Big week for the ICC. A few things to keep an eye on:
1. The Assembly of States Parties is meeting in New York this week. This is the annual meeting of all the states that have signed up to the Rome Statute, plus accredited observers. One of the issues they’re looking at is forming an independent oversight mechanism for the court – though from what I have heard to date, it sounds like they’re spending inordinate time over what will be a toothless tiger.
2. The confirmation hearing against Darfur rebels Abdallah Banda Abakaer Nourain and Saleh Mohammed Jerbo Jamus for the attack on AU peacekeepers at Haskanita was held, without much fanfare, yesterday. Both Banda and Jerbo waived their rights to attend the confirmation hearing and the Defence had already signaled in advance they would not be objecting to the charges. Stay tuned though since this could all start to get interesting . . .
Defence lawyer Karim Khan lodged an application before the Pre Trial Chamber last month, asking the chamber to request that the Sudanese government cooperate with his investigative requests. And, as if there wasn’t enough intrigue around the involvement of high profile British QC Geoffrey Nice along with Rod Dixon in the al-Bashir case, it now appears they are representing two victims in the Banda/Jerba case. The ICC Prosecutor submitted his objection to the court on this earlier in the week, worried that Nice/Dixon were using the victims in question as proxies for al-Bashir’s views.
3. The ICC Prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo, makes his regular six-monthly address to the UN Security Council today. I haven’t seen the advance draft but it’s a pretty safe assumption it will include yet another call on the Council to push for the enforcement of the al-Bashir arrest warrant. And if past precedent is anything to go by Council members will studiously look the other way. I’ll be interested to see if the Prosecutor also pitches something along the lines that even absent its enforcement, the arrest warrant is having an impact on al-Bashir given the number of regional events he has been unable to attend recently for fear of being arrested. (I think this isolating mechanism is quite significant but I also think it’s about as much as the ICC can expect to get from the warrant for as long as the referendum is in play).
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