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By Jim W. Dean, Managing Editor on January 10, 2016
“You just can’t make this stuff up!”
How to avoid The Hague: UN’s most borrowed book is
about war crime immunity
[ Editor’s Note: This is s cute, but not a big story as there
is nothing new at all. The story within the story is how clueless the general
public can be if they claim they did not know that sitting world leaders are
not prosecutable.
When the UN was started did people think that
world leaders would leave themselves open to criminal prosecution while in
office? And how would these people pose that the leader of militarily powerful
country could be forced to show up to court, or a “no show warrant served” on
them.
Groups have always filed lawsuits against world leader
for show (and for fundraising) knowing they are going to be dismissed in the
first hearing. They make the effort purely to get publicity for their group.
The article is worth reading for a more unknown
issue, that “ex-leaders” can theoretically be charged. We have had several
cases in recent years where Bush (43) and Cheney will not travel overseas for
fear of the embarrassing publicity of being served for war crimes, albeit just
a theatrical act as it will be a cold day in hell when someone is actually
picked up. That is for little criminals only… Jim W. Dean ]
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– First published … January 07, 2016 –
The UN Library has created a media storm by publishing
information about its most borrowed book of 2015. Titled ‘Heads of State and
State Officials for International Crimes,’ the publication advises world
leaders on how to literally get away with murder.
The Dag Hammarskjold Library, named after the former
secretary general of the organization who died in 1961, tried to create a
little bit of publicity for itself, by posting a tweet of the most borrowed
book of 2015. However, the results proved to be both surprising and
embarrassing for the library.
Top of the checkout list proved to be a doctoral
thesis from the University of Lucerne by Ramona Pedretti, who wrote about
whether heads of states can be charged with war crimes in foreign courts.
Her thesis concludes that leaders in power cannot be
prosecuted while they are serving as the head of government, so the likes of
Robert Mugabe or Bashar Assad would not be able to be prosecuted under US
jurisdiction at present. However, once they step down, they can be charged by
foreign courts.
She says there are two types of immunity that leaders
can use in their defense under international law.
“Immunity ratione personae prevents incumbent heads of
state from being subjected to foreign criminal jurisdiction,” Pedretti writes, as cited by Vox. “In
contrast, immunity ratione materiae protects official acts, i.e. acts performed
in an official capacity on behalf of the State, from scrutiny by foreign
courts.”
The fallout on social media has largely been scathing.
One user said, “this is somewhat disconcerting,” while another
mentioned: “How those diplomats and their bosses can be held immune
from prosecution for their crimes like parking tickets & owning sex
slaves.”
Others could not really believe what they were
reading: “I seriously just had to make sure that this wasn’t a parody
account. Holy smokes,” while another said this is not something to
brag about.
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