Geneva-based team will investigate ‘abuses that amount to international crimes’ and prepare files for future prosecutions

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

A new unit is being set up by the United Nations in Geneva to prepare prosecutions of war crimes committed in Syria, UN officials have said.

The first major policy announcement under the newly inaugurated UN secretary-general, António Guterres, the unit will “analyse information, organise and prepare files on the worst abuses that amount to international crimes”, a UN human rights official said.

The team will investigate “primarily war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, and identify those responsible”, the official added. Although it will not be able to prosecute, the unit will prepare files that could be used in future prosecutions by states or by the international criminal court in The Hague.

The Guardian view on Syrian war crimes: searching for a road to justice | Editorial Read more

The focus on prosecutions also means evidence collected since 2011 by a UN commission of inquiry may be sharpened into legal action.

Legal experts and activists welcomed the initiative. “The focus is on collecting evidence and building criminal cases before the trail goes cold,” said Andrew Clapham, professor of international law at Geneva’s Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies.

Jeremie Smith, of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, said the UN must lay the groundwork for prosecutions ahead of any “exodus” of perpetrators when the war ends. “This is the only way to make sure criminals don’t get away by fleeing the scene of the crime,” he added.

The commission of inquiry has issued 20 reports accusing Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s government, rebel forces and Islamic State of mass killings, rapes, disappearances and recruiting child soldiers. It too lacks a prosecutorial mandate, but has denounced a state policy amounting to “extermination” and compiled a confidential list of suspects on all sides, which is kept in a safe.

Human rights organisation Amnesty International last week claimed the Syrian government executed up to 13,000 prisoners in mass hangings and carried out systematic torture at a military jail. Syria denied the report, calling it “devoid of truth”.

Assad’s slaughterhouse defies description, but it’s horrifyingly real | Kate Allen Read more

A UN report in January put the start-up budget for the new team at between $4m and $6m. Funding is voluntary and so far $1.8m has been donated, the UN official said.

According to diplomats, the UN is aiming to recruit between 40 and 60 experts in investigations, prosecutions, the military and forensics. “It’s a very important step. It will not only allow court cases but also help us preserve evidence if there are cases in the future,” a senior western diplomat said.

Many national courts could pursue suspects using the unit’s dossiers, Clapham said. States that have joined the international criminal court could bring cases without referral by the UN security council. </s> GENEVA, Feb 16 (Reuters) - A new body is being set up at the United Nations in Geneva to prepare prosecutions of war crimes committed in Syria, U.N. officials and diplomats said on Thursday.

The General Assembly voted to establish the mechanism in December and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is due to name a judge or prosecutor as its head this month.

"We expect to start very, very shortly with just a handful of people," a U.N. human rights official told Reuters.

The team will "analyse information, organise and prepare files on the worst abuses that amount to international crimes - primarily war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide - and identify those responsible", she said.

While it would not be able to prosecute itself, the idea is to prepare prepare files for future prosecution that states or the International Criminal Court in The Hague could use.

The focus on prosecutions means evidence collected since 2011 by a U.N. Commission of Inquiry may be sharpened into legal action.

The COI has issued 20 reports accusing the Assad government, rebel forces and Islamic State of mass killings, rapes, disappearances and recruiting child soldiers.

It too lacks a prosecutorial mandate, but has denounced a state policy amounting to "extermination", and has compiled a confidential list of suspects on all sides, kept in a safe.

Rights watchdog Amnesty International said last week the Syrian government executed up to 13,000 prisoners in mass hangings and carried out systematic torture at a military jail. Syria denied the report, calling "devoid of truth".

A Swedish court on Thursday sentenced a former Syrian opposition fighter who now lives in Sweden to life in prison for war crimes.

A U.N. report in January put the start-up budget for the new team at $4-6 million. So far $1.8 million has been donated, the U.N. official said. Funding is voluntary, posing a major challenge.

The United Nations aims to recruit 40-60 experts in investigations, prosecutions, the military, and forensics, diplomats said.

"It's a very important step. It will not only allow court cases but also help us preserve evidence if there are cases in the future," a senior Western diplomat said.

"The focus is on collecting evidence and building criminal cases before the trail goes cold," said Andrew Clapham, professor of international law at Geneva's Graduate Institute.

Jeremie Smith of the Cairo Institute of Human Rights Studies said the United Nations must lay the groundwork for prosecutions ahead of any "exodus" of perpetrators when the war ends.

"This is the only way to make sure criminals don't get away by fleeing the scene of the crime."

The new team will seek to establish command responsibility.

