Friday, 4 May 2007
UK WILL FOLLOW THROUGH ON IMPRISONING CHARLES TAYLOR IF FOUND GUILTY OF WAR CRIMES

In the House of Lords on 1 May 2007, Lord Hannay, Chair of UNA-UK and former UK Ambassador to the UN, drew attention to the “the major advances that have been made in the past 15 years since the end of the Cold War in undermining the culture of impunity for gross breaches of international humanitarian law”.

Lord Hannay was speaking in a debate on the International Tribunals (Sierra Leone) Bill, which enables the UK to enter into an agreement about sentence enforcement with the Special Court for Sierra Leone – a hybrid tribunal set up under national law but enjoying the support of the international community. The Bill is specifically designed to enable the UK to follow through on its commitment to imprison former Liberian President Charles Taylor, should he be found guilty of war crimes by the Special Court.

By holding heads of state to account for their crimes, Lord Hannay said he believed we are “witnessing a fundamental shift in the application of international law - and a very welcome one”. Although the international community is still a “long way from eliminating the culture of impunity entirely”, the establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the ad hoc tribunals for Rwanda, Cambodia, Sierra Leone and the former Yugoslavia have been important steps along the road. Such achievements are evidence of “the pragmatism and flexibility with which the UN is capable of operating when the will of its members is there.”

On 2 May, the ICC issued arrest warrants against a Sudanese government minister and a militia commander for suspected war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Darfur.

The Sudanese government has dismissed the arrest warrants and pledged to 'defy' them. The two men are accused of targeting civilians in attacks on villages in West Darfur between August 2003 and March 2004. The situation in Darfur was passed on to the ICC by the UN Security Council in 2005, marking the first time the Council referred a case to the ICC since the court came into existence in 2002.

To read the Lords debate in full visit Hansard