(excerpt)..."The Military Commissions Act of 2006 is mostly smokescreen. The law's primary purpose is to immunize the Bush Administration, which explains the Administration's frantic anxiety to have it passed. The thrust of the bill, relating to detainee trials, is hardly a matter of top priority: the detainees have been languishing for years. Elizabeth Holtzman saw through the smokescreen in a recent essay in the Chicago Sun-Times, "Bush Seeks Immunity for Violating War Crimes Act." Not many other commentators have noticed."
the International Criminal Court enters stage left ;
Jurisdiction and Admissibility
The Court may exercise jurisdiction over genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. These crimes are defined in detail in the Rome Statute. In addition, a supplementary text of the "Elements of Crimes" provides a breakdown of the elements of each crime.
The Court has jurisdiction over individuals accused of these crimes. This includes those directly responsible for committing the crimes as well as others who may be liable for the crimes, for example by aiding, abetting or otherwise assisting in the commission of a crime. The latter group also includes military commanders or other superiors whose responsibility is defined in the Statute.
The Court does not have universal jurisdiction.
The Court may only exercise jurisdiction if:
* The accused is a national of a State Party or a State otherwise accepting the jurisdiction of the Court;
* The crime took place on the territory of a State Party or a State otherwise accepting the jurisdiction of the Court; or
* The United Nations Security Council has referred the situation to the Prosecutor, irrespective of the nationality of the accused or the location of the crime.
and the role Hugo Chavez plays
(excerpt)..."CHAVEZ (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Second, effective methods to address and resolve world conflicts, transparent decisions.
Point three, the immediate suppression -- and that is something everyone's calling for -- of the anti-democratic mechanism known as the veto, the veto on decisions of the Security Council.
Let me give you a recent example. The immoral veto of the United States allowed the Israelis, with impunity, to destroy Lebanon. Right in front of all of us as we stood there watching, a resolution in the council was prevented.
Fourthly, we have to strengthen, as we've always said, the role and the powers of the secretary general of the United Nations.
Yesterday, the secretary general practically gave us his speech of farewell. And he recognized that over the last 10 years, things have just gotten more complicated; hunger, poverty, violence, human rights violations have just worsened. That is the tremendous consequence of the collapse of the United Nations system and American hegemonistic pretensions."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MY math tells me that once Venezuela is in, long overdue reformation of the UN may begin with removal of the veto option and that once the UNSC refers Mr. Bush (and friends) to the ICC, hotels in and around Den Hague will need to add a few wings. Following the Crime Of The Century we'd be seeing the Court Case Of The Century.
Sound like a proposal ?
( cross-posted on v911t and http://rossini.ro.funpic.de/oos.html )