"This is mass collection of information on all sides with a view to prosecution in the future by the ICC (International Criminal Court), national courts or in some completely new international tribunal that would be created," Clapham said.

Many national courts could pursue suspects using its dossiers, he said. States that have joined the ICC could bring cases to the Hague court, without referral by the Security Council. (Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Alison Williams) </s> As world powers press for an end to the violence that has racked Syria and claimed thousands of lives, pressure is building over accusations that Assad's security apparatus has committed crimes in suppressing the year-long revolt.

Syrian government forces have been accused in a U.N. report of committing widespread, systematic and gross human rights violations amounting to crimes against humanity. There was also evidence of abuse by some rebel groups, it said last month.

A U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Syria has handed over a confidential list of senior Syrian officials suspected of ordering crimes against humanity including murder, abductions and torture to the United Nations for possible prosecution - whether by an international court, or national bodies using universal jurisdiction, or even a Syrian court in future.

But in the case of Syria, the International Criminal Court - the world's first permanent war crimes court - is powerless for the time being. The ICC has no reach there because Syria is not a state party to the Rome Statute, and because the United Nations Security Council is deadlocked over the issue.

"If the Security Council provides a decision (that) we should investigate Syria, we will do it," ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said earlier this month. "We are always able."

But Moscow and Beijing have stone-walled in the Council.

"The Security Council can bring a case, but China and Russia are unlikely to agree so that the chances are slim at the moment," said Louise Doswald-Beck, professor of law at Geneva's Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies.

"But there is a possibility (of arrest and prosecution) if these people were rash enough to travel to states that can try people for war crimes and crimes against humanity."

The office of the ICC prosecutor has an information and evidence unit which can receive evidence submitted by members of the public or official bodies: so, for example, evidence from Syria could be submitted to the unit and held there in case an official investigation does go ahead.

But the office's representatives refuse to say whether they have received any evidence about war crimes in Syria.

"I endorse the call by (U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay) to have the International Criminal Court investigate whether these amount to crimes against humanity," Juan Mendez, U.N. special rapporteur, or investigator, on torture worldwide, said in an interview.

The United Nations estimates Syrian forces killed at least 9,000 people over the past year as Assad's forces pounded rebel strongholds into submission. The government says opposition fighters killed 3,000 soldiers and security forces personnel.

The Hague-based ICC, which has investigated several cases involving alleged war crimes over the past decade, earlier this month handed down its first-ever ruling when it found Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga Dyilo guilty of using child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

But so far it has missed the chance to try some of the biggest names suspected of genocide or crimes against humanity. Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, wanted on charges of orchestrating genocide, remains at large.

Last year, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Libya's former ruler Muammar Gaddafi, his son Saif al-Islam, and his spy chief, Abdullah al-Senussi, following a referral by the U.N. Security Council. Gaddafi was killed by rebel forces, Saif is in prison in Libya, while Senussi was recently detained in Mauritania: it remains unclear whether either of them will appear in The Hague.

With Syria, Moscow and Beijing have shielded Assad from U.N. Security Council condemnation by vetoing two Western-backed resolutions over the bloodshed, but they approved a Security Council statement on March 21 endorsing U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan's bid to end the violence in Syria.

Legal experts such as Doswald-Beck say one possible chink in the case of Syria is if any of those involved in war crimes were to leave the country and travel to another jurisdiction which could try them - provided it can be shown that these individuals ordered a direct attack on civilians or torture.

"As they are probably all Syrian nationals, it would be only on the basis of universal jurisdiction that you could try them," she said.

"If these people choose to travel and they arrive in a state party to the Convention against Torture, they need to be brought to justice. As long as they are sitting in Syria and don't move, that's where the problem lies."

The U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Syria's list of suspects is believed to include Assad's inner circle and senior officials of the Baath party, army and security forces.

"The Commission of Inquiry handed me a list of names of people in high positions, including in the military and security forces, who have been implicated in the most serious international crimes that fall under the jurisdiction laid down in the Rome Statute," U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Pillay told Reuters in Geneva, referring to the treaty setting up the ICC.

"I will hand over this list of alleged perpetrators to any future credible investigations," said Pillay, a former ICC judge.

In its February report, a three-member panel, headed by Brazilian expert Paulo Pinheiro, said that Syrian forces bent on crushing the uprising had shot dead unarmed women and children, shelled residential areas and tortured wounded protesters in hospital under orders from the "highest level" of army and government officials.

"The commission also identified particular army units, security agencies and their branch offices for which there are reasonable grounds to believe that they carried out gross human rights violations," the report said.

