Suchergebnisse

The elaboration of the new legal status for the Caspian Sea mainly results from the will of the new coastal States created following the dissolution of the USSR. The new
status has been formalized by the Aktau Convention. It seeks to find a balance between those States' and former coastal States' concerns. So far as security issues are concerned, its provisions seek to alleviate the threats that could come from both inside and outside the region, while, so far as economic issues are at stake, they reflect the willingness to
guarantee access to the sea for landlocked States of the Caspian region, to share its natural resources between the States concerned as well as to ensure their proper management.

This article gives attention to the question if an unconditional amnesty enacted by a State Party to the Statute of the International Criminal Court would be an obstacle for the Court to exercise its complementary competences. Two arguments are supporting a negative answer: in so far as the Statute considers crimes falling within the scope of its competences as a threat to international peace, the States could be viewed as forced to prosecute the authors of such acts by obligations erga omnes while all indications of a State not to comply would entitle the court to exercise its competences. Moreover, such laws ignore the will of the States to put an end to exemptions from punishment that are impeding the democratic order & are fostering other crimes. However, these arguments should not be regarded as decisive. Before exercising its competence the court should also consider other factors -- in particular the impact of such laws on the process of national reconciliation. Adapted from the source document.

After a careful analysis of the law regarding the use of force in
international relations and the practice of States since 1945, the author
concludes that the United Nations Charter leaves no room for a "humanitarian
intervention" in the internal affairs of a State. In his opinion NATO's
armed intervention in the Balkans in the spring of 1999 therefore has no
legal basis under the UN Charter. He goes on to say, however, that the
question whether NATO's action against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
may not be justified by an existing or an emerging rule of customary law
should be examined. Such a discussion should take into account, on the one
hand, the magnitude of the humanitarian disaster to be averted, and on the
other hand the absence of objections by the Security Council or (with rare
exceptions) by States. The author concludes with an appeal to the permanent
members of the Security Council not to use their veto when deciding on
action to be taken in the event of humanitarian disasters.

International humanitarian law applicable in non-international armed conflicts has long been characterized by the absence of universal competence to suppress serious violations of its provisions. This failure has been due to the reluctance of states – which are naturally prone to consider any limitation of their exclusive competence in this field as a threat to their sovereignty – to criminalize such acts under international law.The first attempt at remedying such a situation was seen in the Draft Statute of an International Criminal Court (ICC), which was prepared by the International Law Commission (ILC) in 1994, and inspired by the draft articles of the Code of Crimes against the Peace and International Security of Mankind, provisionally adopted by the ILC in 1991 at first reading. Under the Draft Statute of the ICC, serious violations of the laws and customs applicable in armed conflicts would be under the jurisdiction of the Court. The ILC had in mind exceptionally serious war crimes, such as those described in the pertinent article of the draft code referred to by the Commission, constituting an extremely grave violation of the principles and laws of international law applicable in armed conflicts. In the commentary on this article, the ILC took care to specify that the expression 'armed conflict' covered the non-international armed conflicts that are the focus of common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, as well as international armed conflicts.This first step was of very limited scope. In fact, according to the ILC, in order to be criminalized, the laws and customs of war had to find their origin in general customary international law.

Nombreux sont les États qui ont eu à faire face, au cours de leur histoire, à des situations de troubles et de tensions internes, parfois d'une gravité telle que leurs intérêts essentiels se sont trouvés menacés. Ces situations, qui se caractérisent par des actes de révolte et de violence émanant de factions plus ou moins organisées contre les autorités, ou entre elles, se distinguent de celles qualifiées de conflits armés non internationaux, où ces actes revêtent une plus grande intensité. Pour mettre un terme à ces affrontements et rétablir l'ordre troublé, les autorités font souvent appel à d'importantes forces de police, voire aux forces armées. Il en résulte nécessairement une altération de l'état du droit, qui se caractérise par de graves violations des droits de l'homme sur une grande échelle, origine de souffrances généralisées parmi la population.

Many States have in the course of their history faced internal tension and strife, sometimes so serious as to threaten their fundamental interests. These situations, characterized as they are by acts of revolt and violence committed by more or less organized groups fighting either the authorities or amongst themselves, are distinct from those termed non-international armed conflicts, in which the violence is more intense. In order to bring these internal confrontations to an end and restore order, the authorities frequently make massive use of police force or even the armed forces. The inevitable result is a weakening of the rule of law, marked by serious, large-scale human rights violations causing widespread suffering among the population.