25116: RE: Walton (response) 25086: Phillips: (reply) Re: 25047: Phil lips: Duvalier's continued freedom (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: "Walton, Robert" <robert.walton3@us.army.mil>

There is a jurisdiction problem with trying Duvalier in the international
criminal court.

In July 1998, 120 Member States of the United Nations adopted a treaty to
establish a permanent international criminal court.
The Court has a mandate to try individuals and to hold them accountable for
the most serious crimes of concern to the international community -
genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, and, eventually, the crime
of aggression.

A common misperception is that the Court will be able to try those accused
of having committed such crimes in the past, but this is not the case. The
Court will have jurisdiction only over crimes committed after 1 July 2002,
when the Statute entered into force.

However, a competent Haitian court can upon "providing proofs of probable
guilt," ask for his detention and extradition from the country of his
current residence, assuming a treaty of extradition existed at the time of
his alleged crimes.


Bob Walton, J.D.
waltonr@hotmail.com