There was also evidence of abuses committed by some rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) groups.

The U.N. report said it had reliable accounts that the National Security Bureau of the Baath Party National Command was used to translate policy directives into strategic operations.

Military and security forces, civilian authorities and Baath Party officials coordinated operations through local security committees, it said.

"On several occasions, senior security officials were deployed from the capital to coordinate operations involving crimes against humanity and other gross violations," it said.

"Most crimes against humanity and gross human rights violations were carried out in complex operations that involved the entire security apparatus and therefore would have required superior directives."

The four major intelligence and security agencies with direct reporting lines to the president's office - military intelligence, air force intelligence, the general intelligence directorate and the political security directorate - "were at the heart of almost all operations", it said.

As the conflict evolved, elite army units closest to the leadership - the Special Forces, the Republican Guard and the Fourth Division - played an increasingly prominent role, the latter two especially in Damascus and its suburbs, it said.

"You would expect from the institutions named in the report, that the key people in those institutions to be on the list, there are enough hints," said one international human rights expert who has not seen the list, but who saw the public report.

For the Commission of Inquiry to have included it, it is likely to be all corroborated evidence, but it still needs to be proved in a court of law, this expert said.

"The investigators would look at hisclose circle, the constitutional order, the ministers of defence, of interior, head of security services. You start with a matrix and corroborate evidence from witnesses, these are the criteria."

The existence of the list creates pressure on states to take action as it means that dozens of people can be brought to justice, once a credible jurisdiction is empowered to move on the case, said Mona Rishmawi, chief of the rule of law branch at the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Several countries, including Britain, Belgium, Canada, Spain and the United States, have established universal jurisdiction for some crimes such as torture, said Rishmawi, who led a similar U.N. investigation in Darfur which contributed evidence leading to the ICC's indictment of Sudan's President Bashir.

Aside from the U.N. report, there is other evidence that could be used to mount a case, legal experts said

U.N. special rapporteur Mendez said that a Channel 4 video purporting to show Syrian patients being tortured in hospital appeared to support increasingly grave allegations pointing to crimes against humanity.

"With respect of torture, as grave as the allegations were six to eight months ago, this latest seems a step or two above that," Mendez, himself a victim of torture while jailed by the military dictatorship in his native Argentina in the 1970s, said in an interview in Geneva.

"There's a limit to what I can do. I have to say that I am frustrated that I cannot do more. I wish I had more powers." </s> * War crimes by rebels, not of same gravity or scale

* Security Council urged to take action given evidence

GENEVA, Aug 15 Syrian government forces and allied militia have committed war crimes including murder and torture of civilians in what appears to be state-directed policy, U.N. investigators said on Wednesday.

Syrian rebels fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad had also committed war crimes, including executions, but on a smaller scale than those by the army and security forces.

The report called for the U.N. Security Council to take "appropriate action" given the gravity of documented violations by all sides in a 17-month conflict that investigators said had become a civil war.

"We have identified both parties as guilty of war crimes and of course a greater number and of bigger variety from the government side," Karen AbuZayd, one of two commissioners aided by some 20 investigators, told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Paulo Pinheiro, the commissioner who led the probe, said Syria's army of 300,000 had targeted rebel-held areas of cities with heavy artillery and helicopters. It had "much more means to inflict war crimes, for example bombing civilian populations".

"Besides evidence, we have names connected to the evidence," Pinheiro told Reuters, speaking from his native Brazil.

"But we are not a judicial or prosecutorial body. This is a problem for the Security Council, not for us."

The Security Council can refer a case to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), the U.N. war crimes tribunal, but Russia and China - which have veto power - have been loath to condemn Syria.

The independent investigators conducted more than 1,000 interviews, mainly with Syrian refugees or defectors who have fled to neighbouring countries, over the past year to produce their latest 102-page report to the U.N. Human Rights Council.

They found "reasonable grounds" to affirm that government forces and their allied shabbiha militia had committed crimes against humanity, war crimes and other gross violations.

These included "unlawful killing, torture, arbitrary arrest and detention, sexual violence, indiscriminate attack, pillaging and destruction of property".

Government forces and shabbiha militia had raped men, women and children in acts that could be prosecuted as crimes against humanity, the investigators said. Government troops had targeted staff of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, a war crime, they said.

A Syrian air strike killed 30 people in a rebel-held town on Wednesday, a local doctor said, and a mass kidnapping linked to Syria in neighbouring Lebanon raised the prospect of sectarian violence spreading.

