ICC, War Crimes & Challenges

Under the Geneva Convention, certain rules of war have been framed to protect human beings from heinous crimes. The Geneva Convention, along with other additional protocols, prohibits murder, torture, mutilation, hostagetaking, unfair trial, cruelty, humiliation and degradation. Special protection is given to the rights of children, women, patients, old people and prisoners during wartime and post-war. The International Criminal Court was established in 2002 for the purpose of prosecution of war crimes against humanity, genocide and the crime of aggression.

Under articles 8(2)(a)(vii) and (8)(2)(b)(viii) of the rome Statute, russian President Vladimir Zelensky has been accused of being responsible for war crimes of illegal abduction and deportation of children from Ukraine to the russian Federation since 24 February 2022, when russia invaded Ukraine. For the first time in the history of the International Criminal Court, ICC has issued an arrest warrant against one of the heads of state of any of the five permanent members of the United nations Security Council. The ICC also issued an arrest warrant for the russian Commissioner for Children’s rights, Ms Maria Lvova-Belova. The allegations have been denied by Moscow and it has called the warrants “outrageous”.

On the other hand, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy appreciated the ICC’s move and termed the arrest warrants “historic accountability”. Kremlin spokesman dmitry Peskov condemned the ICC move, calling the arrest warrants as “outrageous and unacceptable”. By raising questions on the jurisdiction of ICC with special reference to russia, he also said that any decision of ICC would be “null and void” because of the absence of russia as a member of ICC.

Another official of the russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, shared her legal concern on the recent move of the ICC on her Telegram channel in these words, “the decisions of the International Criminal Court have no meaning for our country, including from a legal point of view”. She further extended her point of view by stating that “russia is not a party to the rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and bears no obligations under it.”

In fact, the International Criminal Justice System has been facing numerous challenges since its inception which are administrative, legal, and financial in nature. Territorial jurisdiction is one of the most important problems being faced by ICC as only 139 states signed the rome Statute and only 118 ratified the document.

Firstly, no doubt, ICC cannot take action to arrest any official within the territory of a state that is not a party to the rome Statute of the ICC. Similarly, the ICC cannot order the russian government for execution of the recently issued arrest warrants to arrest any accused within its territory and extradite them to the respective body for further trial. So, global powers should make efforts to make all members of UnO to the party of rome Statute of the ICC for fair implementation of international laws.

Secondly, there is not a well-defined mechanism of a force that is supposed to execute ICC orders fairly. The department of Police is considered as a backbone in a criminal justice system for implementation of court orders. However, the ICC does not have its own police department with powers to raid around the world, or in member countries. So, the judicial department that is supposed to protect rights of marginalized segments of global society lacks a basic administrative mechanism regarding force. And expecting law and enforcement agencies of a country to arrest their heads of states or top officials under execution of order of ICC will be pure speculation and illusion.

Thirdly, implementation of the rome Statute of the ICC in the countries which are parties to the rome Statute is also another major challenge. even signatories do not pay much attention to the execution of orders of the ICC. There is no strict mechanism to punish those countries which do not fulfill their obligations under the statute.

For instance, former Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir was held responsible of genocide during Sudan’s darfur conflict by ICC. More than 400,000 deaths were estimated by UnO during his reign. He is alleged to be the mastermind of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes during the darfur conflict.

In the pre-trial phase of the case, ICC issued an arrest warrant for Omar Al-Bashir in 2009. Bashir was on a visit to attend an African Summit, and South Africa was legally bound to arrest Bashir and extradite him. However, the government refused to arrest him under some legal concerns over diplomatic immunity. South Africa also threatened ICC to withdraw if any action was taken over the violation. Fourthly, impartiality is the basic essence of the judiciary. Lessening the tendency of meritocracy is another dilemma when it comes to analyzing moves of the ICC. For instance, the ICC will never take up any case regarding violation of human rights committed by the USA or the UK. The ICC was helpless and inundated with the allegations of war crimes committed by American troops in Iraq. did the ICC ever take action against the UK Or the USA for committing gross violation of human rights in any signatory country? did the ICC ever condemn or take action against immunity agreements of the USA with signatory and non-signatory countries, to give legal shelter of non-prosecution to violation of human rights of her citizens and troops?

