WASHINGTON, D.C. -- On Wednesday, the House of Representatives passed the Genocide Accountability Act by voice vote.  This move comes on the heels of Senate passage and now goes to President Bush for his approval before it becomes law. Statement of Citizens for Global Solutions Interim Director Raj Purohit: "Citizens for Global Solutions welcomes the...

Washington, D.C. – President Bush’s nominee for Attorney General of the United States, Judge Michael Mukasey, in both his oral testimony and in follow up written statements to the Senate Judiciary Committee, refused to say whether waterboarding violates U.S. and international laws against torture.  Statement of Citizens for Global Solutions Interim Director Raj Purohit: “Citizens for ...

The Chautauqua Declaration Last week an unprecedented gathering of international war crimes prosecutors met with little fanfare (and even less media coverage) in Chautauqua, New York. These nine men sounded an international clarion call to end impunity by perpetrators of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in drafting, signing and releasing...

Introduction The Nuremburg Trials held perpetrators of genocide accountable for crimes committed during the Holocaust. Nuremburg remains a testament to an international code of justice and a beacon for international law to this day. The United States has ratified the statute for the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, proving a long-held U.S. commitment to uph...

February 27, 2007 Washington, D.C. – Citizens for Global Solutions, a leading U.S.-based advocacy group for a strong and effective International Criminal Court (ICC) welcomes the ICC’s identification of two perpetrators in the on-going Darfur atrocities. In his announcement from The Hague today, ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo requested a summons to appear for Ahmad Muhammad...

On December 14 the ICC’s Chief Prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo, issued his fourth report on the situation in Darfur as required under United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 1593 (2005). Given that the Darfur situation was referred to the ICC by the UNSC, the Prosecutor is required to report to the Council every six months on the progress and status of his office’s investigation. Th...

Ta Mok, one of the key leaders of the former Khmer Rouge regime has died of natural causes while in detention in Cambodia. Nicknamed the “butcher” for his direct role in countless massacres and purges under the Khmer Rouge, Ta Mok was one of two remaining leaders in custody for inciting and participating in the Cambodian genocide. Over 1.5 million people died under the Khmer Rouge as a result...

Two weeks after  the Supreme Court decision blocking the use of military tribunals for "enemy combatants," the Bush Administration issued a memo stating that all prisoners detained in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and in other U.S. military custody shall be entitled to the protections guaranteed under Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions. The Geneva Conventions are a series of treaties and...

The judges for the long-awaited Khmer Rouge Tribunal (KRT) have been sworn in at a special ceremony in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The judges are comprised of both Cambodians and foreigners appointed by the UN—the result of an intricate formula of majority voting by both Cambodian and international judicial officials. The formula was in response to widespread criticism of Cambodia’s severely d...

Charles Taylor, former Liberian president and suspected war criminal, has been transferred to the ICC in The Hague for trial. Taylor was arrested in northern Nigeria in March 2006 and taken to the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) in Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown. The SCSL expressed growing concern that conducting Taylor’s trial in Freetown would cause renewed instability in the ...