Lyal S. Sunga is a well-known specialist on international human rights law, international humanitarian law and international criminal law. [1]
Lyal S. Sunga is adjunct professor at John Cabot University in Rome, Italy where he teaches courses on International Criminal Law, Human Rights, Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism, Public International Law, and Genocide at Masters and undergraduate levels. [1] He is also Affiliated Professor at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law in Lund University, Sweden. [2] Previously, he served as visiting professor in Peace Studies and International Relations and Global Politics at The American University of Rome, [3] visiting professor at the Strathmore University School of Law [4] in Nairobi, Kenya, and RWI visiting professor and doctoral supervisor at Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia, [2] and in 2006 he taught a human rights masters course at the Peking University Law School in Beijing, China at a time when there were few if any other such masters programs being offered in mainland China. In addition, Sunga has been a Lecturer, Senior Lecturer or Visiting Professor in faculties of law at McGill University, Carleton University, Helsinki University, Padjadjaran University, University of Geneva, [5] and from 2001 to 2005, he served as Associate Professor at the University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law and Director of the Master of Laws in Human Rights. [6] In 2014, Sunga developed a human rights masters curriculum for nine universities in Russia and trained professors from these institutions at the Patrice Lumumba Peoples' Friendship University of Russia in Moscow. From 2015 to 2021, Sunga gave masters-level human rights classes in UN-sponsored summer programs at Kazan Federal University, [7] Patrice Lumumba Peoples' Friendship University of Russia, Perm State University, [8] Voronezh State University [9] and Ural State Law University in Yekaterinburg. [10] Sunga has also given lectures on international law and human rights in 2008, 2009 and 2012 in Minsk, Belarus, at Belarus State University, the Belarusian National Technical University and Belarus State Economic University. [5] He has also provided extensive training and lectures to academics, civil servants and NGO personnel on human rights in armed conflict and international humanitarian law in Kyiv, Ukraine in May and August 2006 at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and with civil society organizations in September 2015 and May 2016. [11] Sunga has conducted training for judges, prosecutors and criminal justice personnel in Armenia, Azerbaijan, China, Ethiopia, France, Indonesia, Kenya, Laos, Morocco, The Netherlands, Sweden and Uzbekistan, [12] and lectures, training and capacity building on monitoring, investigation and reporting in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Ethiopia, France, Kenya, Indonesia, Italy, Laos, Morocco, The Netherlands, Russia, Rwanda, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, and Uzbekistan. [13]
In late August 1994, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights José Ayala Lasso called upon Sunga to bolster the UN Security Council's investigations into the massive violations of human rights and International humanitarian law perpetrated during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. [14] He served as Human Rights Officer in the United Nations as a staff member from 1994 to 2001, working mainly on problems relating to serious human rights and humanitarian law violations, genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, terrorism and counter-terrorism, [15] and on practical issues involving war and recovery from post-conflict situations through fact-finding, [16] monitoring, investigation and reporting. Since leaving the UN as a staff member, Sunga has served as expert consultant for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, United Nations University, United Nations Development Program, [17] International Labour Organization, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, European Union, Council of Europe, International Development Law Organization, and National Human Rights Commissions in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Nepal, Nigeria, Russia, Turkey and Uganda. [18] In May 2012, he launched a major study on the role of national human rights institutions in federal States which he prepared for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Moscow at a conference with representatives of more than 60 national human rights institutions of the Russian Federation. [18] He is also a former Head of the Rule of Law program at The Hague Institute for Global Justice in the Netherlands, [19] and former Special Advisor on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at the International Development Law Organization in Rome, Italy. [20]
Sunga holds a Bachelor of Arts from Carleton University, a Bachelor of Laws from Osgoode Hall Law School, a Master of Laws in International Human Rights Law from the University of Essex and a Ph.D. in International Law from the Graduate Institute of International Studies. Before joining the Raoul Wallenberg Institute he was a member of the faculty at the University of Hong Kong where he taught classes in law and served as Director of the Master of Laws Program in Human Rights (2001–2005). [21] He has given university courses, lectures, training or conference presentations in approximately 55 countries. [22] Sunga's work has been published in numerous scholarly academic journals and he has authored two influential books on international criminal law. [23] He has given lectures and moderated panels at the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, [24] the International Criminal Court, [25] the T.M.C. Asser Instituut, [26] the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies [27] and The Hague Institute for Global Justice, among other places. [24]
