JusticeInfo - Fondation Hirondelle

18/06/2026

[podcast] 🎧 - Just as another trial of a Rwandan suspected of genocide has opened in the Netherlands on June 16, our partners at Asymmetrical Haircuts look into the impressive use of universal jurisdiction in cases dealing with the 1994 genocide against Tutsis in Rwanda.

John Bosco Siboyintore, a national prosecutor and head of Rwanda’s Genocide Fugitives Tracking Unit, states that since 2007, 1,120 indictments against genocide suspects have been submitted to third countries. According to him, a bit more than 1,000 suspects are still at large. “We know we are running out of time but our constant request [to foreign countries] is that: can you use universal jurisdiction and handle those cases, or extradite them to Rwanda?”

Nicola Palmer of University of Cape Town has studied all the Rwandan cases tried under universal jurisdiction across the world. It has involved 33 countries, with actual cases being litigated in 21 jurisdictions. She describes a complex and diverse legal landscape, involving not only criminal law but also refugee status, immigration, and extradition law. “The pursuit of genocide suspects also intersects with what we’re seeing as an increasingly exclusionary practice of the use of international law to exclude a large number of individuals, at least in part, legitimated by the exclusion of individuals who are suspected of involvement in the worst possible crimes,” she also warns.

Listen to the podcast now on Justice Info 👇

Rwanda provides a case of its own when it comes to the use of universal jurisdiction. This podcast helps providing a global picture of the legal landscape. And how it may intersect with a growing exclusionary use of international law.

18/06/2026

- Regardless of whether they are for or against transitional justice, neither Cepeda nor De la Espriella has addressed the central issue that will define the relationship between the government they aspire to lead and the JEP: the legitimacy of the special tribunal’s decisions will depend largely on who ensures, and how, that those convicted do in fact comply with the two components of the sanction.

Find out more in our article on Justice Info 👇
"Colombia’s transitional justice system awaits the presidential election"
https://www.justiceinfo.net/en/160431-colombia-transitional-justice-system-awaits-presidential-election.html

18/06/2026

- On June 21 Colombians will decide who is their next president. Both candidates have a tricky past on transitional justice. And neither of their proposals looks convincing on how to stop the armed conflict and organized crime violence.

Read our article now on Justice Info 👇
https://www.justiceinfo.net/en/160431-colombia-transitional-justice-system-awaits-presidential-election.html

By Andrés Bermúdez Liévano, our correspondent in Colombia

On June 21 Colombians will decide who is their next president. Both candidates have a tricky past on transitional justice. And neither of their proposals looks convincing on how to stop the armed conflict and organized crime violence.

16/06/2026

Bangladesh: 2 journalists accused of crimes against humanity. Excerpts & quotes below 👇

Both journalists have already spent over 21 months in pre-charge detention without bail on separate murder charges relating to their alleged roles in the hundreds of law enforcement killings that took place during the student protests which culminated in the fall of the Awami League government in August 2024. Till now, no evidence has been presented by prosecutors to show their criminal involvement in these murder cases, and their detention for these offences has already been widely criticised by human rights organisations.

The new arrests relate to events eleven years earlier, on 5 May 2013. Regarding Babu’s arrest, the chief prosecutor did not explain how a documentary about the violence of 5 May 2013, broadcast the following year, could constitute evidence of the presenter's prior involvement in planning the killings that took place that day.

🗨️ Kunāl Majumder (Asia-Pacific Program Coordinator of the Campaign for Press Freedom): “Bangladeshi authorities must stop weaponizing the International Crimes Tribunal to target journalists and immediately release Farzana Rupa and Mozammel Babu.”

🗨️ Smriti Singh (South Asia Regional Director of Amnesty International: “Farzana Rupa and Mozammel Haque [Babu], who are already in detention, now face vague new charges relating to a story that was aired more than a decade ago. Their arrest in a case related to crimes against humanity is an affront to fundamental principles of press freedom and sets a dangerous precedent that threatens the right of all journalists to report without fear of retaliation.”

