Le BLOG de la FIDH

Le 6 janvier dernier, les ministres français de la Justice et des Affaires étrangères annonçaient la création de pôles spécialisés dans les crimes internationaux. Patrick Baudouin et Antoine Bernard, respectivement Président d'honneur et Directeur Exécutif de la FIDH, sont revenus sur cette annonce, au cours d'interviews accordées à Radio France Internationale, et France 24.

à écouter sur RFI

A lire sur France24 Pour Patrick Baudouin, la création d'un pôle "génocides et crimes contre l'humanité" est "une hypocrisie" Patrick Baudouin, président de la FIDH, est circonspect : les magistrats du pôle "génocides et crimes contre l'humanité" voulu par les ministres Bernard Kouchner et Michèle Alliot-Marie auront-ils les moyens juridiques pour agir ? Par Ilham HAJJI-FIACRE (texte)

Pour en savoir plus http://www.fidh.org/Il-ne-suffit-pas-d-avoir-les-juges-il-faut-encore Site de la CFCPI: http://www.cfcpi.fr

Hissène Habré, Charles Taylor, Jean-Pierre Bemba…: the list goes on, this list of dictators, warlords or torturers from the African continent, who are behind bars or being prosecuted by an international or foreign court. Only a few years ago, developments in international law gave us hope for the future, and many of us, including those from Africa, declared loudly and clearly that “fear had changed sides”. Finally, those victims, who for so long had been ignored and left to their own devices, would have a chance to bring their cases forward, a chance to confront their perpetrators and a chance to begin living again.

Yes, but with time, doubt has progressively instilled itself in a large segment of the African public opinion. Why is this list of Africans so long? Fuelled by an efficient propaganda campaign in several countries, rumours quickly turned into suspicions, and suspicions into accusations: international justice is white justice, a justice that serves only to reproduce neo-colonial patterns. What’s worse, those fighting nationally or internationally for the recognition of victims’ rights to justice are stigmatised and accused of playing into the hands of northern countries.

At this point, we need to re-think some objective facts. International justice is not focused solely on cases from Africa; the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia is probably the most obvious example of this. The same can be said about the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, whose establishment has resulted in the prosecution and trial of those former senior Khmers Rouge leaders still alive. Moreover, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) also deals with crimes committed in Colombia, Afghanistan, Georgia…And we mustn’t forget that this year marks the tenth anniversary of the arrest of Augusto Pinochet in London, a crucial point in the history of international justice, one that was to open the door to numerous other national and international legal proceedings.

Finally, and this fact cannot be ignored, the number of arrests and legal proceedings initiated with respect to Africa also reflects the gravity of the crimes committed in the continent. Rape, execution, torture and forced displacement: the worst atrocities, massive and systematic, committed without fear of punishment. And so, a question arises: should those crimes remain unpunished? If the perpetrators are African, we must never forget that so, too, are the victims.

The decision of the ICC Prosecutor to initiate legal proceedings against Sudanese President al-Bashir did however increase the sense of bias of this institution, as it was made only a short time after the arrest in Brussels of former Congolese Vice-President Jean-Pierre Bemba. But, we should remember that most African States have ratified the ICC Statute, which we are delighted about. And it was these same States that referred cases to the ICC Prosecutor to open, requesting that he opened an investigation into the crimes committed on their territories, thus recognising the lack of capacity of their national courts. Finally, remember that the Court is composed in large part of judges coming from the African continent.

Certainly the northern countries – and we will not stop denouncing this – aim to protect their nationals from legal proceedings for atrocious crimes committed on various continents. This situation is intolerable. As powerful as they are, they must not fail to uphold their responsibilities. To try the crimes of Saddam Hussein without respecting the rules of a fair process and to absolve from all responsibility the powers that supported him when those crimes were committed: isn’t this the root of the very real sentiment of “international in-justice” that prevails in relations between the North and the South? Once already, during a promotional tour in France in 2007, Donald Rumsfeld felt the hands of justice closing in. With a torture complaint filed against him, the former United States Secretary of Defence escaped only by secretly taking refuge in his country's embassy. In the same way, records are kept and cases are built for crimes committed by Westerners in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo, and legal proceedings are on occasion initiated. In any case, it is critical that these northern players be held accountable for their crimes.

The Rwandan government has also issued a damning report concerning the alleged responsibilities of the French forces during the 1994 genocide. In every case, an investigation is based clearly on the evidence of the facts, and should surely go further than the report of the parliamentary fact-finding mission. The report, which concluded that France had absolutely no responsibility in the situation, only served to reinforce the sense of double standards mentioned above.

Beyond that, this example paradoxically reflects the objective of all those who, through international justice, work only to permit their own national justice systems to finally have the power and capacity to try their own criminals. A prime example is the Fujimori trial, currently underway in Peru, which would have been unimaginable only ten years ago.

It cannot be denied that, just as with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the 60th anniversary of which we mark this year, international justice must be applicable on all continents and for all victims. Challenging justice on the grounds that some resistance will hinder its action is not a good approach. Rather, we must unite to overcome those obstacles that slow progress, and to ensure that international criminal justice is finally applied in a consistent and equitable way.

Sidiki Kaba, Honorary President of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) (Tribune publiée dans sa version française, dans l'hebdomadaire "Jeune Afrique" du 08/12/2008)