From 1994 to 2001 Sunga worked for the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, first to investigate facts and responsibilities relating to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda for the UN Security Council's Commission of Experts on Rwanda, to draft the Commission's report recommending the establishment of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and then on the establishment and operation of the UN Human Rights Field Operation in Rwanda. [14] He also has practical experience and expertise relating to the International Criminal Court including having served as OHCHR representative to the United Nations Diplomatic Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court [28] that adopted the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, on terrorism, redress for violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, impunity, the death penalty, human rights defenders, the administration of justice, the role of UN special procedures and human rights NGOs in fact-finding, [29] and on the relation between national truth and reconciliation commissions and criminal prosecutions. In February 2001, he served as Secretary for the Asian Regional Preparatory Conference convened in Tehran, Iran that preceded the World Conference against Racism 2001 in Durban, South Africa. [30]
From September to December 2007 Sunga took leave from the Raoul Wallenberg Institute to act as Geneva-based coordinator of the UN Human Rights Council's Group of Experts on Darfur, mandated to assess the Government of the Sudan's implementation of UN recommendations concerning serious violations of human rights and humanitarian law committed during the war in Darfur. [31]
Sunga has commented on breaking news stories for Voice of America, [32] CNN affiliate N1 in Sarajevo, [33] PBS, [34] China Global Television Network, [19] The Guardian, [35] Indus News, [36] Metro International, [37] Legal Talk Network, [38] Australian Broadcasting Corporation, [39] New Delhi TV, [40] South China Morning Post, [41] RT, [36] Agence France-Presse, TV5 Monde, [42] O Estado de S. Paulo, [43] Estado de Minas, [44] Business Standard, [45] El Periódico de Catalunya, [46] Hindustan Times [47] and others. [36] He also contributed to the discussion of ICTY rulings related to the Srebrenica Massacre, in his review of Yugoslavia: Peace, War, and Dissolution, edited book by Noam Chomsky and Davor Džalto.
Universal jurisdiction is a legal principle that allows states or international organizations to claim criminal jurisdiction over an accused person regardless of where the alleged crime was committed, and regardless of the accused's nationality, country of residence, or any other relation to the prosecuting entity. Crimes prosecuted under universal jurisdiction are considered crimes against all, too serious to tolerate jurisdictional arbitrage. The concept of universal jurisdiction is therefore closely linked to the idea that some international norms are erga omnes, or owed to the entire world community, as well as to the concept of jus cogens – that certain international law obligations are binding on all states.
Crimes against humanity are certain serious crimes committed as part of a large-scale attack against civilians. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity can be committed during both peace and war and against a state's own nationals as well as foreign nationals. Together with war crimes, genocide, and the crime of aggression, crimes against humanity are one of the core crimes of international criminal law, and like other crimes against international law have no temporal or jurisdictional limitations on prosecution.
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda was an international court established in November 1994 by the United Nations Security Council in Resolution 955 in order to adjudicate people charged for the Rwandan genocide and other serious violations of international law in Rwanda, or by Rwandan citizens in nearby states, between 1 January and 31 December 1994. The court eventually convicted 61 individuals and acquitted 14.
The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG), or the Genocide Convention, is an international treaty that criminalizes genocide and obligates state parties to pursue the enforcement of its prohibition. It was the first legal instrument to codify genocide as a crime, and the first human rights treaty unanimously adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, on 9 December 1948, during the third session of the United Nations General Assembly. The Convention entered into force on 12 January 1951 and has 153 state parties as of June 2024.
The Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda is an armed rebel group active in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. As an ethnic Hutu group opposed to the ethnic Tutsi influence, the FDLR is one of the last factions of Rwandan rebels active in the Congo. It was founded through an amalgamation of other groups of Rwandan refugees in September 2000, including the former Army for the Liberation of Rwanda (ALiR), under the leadership of Paul Rwarakabije. It was active during the latter phases of the Second Congo War and the subsequent insurgencies in Kivu.
Theodor Meron, is an American-Israeli lawyer and judge. He served as a judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), and the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (Mechanism). He served as President of the ICTY four times and inaugural President of the Mechanism for three terms (2012–19).
International criminal law (ICL) is a body of public international law designed to prohibit certain categories of conduct commonly viewed as serious atrocities and to make perpetrators of such conduct criminally accountable for their perpetration. The core crimes under international law are genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of aggression.
Gregory H. Stanton is the former research professor in Genocide Studies and Prevention at the George Mason University in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. He is best known for his work in the area of genocide studies. He is the founder and president of Genocide Watch, the founder and director of the Cambodian Genocide Project, and the Chair of the Alliance Against Genocide. From 2007 to 2009 he was the president of the International Association of Genocide Scholars.