Find out more in our article on Justice Info 👇
"Bangladesh’s war crimes justice turns against journalists"
https://www.justiceinfo.net/en/160387-bangladesh-war-crimes-justice-turns-against-journalists.html

16/06/2026

- The arrest of two senior journalists for the offence of crimes against humanity has prompted serious concerns about press freedom and judicial overreach by the country’s International Crimes Tribunal.

Read our article now on Justice Info 👇
https://www.justiceinfo.net/en/160387-bangladesh-war-crimes-justice-turns-against-journalists.html

By David Bergman, in London.

The arrest of two senior journalists for the offence of crimes against humanity has prompted serious concerns about press freedom and judicial overreach by the country’s International Crimes Tribunal.

12/06/2026

- When asked about the sexual harassment case at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in which Prosecutor Karim Khan faces allegations, Sabine Nolke discusses the recruitment process she oversaw in 2020, which could be reinstated if the allegations are confirmed. 👇

🗨️ QUESTION by Justice Info: "Is that the same way that states would approach what might happen with a potential election of a new prosecutor?"

💬 ANSWER by Sabine Nolke: "Look at what happened with the election process surrounding the eventual election of Karim Khan [2020-2021]. States created this committee that I ended up chairing. The terms of reference were not good. They were not helpful. I, as Canada's representative, sent a three-page note to the Bureau on where I considered the draft to be flawed. This was completely disregarded by the Bureau."

💬 "One of the biggest issues that I had noted was the consensus requirement. The committee was required by the terms of reference to have consensus on the candidates it recommended to go forward. That literally blocked candidates. So we had a short list. One of the big things was we wanted a real professional prosecutor who can take a really complex case and run it and get the job done. I started getting phone calls the day our recommendations came out: ‘What the hell were you guys thinking?’ What I heard back from the states was: ‘But there's nobody famous here’. That’s why we were then asked to give them the entire long list of people we had interviewed, which of course was ludicrous because some of these people were hilariously unqualified."

💬 In 2020, "we had already not that great a pool of candidates, frankly. Are we going to get the best candidates this time? So, I think we will probably be operating from a fairly shallow pool, built with national interest candidates."

💬 "The issue of electing high international office will always be less merit-based than it will be political."

Read the full interview on Justice Info 👇

"Sabine Nolke: 'That's what you get when the governance of a court is given into the hands of political actors'"
https://www.justiceinfo.net/en/160313-sabine-nolke-thats-what-you-get-when-the-governance-of-a-court-is-given-into-the-hands-of-political-actors.html

11/06/2026

Trading cards at the 👉 Sabine Nolke: "When I was ambassador, we ran an election campaign for a judge who is now on the bench – one of six electees. And what I saw during that process, it just makes your skin crawl. The horse trading that goes on on the floor of the ASP* at the very last minute – like ‘we'll vote for you for the Tribunal on the Law of the Sea if you vote for my judge here’. It has nothing to do with the qualification of the candidate at that point; it becomes, you know, trading cards. And so you can have as robust a vetting process as you want, as robust an assessment process as you want, those interests will override everything at the end."

* Assembly of States Parties of the ICC

Sabine Nolke 🇨🇦 is a retired Canadian diplomat and international law practitioner.

11/06/2026

A short excerpt from a very frank Q&A session between Justice Info and Sabine Nolke on the International Criminal Court (ICC) and its governance.

🗨️ QUESTION by Justice Info: "There was a press release from the presidency, the three top judges at the ICC. Not only did they ask the ASP to get on with the process, to do it as swiftly as possible because presumably there's a bit of lacuna damaging the court but they describe the ICC as 'one of the most significant achievements of human civilisation'. Do you agree?"

