Search results

Omar Khadr, a Canadian citizen, was 15 years old when he was captured and seriously injured in a firefight in Afghanistan on 27 July 2002. The US accused Khadr of throwing a grenade that killed US Army Sergeant First Class Christopher Speer and injured two others. He was charged with murder and attempted murder, conspiracy to commit terrorism, providing support for terrorism, and spying.

On 25 October 2010, Khadr pleaded guilty to murder and attempted murder in violation of the laws of war, conspiracy to commit terrorism, providing support for terrorism, and spying, and was sentenced to eight years of imprisonment.

In spite of Khadr's young age at the time of his capture, the United States imprisoned him together with adults.

Khadr was the first person since World War II to be prosecuted in a military commission for war crimes committed while still a minor. His conviction and sentence were widely denounced by civil rights groups and various newspaper editorials. He has been frequently referred to as a child soldier.

During the Rwandan genocide of 1994, Gaspard Kanyarukiga was a businessman who owned a pharmacy in the Nyange Trading Centre, located in Nyange secteur (area). He also owned a business in Kigali.

On 6 April 1994, following the death of President Habyarimana, thousands of Tutsi civilians took refuge at the Nyange Parish, located in the Kivumu community, and were subsequently attacked. These attacks culminated in the destruction of the Nyange Parish Church on 16 April 1994. At the time of the destruction of the Church, about 2000 Tutsi civilians were allegedly confined to the church and were killed during the destruction of the church.

On 6 June 2008 the Prosecution’s request to transfer Kanyarukiga’s case to the courts of Rwanda was denied due to fears that he would not receive a fair trial there.

For the role he played in these events, the Accused was charged by the Prosecutor of the ICTR with genocide or, alternatively, complicity in genocide, and extermination as a crime against humanity. The Trial Chamber convicted him for genocide and extermination and sentenced him to thirty years’ imprisonment.  

Hissène Habré was the President of the Republic of Chad from 1982 until 1990. During that time, he established a brutal dictatorship which, through its political police, the Bureau of Documentation and Security (Direction de la Documentation et de la Sécurité (DDS)), caused the deaths of tens of thousands of individuals. Residing in exile in Senegal, he was unsuccessfully brought before the Senegalese courts in 2000-2001 at which time the Supreme Court of Senegal confirmed that it did not have jurisdiction to hear the case as the acts allegedly committed by Habré were not criminalised under domestic law. In response to an African Union mandate to prosecute Habré, Senegal amended its legislation to provide for universal jurisdiction over crimes against humanity and acts of torture committed by foreign nationals outside of Senegalese territory.

Habré brought a complaint against Senegal before the Court of Justice of the Economic Community of States of West Africa alleging that the new legislation breached his human rights, including the principle of non-retroactivity of the criminal law. The Court held, in a decision that has been criticised for lack of legal basis, that Senegal would violate the principle of non-retroactivity if its tried Habré in its domestic courts. Instead, international custom mandates that Senegal establish a special tribunal to try and prosecute Habté.