Evidence confirmed a previous finding that "violations had been committed pursuant to State policy", the U.N. report said.

Large-scale operations conducted in different provinces, their similar complexity and integrated military/security apparatus "indicate involvement at the highest levels of the armed and security forces and the government".

Rebels had killed captured government soldiers, shabbiha and suspected informers, sometimes after summary trials, the investigators said. "Executing a prisoner without affording fundamental judicial guarantees is a war crime," they added.

"We have many instances reported to us where the anti-government forces have executed prisoners. They say they don't have detention facilities and are not based in one territory and can't take care of them. This is a war crime," Pinheiro said.

Both government forces and armed insurgents had displayed "more brutal tactics and new military capabilities" as fighting escalated during recent months, the report said.

Each side had violated children's rights, it said. At least 125 youths under age 18, mainly boys, had been killed since February, while others were arbitrarily arrested without charge.

"Children described having been beaten, whipped with electrical cables, burned with cigarettes and subjected to electrical shocks to the genitals," the investigators said of those in the custody of state forces.

Armed insurgents continue to use children as couriers or to help with medical evacuations, they said.

Completing their probe into a massacre in the town of Houla in May - which the government blamed on Islamist "terrorists" - they said government forces and shabbiha fighters were responsible for the killings of more than 100 civilians.

Forty-one children were killed in Houla, including some by shelling, "but most appeared to have been shot at close range".

The investigators said they would update their confidential list of suspects or units responsible for crimes and give it to U.N. rights boss Navi Pillay when their mandate ends next month.

"We don't name any names in the report," AbuZayd said. "But the evidence is recorded all along." </s> * Welcomes calls for Security Council to refer Syria to ICC

* Both sides commit war crimes in Syria, Pinheiro says

GENEVA, Sept 17 U.N. investigators have added more names to a secret list of Syrians suspected of committing war crimes during the 18-month-old uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, and warned on Monday more foreign Islamist militants were fighting there.

The human rights investigators, led by Paulo Pinheiro, said they had gathered "a formidable and extraordinary body of evidence" as Syrian government forces conduct daily air strikes and shelling in indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas.

They welcomed calls for the U.N. Security Council to refer the situation to the International Criminal Court (ICC). But diplomats noted this would require acceptance by Russia and China, which have blocked all previous Western efforts to condemn Syria or start proceedings at the U.N. war crimes court.

"Gross human rights violations have grown in number, in pace and in scale," Pinheiro told the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva. "There is no statute of limitations on these crimes."

Referring to U.N. rights chief Navi Pillay, he told a news conference: "We are very glad that the High Commissioner for Human Rights has requested the referral (to the ICC), and she has all the power and all the mandate to do that. We don't have (it)."

He did not say if any Syrian rebels were among the names on the list, which updated a confidential one his independent team submitted to Pillay in February.

Pinheiro presented the team's latest report, issued a month ago, saying Syrian government forces and allied militia had committed war crimes including murder and torture of civilians in what appeared to be a state-directed policy.

More than 20,000 people have been killed in the conflict , 1.2 million are uprooted within Syria and more than 250,000 have fled abroad, the United Nations says.

Pinheiro reported an "increasing and alarming presence of foreign elements, including Jihadist militants," in Syria, some joining the rebels, others operating independently. They tended to radicalise the rebels, who have also committed war crimes, the Brazilian expert said.

"The signal of their presence is basically the explosions, the attacks, that have been registered," Pinheiro later told a news conference.

"We consider that one of the most alarming and scary elements of this protracted war is the presence of those elements," he said, adding some had their own agenda. "They are sort of loose cannons," he said, declining to say more about their origins until more investigation was done.

He cited allegations that rebels had "used prisoners to detonate vehicle-borne explosives", killing their captives in acts that also posed a danger to civilians.

Karen AbuZayd, his American co-commissioner on the team of 20 investigators, said of the Islamic militants: "These elements do seem to contribute to a radicalisation of some of the groups that they've begun to work with inside. The bigger bomb blasts, the pattern, the way they work it, is what we've seen elsewhere with these same kinds of groups."

Pinheiro said it would be improper to make public the list of suspects because they were entitled to the presumption of innocence and no mechanism to hold perpetrators responsible was yet in place where allegations could be contested.

His team interviewed more than 1,100 victims, refugees and defectors in the past year. "We have no interviews with wounded soldiers or families of dead agents of the government because the government of Syria does not allow us access to Syria."

Syrian ambassador Faysal Khabbaz Hamoui accused Western and Arab powers of arming and funding rebels conducting a "Jihad" or holy war against Damascus.