💬 ANSWER by Sabine Nolke: "No. The idea, yes. The actual brick and mortar reality and its governance? No. One of the fundamental problems with the ICC is that you have a judicial institution that is governed by states. And that problem works both ways. When it's convenient to the court, they will just ignore what states tell them: ‘no, we're independent, don't talk to us, go away’. But the other way, there are states thinking that they can influence the court and then states actually influencing the court through the personnel that they elect to serve on it. Even general issues of governance, determining the budget through a politically negotiated, state-driven budget process – essentially what the court can and cannot do, what resources it is given – that's problematic. Write the check and get out of the way, frankly, is how it should look."

💬 "So, when you ask me if the court the greatest thing since sliced bread, the answer is no because there's this inherent tension between judicial independence and state dominance. The example is the political storm that the Netanyahu indictment brought [Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is prosecuted by the ICC for crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza]. It is a fundamental flaw, in the court that any state should give themselves the right to determine whether or not a prosecution is appropriate or not. If the crimes are there and if you have the evidence and you have jurisdiction, then there should be a prosecution, it doesn't matter who it is."

Read the full interview on Justice Info 👇
"Sabine Nolke: 'That's what you get when the governance of a court is given into the hands of political actors'"
https://www.justiceinfo.net/en/160313-sabine-nolke-thats-what-you-get-when-the-governance-of-a-court-is-given-into-the-hands-of-political-actors.html

--

Sabine Nolke 🇨🇦 is a retired Canadian diplomat and international law practitioner, specializing in international peace and security, atrocity crimes, terrorism, disarmament, human rights, and international humanitarian law. She served as Canada's Ambassador to the Kingdom of the Netherlands and Permanent Representative to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the international Courts and Tribunals from 2015-2019, and chaired the Committee on the Election of the Prosecutor of the ICC in 2020.

11/06/2026

[interview] - On June 8, the Bureau of the Assembly of States Parties (ASP) of the International Criminal Court (ICC) suspended Prosecutor Karim Khan and decided that a full ASP meeting will decide whether he should stay or be removed. In 2020, Canadian ambassador Sabine Nolke was chair of the committee in charge of pre-selecting the ICC prosecutor. In a remarkably frank interview, she unveils the behind-the-scenes politics of the court.

🗨️ “Frankly, I doubt very much you will get a coherent Western Europe and Others Group position on this. I don't see block voting. I see a very divided ASP.”

Read the full interview now on Justice Info 👇
https://www.justiceinfo.net/en/160313-sabine-nolke-thats-what-you-get-when-the-governance-of-a-court-is-given-into-the-hands-of-political-actors.html

By Janet H. Anderson, our correspondent in The Hague.


International Criminal Court - ICC

On June 8, the Bureau of the Assembly of States Parties (ASP) of the International Criminal Court (ICC) suspended Prosecutor Karim Khan and decided that a full ASP meeting will decide whether he should stay or be removed.

09/06/2026

- According to Aleh Baradzin, "Since 2025, the release of political prisoners has increasingly been used as an external political resource. Viewed as a whole, the events of 2025-2026 reveal a recurring pattern. New criminal cases generate new political prisoners. Some are later released and become part of the diplomatic process, while subsequent arrests replenish the system. It is this continuous reproduction of political prisoners, rather than individual releases, that helps explain the logic behind these developments."

"Political prisoners in Belarus are not created solely for the purpose of negotiations with the West. Their emergence is rooted in the suppression of protest, the destruction of civil society, the punishment of perceived disloyalty and the demonstration of state power. Once political prisoners already exist, however, their release can be used as a negotiating resource and acquire external political value."

"The Belarusian model of recent years demonstrates how repression adapts to changing political circumstances. Their release occurs not because the state has acknowledged the injustice of political persecution, but because release itself can generate political, diplomatic or economic benefits."

Find out more in our article on Justice Info 👇
"The Belarus bargaining trap"
https://www.justiceinfo.net/en/160254-belarus-bargaining-trap.html

👤 Aleh Baradzin, a former Belarusian political prisoner, is the founder of the independent analytical and research initiative International Institute for the Study of Political Repression and Authoritarian Systems (IISPR), and Chair of the Board of the Foundation of Belarusian Political Prisoners in Poland.