its 2016 judgment, affirmed on appeal in 2017, the hybrid tribunal in Senegal exceeded expectations, working to deadlines and within its budget, with no murdered witnesses or self-dealing officials. This book details and contextualizes the Habr� trial. It presents the trial and its impact using a novel structure of first-person accounts from 26 direct actors (Part I), accompanied by academic analysis from leading experts on international criminal justice (Part II). Combined, these views present both local and international perspectives through distinct but inter-locking parts: empirical source material from understudied actors both within and outside the court is then contextualized with expert analysis that reflects on the construction and work of: the Extraordinary African Chamber (EAC) as well as wider themes of international criminal law. Together with an introduction laying out the work and significance of the EAC and its trial of Hiss�ne Habr�, the book is a comprehensive consideration of a history-making trial.

'State sovereignty' is often referred to as an obstacle to criminal justice for core international crimes by members of the international criminal justice movement. The exercise of State sovereignty is seen as a shield against effective implementation of such crimes. But it is sovereign States that create and become parties to international criminal law treaties and jurisdictions. They are the principal enforcers of criminal responsibility for international crimes, as reaffirmed by the complementarity principle on which the International Criminal Court (ICC) is based. Criminal justice for atrocities depends entirely on the ability of States to act. This volume revisits the relationship between State sovereignty and international criminal law along three main lines of inquiry. First, it considers the immunity of State officials from the exercise of foreign or international criminal jurisdiction. Secondly, with the closing down of the ad hoc international criminal tribunals, attention shifts to the exercise of national jurisdiction over core international crimes, making the scope of universal jurisdiction more relevant to perceptions of State sovereignty. Thirdly, could the amendments to the ICC Statute on the crime of aggression exacerbate tensions between the interests of State sovereignty and accountability? The book contains contributions by prominent international lawyers including Professor Christian Tomuschat, Judge Erkki Kourula, Judge LIU Daqun, Ambassador WANG Houli, Dr. ZHOU Lulu, Professor Claus Kre, Professor MA Chengyuan, Professor JIA Bingbing, Professor ZHU Lijiang and Mr. GUO Yang.

"Prosecuting international crimes in Africa contributes to the understanding of international criminal justice in Africa. The books argues for the rule of law, respect for human rights and the eradication of a culture of impunity in Africa. it is a product of peer-reviewed contributions from graduates of the Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria, where the Master's degree programme in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa has been presented since 2000"--Back cover.