"The mercenaries are a time bomb that will explode later in the country and in countries supporting them after they finish their terrorist missions in Syria," he said.

"Terrorist groups" active in Syria came from 17 countries, including Afghanistan, Libya and Yemen, he said, adding the report should have named countries that "support the killers", which he said included the United States, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Libya.

Russia, Syria's ally which has vetoed all Western attempts at the U.N. Security Council to condemn Syria, said rebels were committing "terrorist acts" including executions, and Jihadists were increasingly active due to "support from the outside".

"There are Jihadist mercenaries fighting on the opposition side. Those who in the view of some states are bringing democracy to the region are in actual fact carrying out mass murder," Russian diplomat Maria Khodynskaya-Golenishcheva said.

Western nations want the session to condemn Assad's government and to extend the commission of inquiry's mandate, which expires this month.

European Union ambassador Mariangela Zappia said: "The international community must ensure impunity will not prevail."

Turkey's ambassador Oguz Demiralp described the conflict in Syria as a "serious threat to international security" and said those behind crimes there would be held accountable. </s> BERLIN — A group of lawyers are seeking to launch a criminal case in Germany against Syrian President Bashar Assad over alleged war crimes committed in the city of Aleppo.

The lawyers on Monday presented a criminal complaint against Assad, which they are submitting to German federal prosecutors. German law allows prosecutions under the principle of universal jurisdiction, under which countries can pursue foreigners for crimes committed abroad.

The lawyers cited Amnesty International reports and individual accounts by asylum-seekers in Germany in arguing that there is overwhelming evidence of multiple atrocities committed by Assad in Aleppo between April and November.

Attorney Mehmet Daimaguler said: "We're experiencing genocide in Aleppo in slow motion."

He cited the targeted bombing of hospitals, cluster bombs on civilians and forced expulsion. </s> GENEVA — German authorities announced the arrest on Wednesday of a former high-ranking Syrian intelligence officer and two subordinates suspected of crimes against humanity by torturing thousands of victims in detention centers run by President Bashar al-Assad’s security services.

The arrests were a result of a joint investigation by German and French prosecutors, the office of Germany’s federal prosecutor said in a statement on Wednesday. The German police had arrested two suspects, identified as Anwar R., 56, and Eyad A., 42, and placed them in pretrial detention, the statement said. Officials decline as policy to give the full names of suspects pending the outcome of legal proceedings against them.

They said the French police, “as part of a joint investigation team,” had detained a third suspect who was linked to Anwar, but gave no other details.

The man identified as Anwar R. “is the most serious regime perpetrator detained so far by some distance,” said William Wiley, a former war crimes prosecutor who leads the Center for International Justice and Accountability, a group collecting evidence of Syrian atrocities. “It’s a big day for everyone working on these issues since 2011, really big.” </s> Vladimir Putin has signed an order to have Russia withdrawn from the International Criminal Court (ICC) amid calls for his military to be referred over air strikes backing President Bashar al-Assad in Syria and the annexation of Crimea.

The President instructed Russia's foreign ministry to notify the United Nations of the country's refusal to be subject to the body's activity on Wednesday, following the same move by Gambia, South Africa and Burundi.

State media reported that the government was pulling out of the 2002 Rome Statute, which establishes the International Criminal Court's status and powers, although the Kremlin never ratified the agreement it signed in 2000.

We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. From 15p €0.18 $0.18 USD 0.27 a day, more exclusives, analysis and extras.

“The International Criminal Court has not justified hopes placed upon it and did not become a truly independent and authoritative judicial body,” a spokesperson for the Russian foreign ministry said.

A statement claimed that Russia "consistently advocates that people guilty of grave offences must be held accountable" and took part in developing laws against genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Francois Hollande, the President of France, called suggested that Russia should face war crimes charges over its bombardment of rebel-held eastern Aleppo last month.

“These are people who today are the victims of war crimes,” he told French television amid hundreds of reported civilian deaths.

“Those that commit these acts will have to face up to their responsibility, including in the ICC.”

