Today is International Criminal Justice Day. The Assembly of the States Parties of the International Criminal Court (ICC) adopted this date during the Review Conference of the Rome Statute held in Kampala, Uganda in June 2010. It marks the anniversary of the adoption of the Rome Statute, the treaty that founded the ICC. The treaty also defines the types of international crimes that individuals can be charged with committing: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the recently defined crime of aggression. The day aims to promote awareness and to generate support for global justice and the fight against impunity. More

The Obama administration, UN officials, and foreign leaders are asking Texas Governor Rick Perry and/or the U.S. Supreme Court to stay today's execution of a Mexican citizen on death row in Texas for a crime he committed in 1994. At issue is not his guilt or innocence, the legality of the death penalty, or whether he was given adequate due process guaranteed under the Texas Criminal Code or the U.S. Constitution. Rather, at issue is a treaty violation. When Texas authorities arrested Humberto Leal Garcia Jr., a Mexican national, they failed to inform him of his right to consular notification, thereby violating Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations of 1963, which the United States accepts as legally binding under international law. More

A Peruvian judge approved early release to house arrest for a U.S. citizen jailed since 1995 on terrorism charges of unlawful collaboration with the Marxist-Leninist Túpac Amaru Resistance Movement (MRTA) rebels during Fujimori's Presidency. Judge Maria Jessica León Yarango of the First Supra-Provincial Criminal Court of the Superior Court of Justice of Lima ordered Lori Berenson's release to house arrest, subject to several conditions, including that she neither leave Peru nor contact or visit inmates still in prison on terrorism charges. Berenson, originally sentenced to life imprisonment by a hooded military tribunal for violating anti-terrorism laws decreed by then-President Fujimori, has served almost 15 years of a 20-year sentence imposed at her retrial in a civilian court. Her conditional release to live in Miraflores, an upscale tourist district of Lima, however, has been greeted with concern by nearby businesses and residents who worry about post-release supervision and public safety, according to Peruvian media. Moreover, Peru's President Alan Garcia, former Justice Minister Aurelio Pastor, and the former president of the Superior Court Marcos Ibazeta, who rendered Berenson's 20-year sentence in 2002, are quoted in yesterday's media questioning whether Berenson, a convicted terrorist who has not made a public declaration of remorse, should have been granted parole. President Garcia called the law allowing her early release a mistake but expressed respect for the judicial decision and the independence of the judiciary. Today, Justice Minister Victor Garcia Toma posted his proposal of an Executive expulsion of Berenson and its legal justification on the Ministry's website. If President Garcia would commute her sentence, she could be immediately deported. Minister Garcia Toma indicated the President's Council of Ministers will consider this legal option next week. More

On this day in 1994, Jean Kambanda became the Prime Minister of Rwanda. During the 100-day campaign, he incited genocide on the radio by announcing, "Genocide is justified in the fight against the enemy." He became the first head of state to plead guilty to genocide since the adoption of the Genocide Convention and was sentenced to life imprisonment by the ad hoc International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). His sentence was upheld on appeal on October 19, 2000. He currently is in prison in Bamako Central Prison, Mali. In memory of those known and unknown who died . . . More

The Obama Administration yesterday released its Nuclear Posture Review Report (NPR), which establishes "U.S. nuclear policy, strategy, capabilities, and force posture for the next five years to ten years." The 2010 NPR becomes the third official high-level review and the first one to be entirely declassified. The NPR's key objectives emphasize prevention, no new nuclear weapons, no new nuclear testing, and strategic options for deterrence. For the first time, prevention is given top priority. One of the key elements of prevention, identified in the Review, is the strengthening of international law and its institutions to ensure nuclear security worldwide. The Review calls for bolstering the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) as the centerpiece of the nuclear nonproliferation regime; pursuing ratification and early entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT); seeking negotiations on a verifiable Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty (FMCT); and creating new frameworks for treaty enforcement and international nuclear energy cooperation. The NPR states the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) must be given additional financial resources and stronger verification authority to deter and detect safeguards violations. The release of the NPR occurred two days before the signing of a new U.S.-Russia arms reduction treaty and six days before President Obama's Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, D.C. on April 12-13, 2010, during which 43 heads of state will address the clandestine proliferation of nuclear material and nuclear material trafficking. More