The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was a body of the United Nations that was established to prosecute the war crimes that had been committed during the Yugoslav Wars and to try their perpetrators. The tribunal was an ad hoc court located in The Hague, Netherlands.
Crimes against humanity are certain acts that are purposefully committed by a state, or on behalf of a state, as part of a widespread or systematic policy, typically directed against civilians, in times of war or peace. The violent nature of such acts are considered a severe breaching of human rights, hence the name. They differ from war crimes because they are not isolated acts committed by individual soldiers but are acts committed in furtherance of a state or organizational policy. The first prosecution for crimes against humanity took place at the Nuremberg trials. Initially being considered for legal use, widely in international law, following the Holocaust a global standard of human rights was articulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). Political groups or states that violate or incite violation of human rights norms, as found in the Declaration, are an expression of the political pathologies associated with crimes against humanity.
The United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) was a United Nations peacekeeping operation in Sierra Leone from 1999 to 2006. It was created by the United Nations Security Council in October 1999 to help with the implementation of the Lomé Peace Accord, an agreement intended to end the Sierra Leonean civil war. UNAMSIL expanded in size several times in 2000 and 2001. It concluded its mandate at the end of 2005, the Security Council having declared that its mission was complete.
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.
Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter sets out the UN Security Council's powers to maintain peace. It allows the Council to "determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression" and to take military and nonmilitary action to "restore international peace and security".
United Nations Security Council resolution 780 was adopted unanimously on 6 October 1992. After reaffirming Resolution 713 (1991) and subsequent resolutions on the topic, the Council expressed its concern at the continued "widespread violations of international humanitarian law" in Bosnia and Herzegovina and authorised the Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali to establish a Commission of Experts to examine and analyse the information submitted pursuant to Resolution 771 (1992) on violations of the Geneva Conventions in the region.
Karim Asad Ahmad Khan KC is a British lawyer and specialist in international criminal law and international human rights law who has served as Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court since 2021.
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).
United Nations Security Council resolution 1289, adopted unanimously on 7 February 2000, after recalling resolutions 1171 (1998), 1181 (1998), 1231 (1999), 1260 (1999), 1265 (1999) and 1270 (1999) on the situation in Sierra Leone, the Council extended the mandate of the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) for a period of six months and expanded its military component.
United Nations Security Council resolution 1346, adopted unanimously on 30 March 2001, after recalling previous resolutions on the situation in Sierra Leone, the Council extended the mandate of the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) for a further six months and increased the size of its military component.
United Nations Security Council resolution 1370, adopted unanimously on 18 September 2001, after recalling resolutions 1270 (1999), 1289 (2000), 1313 (2000), 1317 (2000), 1321 (2000) and 1346 (2001) on the situation in Sierra Leone, the Council extended the mandate of the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) for a period of six months until 31 March 2002, beginning from 30 September 2001.
United Nations Security Council resolution 1436, adopted unanimously on 24 September 2002, after recalling all previous resolutions on the situation in Sierra Leone, the Council extended the mandate of the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) for a further six months beginning on 30 September 2002.
United Nations Security Council resolution 1497, adopted on 1 August 2003, after expressing concern at the situation in Liberia, the Council authorised a multinational force to intervene in the civil war to support the implementation of a ceasefire agreement using "all necessary measures".
United Nations Security Council resolution 1503, adopted unanimously on 28 August 2003, after recalling resolutions 827 (1993), 955 (1994), 978 (1995), 1165 (1998), 1166 (1998), 1329 (2000), 1411 (2002), 1431 (2002) and 1481 (2003), the Council decided to split the prosecutorial duties of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) which had previously been under the responsibility of one official, Carla Del Ponte, since 1999.
United Nations Security Council resolution 1534, adopted unanimously on 26 March 2004, after recalling resolutions 827 (1993), 955 (1994), 978 (1995), 1165 (1998), 1166 (1998), 1329 (2000), 1411 (2002), 1431 (2002) and 1481 (2003), the Council called on the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) to complete all trial activities by the end of 2008.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1941, adopted unanimously on September 29, 2010, after recalling all previous resolutions on the situation in Sierra Leone, particularly Resolution 1886 (2009), the Council extended the mandate of the United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Sierra Leone (UNIPSIL) until September 15, 2011.
United Nations Security Council resolution 1562 was adopted unanimously on 17 September 2004. After recalling all previous resolutions on the situation in Sierra Leone, the Council extended the mandate of the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) residual presence for a period of nine months until 30 June 2005.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1966, adopted on December 22, 2010, after recalling resolutions 827 (1993) and 955 (1994), the Council established a residual mechanism to conclude the remaining tasks of the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda (ICTR) and former Yugoslavia (ICTY). It was the final Security Council resolution adopted in 2010.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1688, adopted unanimously on June 16, 2006, after recalling all previous resolutions on the situation in Liberia, Sierra Leone and West Africa, including resolutions 1470 (2003), 1508 (2003), 1537 (2004) and 1638 (2005), the Council approved the transfer of former Liberian President Charles Taylor to the Special Court for Sierra Leone which was moved to The Hague in the Netherlands, due to security concerns.
The term international framework of sexual violence refers to the collection of international legal instruments – such as treaties, conventions, protocols, case law, declarations, resolutions and recommendations – developed in the 20th and 21st century to address the problem of sexual violence. The framework seeks to establish and recognise the right all human beings to not experience sexual violence, to prevent sexual violence from being committed wherever possible, to punish perpetrators of sexual violence, and to provide care for victims of sexual violence. The standards set by this framework are intended to be adopted and implemented by governments around the world in order to protect their citizens against sexual violence.