Shape Created with Sketch. In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Show all 19 left Created with Sketch. right Created with Sketch. Shape Created with Sketch. In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria 1/19 Syrian boys cry following Russian air strikes on the rebel-held Fardous neighbourhood of the northern embattled Syrian city of Aleppo Getty 2/19 Russian defense ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov speaks to the media in Moscow, Russia. Konashenkov strongly warned the United States against striking Syrian government forces and issued a thinly-veiled threat to use Russian air defense assets to protect them AP 3/19 Syrians wait to receive treatment at a hospital following Russian air strikes on the rebel-held Fardous neighbourhood of the northern embattled Syrian city of Alepp Getty 4/19 Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov speaks at a briefing in the Defense Ministry in Moscow, Russia. Antonov said the Russian air strikes in Syria have killed about 35,000 militants, including about 2,700 residents of Russia AP 5/19 Jameel Mustafa Habboush, receives oxygen from civil defence volunteers, known as the white helmets, as they rescue him from under the rubble of a building following Russian air strikes on the rebel-held Fardous neighbourhood of the northern embattled Syrian city of Aleppo Getty 6/19 Civil defence members rest amidst rubble in a site hit by what activists said were airstrikes carried out by the Russian air force in the town of Douma, eastern Ghouta in Damascus, Syria Reuters 7/19 A girl carrying a baby inspects damage in a site hit by what activists said were airstrikes carried out by the Russian air force in the town of Douma, eastern Ghouta in Damascus, Syria Reuters 8/19 Civilians and civil defence members look for survivors at a site damaged after Russian air strikes on the Syrian rebel-held city of Idlib, Syria Reuters 9/19 Civilians and civil defence members carry an injured woman on a stretcher at a site damaged after Russian air strikes on the Syrian rebel-held city of Idlib, Syria Reuters 10/19 Volunteers from Syria Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets, help civilians after Russia carried out its first airstrikes in Syria 11/19 The aftermath of Russian airstrike in Talbiseh, Syria 12/19 Smoke billows from buildings in Talbiseh, in Homs province, western Syria, after airstrikes by Russian warplanes AP 13/19 Russian Air Forces carry out an air strike in the ISIS controlled Al-Raqqah Governorate. Russia's KAB-500s bombs completely destroy the Liwa al-Haqq command unit 14/19 Caspian Flotilla of the Russian Navy firing Kalibr cruise missiles against remote Isis targets in Syria Â© TASS/ITAR-TASS Photo/Corbis 15/19 Russia claimed it hit eight Isis targets, including a "terrorist HQ and co-ordination centre" that was completely destroyed 16/19 A video grab taken from the footage made available on the Russian Defence Ministry's official website, purporting to show an airstrike in Syria 17/19 A release from the Russian defence ministry purportedly showing targets in Syria being hit 18/19 Russia launched air strikes in war-torn Syria, its first military engagement outside the former Soviet Union since the occupation of Afghanistan in 1979. Russian warplanes carried out strikes in three Syrian provinces along with regime aircraft as Putin seeks to steal US President Barack Obama's thunder by pushing a rival plan to defeat Isis militants in Syria 19/19 Caspian Flotilla of the Russian Navy firing Kalibr cruise missiles against remote Isis targets in Syria, a thousand kilometres away. The targets include ammunition factories, ammunition and fuel depots, command centres, and training camps Â© TASS/ITAR-TASS Photo/Corbis 1/19 Syrian boys cry following Russian air strikes on the rebel-held Fardous neighbourhood of the northern embattled Syrian city of Aleppo Getty 2/19 Russian defense ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov speaks to the media in Moscow, Russia. Konashenkov strongly warned the United States against striking Syrian government forces and issued a thinly-veiled threat to use Russian air defense assets to protect them AP 3/19 Syrians wait to receive treatment at a hospital following Russian air strikes on the rebel-held Fardous neighbourhood of the northern embattled Syrian city of Alepp Getty 4/19 Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov speaks at a briefing in the Defense Ministry in Moscow, Russia. Antonov said the Russian air strikes in Syria have killed about 35,000 militants, including about 2,700 residents of Russia AP 5/19 Jameel Mustafa Habboush, receives oxygen from civil defence volunteers, known as the white helmets, as they rescue him from under the rubble of a building following Russian air strikes on the rebel-held Fardous neighbourhood of the northern embattled Syrian city of Aleppo Getty 6/19 Civil defence members rest amidst rubble in a site hit by what activists said were airstrikes carried out by the Russian air force in the town of Douma, eastern Ghouta in Damascus, Syria Reuters 7/19 A girl carrying a baby inspects damage in a site hit by what activists said were airstrikes carried out by the Russian air force in the town of Douma, eastern Ghouta in Damascus, Syria Reuters 8/19 Civilians and civil defence members look for survivors at a site damaged after Russian air strikes on the Syrian rebel-held city of Idlib, Syria Reuters 9/19 Civilians and civil defence members carry an injured woman on a stretcher at a site damaged after Russian air strikes on the Syrian rebel-held city of Idlib, Syria Reuters 10/19 Volunteers from Syria Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets, help civilians after Russia carried out its first airstrikes in Syria 11/19 The aftermath of Russian airstrike in Talbiseh, Syria 12/19 Smoke billows from buildings in Talbiseh, in Homs province, western Syria, after airstrikes by Russian warplanes AP 13/19 Russian Air Forces carry out an air strike in the ISIS controlled Al-Raqqah Governorate. Russia's KAB-500s bombs completely destroy the Liwa al-Haqq command unit 14/19 Caspian Flotilla of the Russian Navy firing Kalibr cruise missiles against remote Isis targets in Syria Â© TASS/ITAR-TASS Photo/Corbis 15/19 Russia claimed it hit eight Isis targets, including a "terrorist HQ and co-ordination centre" that was completely destroyed 16/19 A video grab taken from the footage made available on the Russian Defence Ministry's official website, purporting to show an airstrike in Syria 17/19 A release from the Russian defence ministry purportedly showing targets in Syria being hit 18/19 Russia launched air strikes in war-torn Syria, its first military engagement outside the former Soviet Union since the occupation of Afghanistan in 1979. Russian warplanes carried out strikes in three Syrian provinces along with regime aircraft as Putin seeks to steal US President Barack Obama's thunder by pushing a rival plan to defeat Isis militants in Syria 19/19 Caspian Flotilla of the Russian Navy firing Kalibr cruise missiles against remote Isis targets in Syria, a thousand kilometres away. The targets include ammunition factories, ammunition and fuel depots, command centres, and training camps Â© TASS/ITAR-TASS Photo/Corbis

