Netherlands

Justice applied in the Netherlands on crimes committed in Syria

23 April 2021 by Janet H. Anderson

Syria, the Dutch international crimes unit new focus On 21 April the first Syrian asylum seeker was convicted in The Netherlands of war crimes. Are investigations into Syria now bearing fruit, or are the Dutch authorities still dealing with atrocities in the Syrian conflict piecemea [...]

22 September 2020 by Stephanie van den Berg and Janet Anderson

Why the Dutch are threatening to take Syria to court To the surprise and satisfaction of all those who are campaigning to hold Bashar al-Assad's regime to account, the Netherlands, best known for its appetite for consensus, has taken the first diplomatic steps towards a possible Int [...]

18 June 2020 by Lena Bjurström

Syria: Why Dutch prosecutors link terrorism and war crimes On 18 June, Ahmad Al-Khedr will make his way from his cell to the high-security room of the Amsterdam court for the fifth time. The Syrian, expected to be the first to be tried in the Netherlands under universal jurisdiction [...]

10 March 2020 by Stephanie van den Berg

MH17: Why the Dutch ruled out war crimes charges Three Russians and one Ukrainian are prosecuted by a Dutch court for the shooting down of a civilian aircraft in July 2014, killing all 298 people on board. On the opening of the trial on March 9, the prosecution revealed why it c [...]

25 July 2019 by Tjitske Lingsma

First Dutch Islamic State fighter convicted for war crimes For the first time a court in The Netherlands has convicted a Dutch-born former Islamic State fighter for war crimes. The case follows a trend in European countries, where the prosecution is using social media material as evidence [...]

23 May 2019 by Stephanie van den Berg

The Dutch war crimes unit hits harder on Syrian suspects On May 21, the Dutch war crimes unit announced the arrest of a former commander of the al-Nusra Front, formerly the Syrian wing of al-Qaeda. After several years of being surpassed by Germany and Sweden when it comes to prosecuting [...]

Opinion

10 October 2018 by Maud Sarliève

Can criminal courts help save the environment? October 9 was a day of celebration for environmental activists. An appeals court in The Hague confirmed an order for the Dutch State to cut its CO2 emissions by at least 25% by 2020 compared with the levels of 1990. The judgment w [...]

21 October 2016 by AFP

Five questions on the ICC Once a champion of the International Criminal Court (ICC), South Africa dealt a blow to the world tribunal Friday by announcing its intention to withdraw, a move that came on the heels of a similar move by Burundi. Here are five k [...]

13 October 2016 by AFP

People's tribunal accuses Monsanto of 'ecocide' Global activists Friday launched a people's tribunal, accusing giant US seeds firm Monsanto of violating human rights and committing the crime of "ecocide", by posing a "major threat" to the environment. Monsanto, which produces g [...]

19 September 2016 by François Sergent

Week in Review: Hunger strike in The Hague, and looking back on a fiasco in Rwanda It was a rich and varied week in transitional justice, with its high and low points. In the Hague, the International Criminal Court (ICC) faced new difficulties in trying former Congolese warlord Bosco Ntaganda, who no longe [...]

15 September 2016 by AFP

ICC prosecutors put new focus on ecological harm, land grabs Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court Thursday said they would boost their focus on environmental destruction and illegal land grabs as possible crimes against humanity, in what may prove a warning to big business. In a [...]

13 June 2016 by JusticeInfo.net

Fatou Bensouda: ICC Prosecutor Answers Critics ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda granted an interview to JusticeInfo.net. She strongly rejects accusations that the International Criminal Court is delivering one-sided justice and is concerned about the consequences for Africa if so [...]

13 June 2016 by François Sergent

Week In Review: Interview with the ICC Prosecutor, Women and Slaves Interviewing Fatou Bensouda about transitional justice is like talking to the late, great pianist Glenn Gould for a musician, or to Lionel Messi about football. But JusticeInfo’s editorial advisor Pierre Hazan met in Geneva with I [...]

Opinion

9 May 2016 by François Sergent

The Week in Review: War on the Rules of War Even war has rules – a complex set of judicial constraints born from the ideas of Saint Augustin and Saint Thomas on what constitutes a “just war”, and enshrined in the Geneva Conventions, of which the International Committee of t [...]

21 December 2015 by Stéphanie Maupas, correspondent in The Hague

International Criminal Court Gets a New Home Six glass towers of different heights, meant to mirror the sand dunes of the North Sea coast, have since December 14 been the new home of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Now that it has taken possession of these purpose-bu [...]

19 November 2015 by Jo Biddle, AFP

"As a human rights activist, I do feel frustrated sometimes" says ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda Three years into her nine-year tenure the prosecutor of the world's only permanent war crimes court is battling a growing caseload as she fights "to give victims a voice." This year Fatou Bensouda, a trained lawyer from Gambia, op [...]

12 May 2015 by Stéphanie Maupas

Acquitted Congolese is an ICC Embarrassment The Hague, May 12, 2015 (FH) – Mathieu Ngudjolo, the first person to be acquitted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), was on Monday forcibly sent back to the Democratic Republic of Congo. The ICC and Dutch authorities dismi [...]

11 May 2015 by Stéphanie Maupas

Testimony of an International Criminal Court Judge Bulgarian judge Ekaterina Trendafilova left The Hague in March after nine years at the International Criminal Court (ICC), during which she presided a court, became an appeals judge and came face to face with most of the ICC accus [...]