The International Criminal Court recently warned Colombia that any peace agreements, including the Legal Framework for Peace, that are not compatible with the Rome Statute will be reviewed by the office of the ICC’s prosecutor.
Tag: Fatou Bensouda
President Santos expected to ask the United Nations General Assembly to overrule the International Criminal Court.
At the end of September, President Santos is expected to ask the United Nations General Assembly to overrule the International Criminal Court, and allow Colombia to exercise its sovereignty and decide on its own modes of transitional law. President Santos will likely say the letters from Fatou Bensouda, a prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, are a threat to the peace dialogues with the FARC. FARC leaders have said they are not prepared to serve a single day in jail, and the government of President Santos seems to not want to allow victims to have their day in court. To allow gross violations to go unpunished is not a solid foundation for long-lasting peace.
218 FARC members (8 of them Secretariat leaders) convicted in absentia of crimes against humanity.
According to the Inter American Court on Human Rights, there are 218 members of the FARC convicted in absentia of crimes against humanity. Eight of them are members of the FARC’s leadership, the “Secretariat.” Colombia’s Constitutional Court said the State cannot allow, for any reason, that those who committed grave crimes — extrajudicial killings, torture, forced disappearances, and child recruitment — be given impunity. Can peace talks proceed from here?
ICC Prosecutor speaks against Colombia’s Legal Framework for Peace.
Fatou Bensouda, a prosecutor in the International Criminal Court, said Colombia cannot adjust the law and make amendments as it wishes in order to prosecute some and not others — which is precisely what the Santos administration is attempting to do through the Legal Framework for Peace with the intention to pacify the FARC’s leadership in the peace talks in Havana. Bensouda from the ICC said Colombia ratified the Statute of Rome, and Colombia is responsible for upholding the Statute of Rome. Bensouda said the grave crimes that matter to the international community — those that violate International Humanitarian Law — should not be left unpunished.
Talking About Colombia 