If not, then of course, russia will allege the arrest warrants of the russian President and commissioner, as a politically-motivated prosecution under the western policy to isolate russia. ICC should keep its impartiality uppermost. It ought to be the role model with its merit-based steps without any discrimination so that non-signatory countries could join ICC to make it more effective. Global institutions, which represent the global community for collective benefits, should not be hijacked by global powers. Global leaders, irrespective of any political bloc, should play their role to take decisions in making the ICC globally accepted so that war crimes could be investigated fairly and stopped all around the world. It is the time to separate politics from the international criminal justice system. Let’s make the world free of war crimes with an effective international criminal justice system.

The writer is a Lahore -based civil and criminal lawyer. He can be reached at Ch.changezi.sandhu.111@gmail.com

After the revolution in Iran, ‘Obeying Orders’ was not accepted as a viable defence. In the words of Imam Khomeni; “A civil servant is bound to obey only lawful orders”. Those who followed illegal orders to please the Shah were tried and punished. Iran will never be a monarchy again as all traces of human subjugation have been surgically removed. The Islamic republic of Pakistan too needs such a ‘cleansing operation’. The Islamic republic of Pakistan and the Islamic republic of Iran have commonalities. While IrP was the first Islamic democracy, IrI was second. When dr Muhammed Mossadegh, the elected PM of Iran decided to nationalize oil in his country, the PM of Pakistan was asked by the West to stop the takeover in the neighbouring Islamic republic. On his refusal it was decided to get rid of both of them. The PM of Pakistan was assassinated in 1951 while the PM of Iran was captured soon after. Both republics collapsed, one came under the raj while the other was handed back to the Shah. Iran succeeded in breaking the imperial shackles in 1979, the Shah fled the country never to return again. now it’s the turn of Pakistan to shatter ‘colonization’ for all times to come.

The writer is ex-Chairman, Pakistan Science Foundation. He can be contacted at: fmaliks@hotmail.com.

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Census issues

PAKISTAn is going through its first-ever digital census — a glimmer of hope as proper planning based on proper data will benefit our future generations. Several issues have been reported of late, including corruption, improper arrangements for the field staff, hooliganism and non-cooperation by the citizens, that are hindering the digital census. It is shocking that senior officers are allegedly involved in misusing transportation funds allocated speci-fically for escorting the staff to their respective fields.

Besides, enumerators lack proper security. Many of them have faced mugging and harassment. On the very first day of campaign, in the Landhi area of Karachi, phones and valuables were snatched from members of the census field team as the civil adminis-tration had not provided security to them. Moreover, connectivity issues and malfunctioning devices have also been reported by team supervisors. The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) is conducting the census with the help of district administrations in all the provinces. The PBS should follow the action plan of the election Commission of Pakistan (eCP) in which eCP sets up its own makeshift offices in government buildings, schools, parks, etc., every time elections are held anywhere in the country. By following the strategy, the PBS can ensure transparent use of funds and unhindered flow of the census operations throughout the country.

JIBRAN BAIG HYDERABAD

Academic integrity in the world of AI

ArTIFICIAL intelligence (AI) innovations like ChatGPT may well be seen as disruptive interventions to academic integrity because they have the potential to make it easier for individuals to obtain information and answers to questions without having to engage in original research or critical thinking.

This may lead to a situation where students and other individuals are more likely to copy information or present someone else’s work as their own, which would undermine the principles of academic integrity. While ChatGPT and other AI models can have many benefits, they also have the potential to have a negative impact on creativity and critical thinking capacity of the students to an undesirable extent. This can result in decreased motivation about learning in its true and desired spirit. If individuals can access information and answers easily through ChatGPT and similar platforms, they would surely be less motivated to engage in the hard but intellectually stimulating task of learning and thinking.

The individuals may not see the value in investing time and resources in traditional education, and will be even less motivated to pursue academic or research-based careers. This will lead to a lack of originality, and in due course of time it is bound to disturb the social equilibrium. The developing world will be hit particularly hard in this regard.

ChatGPT and similar models can generate vast amounts of information, but this information may not always be original or creative. If individuals simply repeat or repackage this information, they may not develop the skills of original thought and creativity that are essential for academic and professional success. Such innovations can quickly generate vast amounts of information, and that adds to the concerns that they may replace human expertise in various fields. To respond to these challenges and with AI innovations becoming more accessible and advanced, there have been concerns about their potential impact on academic integrity, including the risk of AI-based plagiarism. In response, a number of universities across the world have taken action to prevent AI-generated content from being used in a manner that may undermine the process of academic research.

Others have implemented techno-logical solutions, such as plagiarism detection softwares, to identify and prevent such content from being used in academic work. Additionally, some universities have established clear policies and guidelines for the use of AI-generated content in academic work, making it clear what is and is not acceptable.