Navanethem "Navi" Pillay is a South African jurist who served as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2008 to 2014. A South African of Indian Tamil origin, Pillay was the first non-white woman judge of the High Court of South Africa. She has also served as a judge of the International Criminal Court and President of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Her four-year term as High Commissioner for Human Rights began on 1 September 2008 and was extended an additional two years in 2012. In September 2014 Prince Zeid bin Ra'ad succeeded her in her position as High Commissioner for Human Rights. In April 2015, Pillay became the 16th Commissioner of the International Commission Against the Death Penalty. She is also one of the 25 leading figures on the Information and Democracy Commission launched by Reporters Without Borders.
A United Nations fact-finding mission, also called a United Nations commission of inquiry, is a United Nations mission carried out with the intention to discover facts. Fact-finding missions have been sent by the UN to a number of conflict areas over the past 50 years, on a case-by-case basis. There are legal and political parameters for fact-finding, which provide a basis for more a comprehensive use of this tool, particularly by the Secretary-General.
William Anthony Schabas, OC is a Canadian academic specialising in international criminal and human rights law. He is professor of international law at Middlesex University in the United Kingdom, professor of international human law and human rights at Leiden University in the Netherlands, and an internationally respected expert on human rights law, genocide and the death penalty.
Charles Ayodeji Adeogun-Phillips is a former United Nations genocide and war crimes prosecutor, international lawyer and founder of Charles Anthony (Lawyers) LLP.
An atrocity crime is a violation of international criminal law that falls under the historically three legally defined international crimes of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Ethnic cleansing is widely regarded as a fourth mass atrocity crime by legal scholars and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working in the field, despite not yet being recognized as an independent crime under international law.
United Nations Security Council resolution 935, adopted unanimously on 1 July 1994, after recalling all resolutions on Rwanda, particularly 918 (1994) and 925 (1994), the Council requested the Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali to establish a Commission of Experts to investigate violations of international humanitarian law during the Rwandan genocide.
United Nations Security Council resolution 955, adopted on 8 November 1994, after recalling all resolutions on Rwanda, the Council noted that serious violations of international humanitarian law had taken place in the country and, acting under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, established the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).
The DRC Mapping Exercise Report, or the Democratic Republic of the Congo 1993-2003 UN Mapping Report, was a report by the United Nations within the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the wake of the armed aggressions and war which took place between March 1993 and June 2003. Its aim was to map the most serious violations of human rights, together with violations of international humanitarian law, committed within the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In doing this it was to assess the capacities within the national justice system to deal appropriately with such human rights violations and to formulate a series of options aimed at assisting the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in identifying appropriate transitional justice mechanisms to deal with the legacy of these violations. It contained 550 pages and contained descriptions of 617 alleged violent incidents.
The Crimes Against Humanity Initiative is a rule of law research and advocacy project of the Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute. Started in 2008 by Professor Leila Nadya Sadat, the Initiative has as its goals the study of the need for a comprehensive international convention on the prevention and punishment of crimes against humanity, the analysis of the necessary elements of such a convention, and the drafting of a proposed treaty. To date, the Initiative has held several experts' meetings and conferences, published a Proposed Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Humanity, and resulted in the publication of an edited volume, Forging a Convention for Crimes Against Humanity, by Cambridge University Press. The draft treaty is now available in seven languages. The UN International Law Commission produced its own, similar, set of Draft Articles on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes against Humanity, and a proposed treaty is now being debated by governments around the world.
The Darfur genocide is the systematic killing of ethnic Darfuri people which has occurred during the War in Darfur. The genocide, which is being carried out against the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups, has led the International Criminal Court (ICC) to indict several people for crimes against humanity, rape, forced transfer and torture. An estimated 200,000 people were killed between 2003 and 2005.
Lennart Aspegren was a Swedish judge who served on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). He was one of three judges who ruled that rape fell within the legal definition of genocide and crimes against humanity in the case The Prosecutor v. Jean-Paul Akayesu involving Jean-Paul Akayesu. Akeyesu was the first genocide trial in history: "Not even Eichmann in Israel, who was accused of having committed crimes against humanity, was charged with genocide". While serving on the Tribunal he worked with Navi Pillay who later became the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. In 2011, Aspegren accepted a position with the UN Expert Committee for Gaza; together with American judge Mary Davis, Aspergen prepared a report colloquially called the "Davis/Aspegren Report". It was presented by the UN Human Rights Council’s Committee in 2011; the United States and Israel voted against it.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine violated international law. The invasion has also been called a crime of aggression under international criminal law, and under some countries' domestic criminal codes – including those of Ukraine and Russia – although procedural obstacles exist to prosecutions under these laws.
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