Complementarity: Contest or Collaboration? - FICHL
Complementarity: Contest or Collaboration? - FICHL
Complementarity: Contest or Collaboration? - FICHL
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<strong>Complementarity</strong> and the Exercise of Universal Jurisdiction f<strong>or</strong><br />
C<strong>or</strong>e International Crimes<br />
crimes. 183 On the international level, the ICTR sentenced the prime minister<br />
of Rwanda during the 1994 genocide, Jean Kambanda, to life imprisonment<br />
in 1998. 184 President Slobodan Milošević of the f<strong>or</strong>mer Yugoslavia<br />
was indicted by the ICTY in 1999 and 2001 and put on trial in 2002,<br />
which would have been completed if he had not died while in custody<br />
during the proceedings in 2006. 185 The Sierra Leone Special Court indicted<br />
the f<strong>or</strong>mer president of Liberia, Charles Tayl<strong>or</strong> in 2006 and his trial<br />
has started in early 2008 186 in The Hague while another hybrid tribunal,<br />
the Special Court of Iraq, completed proceedings against Saddam Hussein<br />
in 2006 resulting in his execution the same year 187 .<br />
In addition, there have eleven attempts at the domestic level to take<br />
action against f<strong>or</strong>mer heads of state since 1992. 188<br />
In South and Central America, Argentina has indicted three f<strong>or</strong>mer<br />
presidents, namely Isabel Perón, J<strong>or</strong>ge Videla (who is also the subject of<br />
arrest warrants from Italy and Germany) and Reynaldo Bignone, while<br />
Chile did the same with Augusto Pinochet, Peru with Alberto Fujim<strong>or</strong>i,<br />
Uruguay with Greg<strong>or</strong>io Alvarez and Bolivia with Gonzalo Sánchez de<br />
Lozada. In Mexico, f<strong>or</strong>mer president Luis Echeverria was tried f<strong>or</strong> the<br />
commission of genocide, albeit while at the time in his capacity as Minis-<br />
183<br />
While two others have been tried (Pol Pot in Cambodia) <strong>or</strong> indicted (B<strong>or</strong>daberry in<br />
Uruguay) f<strong>or</strong> regular crimes by domestic courts; f<strong>or</strong> m<strong>or</strong>e background see Héct<strong>or</strong><br />
Olásolo, Criminal Responsibility of Seni<strong>or</strong> Political and Military Leaders f<strong>or</strong> Genocide,<br />
Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes: with Special Reference to the Rome<br />
Statute and the Statute and Case Law of the Ad Hoc Tribunals, Hart, 2008; Héct<strong>or</strong><br />
Olásolo, The Criminal Responsibility of Seni<strong>or</strong> Political and Military Leaders as<br />
Principals to International Crimes, Hart, 2009; Ellen L. Lutz (ed.), Prosecuting<br />
Heads of State, Cambridge, 2009 and Héct<strong>or</strong> Olásolo, The Criminal Responsibility of<br />
Seni<strong>or</strong> Political and Military Leaders as Principals to International Crimes, Hart,<br />
2010.<br />
184<br />
ICTR 97-23-S, 4 September 1998, upheld by the Appeals Chamber on 19 October<br />
2000, ICTR 97-23-A.<br />
185<br />
See http://www.un.<strong>or</strong>g/icty/cases-e/cis/smilosevic/cis-slobodanmilosevic.pdf.<br />
186<br />
See http://www.sc-sl.<strong>or</strong>g/tayl<strong>or</strong>-timeline.pdf.<br />
187<br />
See http://www.trial-ch.<strong>or</strong>g/en/trial-watch/profile/db/facts/saddam_hussein-al-majidal-tikriti_125.html.<br />
188<br />
While international institutions can bring sitting heads of state to justice, national<br />
states can only do so against f<strong>or</strong>mer heads of state acc<strong>or</strong>ding to the International<br />
Court of Justice in the Democratic Republic of the Congo versus Belgium case, decided<br />
14 February 2003 (http://www.icj-cij.<strong>or</strong>g/docket/index.php?p1=3&p2=3&k=36<br />
&case=121&code=cobe&p3=4).<br />
<strong>FICHL</strong> Publication Series No. 7 (2010) – page 66