It was the latest call parties in the conflict to be prosecuted by the ICC, after Russia and China vetoed a UN Security Council resolution to refer the Assad regime in 2014.

Both Russian and Syria have denied deliberately killing civilians or breaking international law in the Syrian civil war, saying they are targeting terrorist groups.

Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, issued an appeal to all countries attempting to withdraw from the ICC on Wednesday.

Independent news email Only the best news in your inbox Independent news email Only the best news in your inbox Enter your email address Continue Continue Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid Email already exists. Log in to update your newsletter preferences Register with your social account or click here to log in I would like to receive morning headlines Monday - Friday plus breaking news alerts by email Update newsletter preferences

He said those making the attempt were seeking to “desert victims of the most abominable international crimes” and could not claim their action was based on principle.

“If the State Parties, who apparently have been masquerading in recent years as countries devoted to criminal accountability, want to leave, then they should leave,” Mr al-Hussein added.

“But we are not convinced their position is based entirely on principle. Quite the opposite: it appears to aim more at protecting their leaders from prosecution.”

The commissioner said there was “no substitute” for the ICC, which he hopes will be eventually accepted universally.

“By withdrawing from the Rome Statute, leaders may shield themselves with immunities – but it will be at the cost of depriving their people of the protection of a unique and essential institution,” he warned.

“We face a choice. We can safeguard our societies by standing firm on the principles of justice which anchor this institution.

“Or we can cast away the moorings of law laid down to save the world from horror – and turn away from the screams, as impunity overwhelms men, women and children in wave upon wave of violence.”

The ICC is intended to prosecute and bring to justice those responsible for the worst violations of international law - genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

But far only African defendants have been put on trial and a number of countries including the US, China, India, Pakistan, Indonesia and Turkey have not signed the treaty.

Like Russia - Egypt, Iran and Israel signed but failed to ratify the agreement, making it unlikely their governments could ever be prosecuted by the court. </s> National Security Advisor John Bolton listens as US President Donald Trump addresses the nation on the situation in Syria April 13, 2018 at the White House in Washington, DC.

WASHINGTON – White House National Security Adviser John Bolton unleashed a scathing attack Monday on the International Criminal Court, saying the Trump administration would sanction the court and ban its judges from the U.S. if it moves forward with a probe into alleged U.S. war crimes in Afghanistan.

"The United States will use any means necessary to protect our citizens and those of our allies from unjust prosecution by this illegitimate court," Bolton said in a speech Monday to the conservative Federalist Society. "The ICC is already dead to us."

The ICC has long been controversial, with critics like Bolton suggesting it's a threat to American sovereignty. Supporters say the international court, based in the Netherlands, offers recourse for victims of genocide and other war crimes in lawless countries.

The ICC was first envisioned in 1998 by the Rome Treaty as a tribunal that could prosecute genocide, war crimes and other crimes against humanity. “As a court of last resort, it seeks to complement, not replace, national courts,” the ICC says on its website.

