Demanding that the pleas for justice from victims of Afghanistan war crimes be heard, human rights organizations on Monday filed an appeal against the International Criminal Court’s recent decision not to probe the alleged abuses.
The appeal, filed by Reprieve and the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), said the decision by the “court of last resort” was “devastating” for the six victims, as it left them unable “to contribute to a process that seeks to end impunity and contribute to the prevention of crimes, to know the truth, and to request reparations.”
As Common Dreams reported, the court announced in April that it would not launch a probe into possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in Afghanistan, including those committed by US forces. ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda requested the investigation in 2017.
The rejection of the probe—which came even as the three-judge chamber acknowledged “there is a reasonable basis to believe that the incidents underlying the request have occurred”—followed intimidation efforts by the Trump administration to block the investigation, including denying visas for ICC personnel, revokingBensouda’s visa, and President Donald Trump and national security adviser John Bolton threatening the court should it investigate possible US or Israeli war crimes.
The appeal called out the US bullying—and the ICC’s giving in to it.
“Survivors of war-on-terror era torture have waited seventeen years for some semblance of justice—which has so far been wholly denied. For many, the ordeal that began in Afghanistan continues, with no end in sight, at Guantánamo Bay,” said Katie Taylor, deputy director at Reprieve, in a statement Monday.
“For the ICC to fold up its investigation, under pressure from the US, puts its credibility at risk,” she said. “The court must recognize that these victims have a right to be heard.”
Last week, CCR also drew attention to the possible US interference on the ICC when it filed a complaint with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, denouncing it as a “brazen disregard and disrespect for the fundamental principle of judicial independence.”
“This complaint and request for a comprehensive investigation is prompted by the well-founded belief that there has been, and likely continues to be, interference with the independence of judicial proceedings at the International Criminal Court by senior officials of the United States, up to and including President Donald Trump,” said the document sent Wednesday.
Bowing to US pressure, said CCR staff attorney Katherine Gallagher, means the court failed to uphold its duty.
“The ICC decision not to open an investigation into crimes in Afghanistan and those involving US citizens in the face of US bullying sent the dangerous message that politics trumps justice,” she said.
“The ICC is a court of law resort. If it cannot—or will not—hold the powerful accountable for the most serious crimes,” said Gallagher, “it fails to meet its core purpose of ending impunity and showing no one is above the law.”
