Accountability for atrocity crimes Ruth Green, IBA Multimedia Journalist*
Crimes against humanity were first prosecuted at Nuremberg in 1945 but have never been codified in a dedicated global treaty. This article reports on efforts to fill this long-standing gap in international law. It is now ten years since the start of the war in Syria, which has claimed so many lives. The decadelong conflict stands out, not only for unleashing the largest refugee crisis since the First World War, but for underlining repeated failures by the international community to hold those in power to account.
in 2013 and submitted a final text of draft articles due to the General Assembly. Progress on the treaty was stalled in 2020 due to the pandemic, but in-person discussions about the treaty’s framework have resumed at the UN – the third time the proposals have been presented to the Sixth Committee.
Fighting impunity remains a global challenge. The crises facing the Rohingya, the Yazidis, the Uighurs and other vulnerable communities across the world are grave reminders that the need to end impunity for crimes against humanity is greater now than ever. That the UN’s Sixth Committee met in October at the General Assembly to debate the latest draft proposal for a long-awaited treaty on crimes against humanity must be welcomed.
Despite the outright objections of three ‘recalcitrant’ states to establishing a treaty at all, Sadat says the latest discussions have given hope that there’s strong political will among the majority of states to push ahead and engage in a structured process towards making the treaty a reality. "There were more interventions than we've ever seen – very similar to 2019," she says. ‘A lot of states were very enthusiastic and speaking in concert about the progress that they hope to be able to make. You could hear some evident frustration on the part of those wishing to move forward that there were a handful of states really unwilling to create a real process to take the draft forward. That's where the Sixth Committee is now and they are in informal consultations.
The idea for the treaty was conceived in 2008 and the 13-year-long project has been spearheaded by Leila Sadat, the James Carr Professor of International Criminal Law, University of Washington. The International Law Commission (ILC) took on the project
APRIL / MAY 2022
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