In his speech Monday, Bolton blasted the ICC as a “supranational tribunal" that claims "unfettered discretion to investigate, charge, and prosecute individuals, regardless of whether their countries have acceded to the Rome Statute." The U.S. is not a signatory to the Rome agreement.

"In theory, the ICC holds perpetrators of the most egregious atrocities accountable for their crimes, provides justice to the victims, and deters future abuses,” Bolton told a receptive audience of Federal Society members. “In practice, however, the court has been ineffective, unaccountable, and indeed, outright dangerous.”

Bolton said he made the announcement now because the Trump administration feared the ICC was about to take action in the Afghanistan matter.

Last November, the court’s prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, announced plans to seek a probe into allegations that the U.S. military and CIA personnel were involved in acts of torture in Afghanistan.

"In due course, I will file my request for judicial authorization to open an investigation, submitting that there is a reasonable basis to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed in connection with the armed conflict in Afghanistan," she said at the time.

But Bolton cited another factor in his broadside against the ICC: a possible investigation of Israel, a key U.S. ally. The Palestinians asked the ICC in May to probe alleged human rights abuses by Israel.

"We will not allow the ICC, or any other organization, to constrain Israel's right to self defense," Bolton said Monday.

If the ICC tries to prosecute the U.S., Israel, or other allies, Bolton said the Trump administration would not only sanction the ICC but also any company or state that works with the court in such a probe. The U.S. could even cut off foreign aid to those countries, he said.

"We will remember that cooperation when setting U.S. foreign assistance, military assistance, and intelligence sharing levels," Bolton said.

In a related move, the Trump administration announced Monday it would shutter the Palestine Liberation Organization’s office in Washington – a move that drew an immediate rebuke from Palestinian officials who said the White House is trying to bully them.

The State Department's spokeswoman, Heather Nauert, said the administration was closing the office because the PLO has not been a productive partner in efforts to achieve a peace agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

"The PLO has not taken steps to advance the start of direct and meaningful negotiations with Israel," Nauert said in a statement Monday. "To the contrary, PLO leadership has condemned a U.S. peace plan they have not yet seen and refused to engage with the U.S. government with respect to peace efforts and otherwise.

"The United States continues to believe that direct negotiations between the two parties are the only way forward," she added. "This action should not be exploited by those who seek to act as spoilers to distract from the imperative of reaching a peace agreement. We are not retreating from our efforts to achieve a lasting and comprehensive peace."

Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said in a statement Monday that Monday's announcement was "another affirmation of the Trump administration’s policy to collectively punish the Palestinian people, including by cutting financial support for humanitarian services including health and education."

The Trump administration first threatened to close down the PLO's office in Washington last fall but later backed off. The State Department's decision to finalize that move will further inflame tensions between the U.S. and the Palestinians – coming on the heels of the Trump administration's decision to nix funding for U.S. aid to the West Bank and Gaza and to freeze support for the United Nation's program that supports Palestinian refugees.

"This dangerous escalation shows that the U.S. is willing to disband the international system in order to protect Israeli crimes and attacks against the land and people of Palestine as well as against peace and security in the rest of our region," Erekat said Monday.

He said the Palestinians would "take the necessary measures to protect the rights of our citizens living in the United States to access their consular services."

Human rights advocates and other critics said the twin moves would further undermine America's global standing and cripple U.S. efforts to be seen as a legitimate peace broker in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"The first casualty of this (ICC) decision is America’s credibility when it comes to international justice," said Brett Bruen, who served as director of global engagement in the Obama administration. Bruen said Obama tried to balance concerns about the ICC, in terms of its impact on U.S. national security and sovereignty, with America's role as a champion of rule of law around the world.

"What Bolton is essentially doing is taking one our most powerful deterrents and removing it from the equation, which will result in more gross human rights violations taking place in places like Venezuela and Myanmar," Bruen said. "It will ultimately result in more American blood and treasure having to be spent to remove those who are committing these kinds of war crimes."

Amnesty International also blasted the move and called on the U.S. to join the ICC as a full-fledged member.

“Rather than imposing sanctions, the United States should instead once and for all reaffirm its signature of the Rome Statute establishing the ICC, and support – not impede – its investigations," said Adotei Akwei, deputy director of advocacy and Government Relations at Amnesty International USA.
United Nations officials announce the creation of a new team in Geneva to investigate possible war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide during the Syrian Civil War in order to prepare for future prosecutions of those responsible.