Universal Competency Law revoked in Brussels

[anna balint]

1993 Belgian law which allows war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide 
to be tried in Belgian courts – regardless of where the crimes were committed,
and of who brings up the case -, is revoked now for international political 
reasons.

This unique law was put to the test in 2001 when a Brussels court, after an 
eight-week trial, sent four Rwandans to prison for their role in the 1994 
genocide in their central African nation.

This law caused diplomatic fuss in 2002 when a lawyer for a group of 
Palestinians aimed to put Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in the dock in 
Brussels for genocide and crimes against humanity, when the World Court in the 
Hague rejected  a Belgian arrest warrant for Adbulaye Yerodia Ndombasi, a 
former foreign minister in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and also when a 
case was initated against Yasser Arafat.

Though universal competency was not declared illegal or  contrary to the 
principles of immunity, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) does not start 
cases politicians in function since 2002, because of the diplomatic problems 
and difficulties of procedure.

Following the protest of the USA governement at the address of ICJ after the 
numerous legal initiatives against soldiers and officers of United States 
participating in the war in Iraq, the Belgian governement revoked the universal 
competency law. From now on only Belgian citizens can start a legal procedure 
at ICJ, or persons who lived legally in Belgium at least for three years. 

http://www.icj-cij.org/