UNITAR Delivers Course on International Criminal Jurisdiction: Usefulness and Challenges
23 of May 2017- New York. USA - The United Nations Institute of Training and Research organized a course taught by Dr. Roy Lee. Dr. Roy Lee is currently a professor at Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and was also a professor at Columbia Law School from 1997-2014. The course highlights the works of ad-hoc and special tribunals that have been designed to handle atrocities occurred in, for instance, Balkans, Rwanda, Cambodia, Lebanon and Sierra Leone and discuss factors and methods that have led to failures as well as successes. The course began with opening remarks from Dr. Roy Lee and Mr. Pelayo Alvarez from the UNITAR and small introduction from the participants, mainly coming from United Nations Missions and non-profit organizations.
The course was divided into ten sections that were entered on the accomplishments and challenges of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the latest developments of the Rome Statute. The first three sections discussed criminal accountability at the national and international level, and whether or not the International Criminal Court of Justice is able to have criminal jurisdiction in global situations occurring throughout the globe. The third section focused on the search of an acceptable approach to the I.C.C., where Dr. Roy Lee went through the three big projects in 1947 which consist of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Genocide Convention and finally a permanent International Criminal Court, created in order to complete the search of a “supranational” criminal court.
Throughout the course, Dr. Lee also interconnected the subject matter alongside with his professional experience working with the UN Secretariat in a wide variety of assignments. From Executive Secretary for the United Nations Diplomatic Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Establishment of International Criminal Courts, to Director of the Division of Codification and Development of International Law, and Secretary Of The Sixth Legal Committee Of The General Assembly.
During the second part of the workshop, Dr. Lee detailed the reasons behind the emergence of Ad Hoc tribunals, and discussed the best possible way of agreement between likeminded states. In order to reach such agreements, leadership facilitators and NGO’s must combine civil and common law together. Throughout these sections, the course was aimed towards achieving a general understanding of the relation between the ICC and the General Assembly and the Security Council, stating how this organs have a better way of improving the ICC, for modernizing criminal law and the implementation measures taken for contracting parties. Finally in the last section of the course, Dr. Roy Lee focused on the challenges that ranged from the indiscriminant attacks on civilians, the crime of aggression, and the consequences of member Countries withdrawing from the ICC.
Furthermore, the course concluded with closing remarks from Dr. Lee who provided some wrap up comments and stimulated interaction with the participants.
Photos: Panelists and participants