Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission
The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission (KLWCC), also known as the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal (KLWCT), is a Malaysian organisation established in 2007 by the country's former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad to unilaterally investigate war crimes. The KLWCC was instigated as an alternative to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, which Mahathir accused of bias in its selection of cases. The tribunal is not recognised by the United Nations, its verdicts being only symbolic. Governance. The governing body of the KLWCT was established to oversee and investigate complaints from victims of wars  and armed conflict in relation to crimes against peace, war crimes, crimes against humanity and other like offences as recognized under international law. Members of the governance body include: Convictions invoking universal jurisdiction. In November 2011, the tribunal purportedly exercised universal jurisdiction to try "in absentia" former US President George W. Bush and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, convicting both for crimes against peace because of what the tribunal concluded was the unlawful invasion of Iraq. In May 2012 after hearing a testimony from victims of torture at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, the Tribunal unanimously convicted "in absentia" the  former US President George W. Bush, former US Vice President Dick Cheney, former US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, former US Deputy Assistant Attorneys General John Yoo and Jay Bybee, former US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, and former US counselors David Addington and William Haynes II of conspiracy to commit war crimes, specifically torture. The Tribunal referred their findings to the chief prosecutor at the International Court of Justice in the Hague. In November 2013, the Tribunal found Israel guilty of genocide of the Palestinian people. Legitimacy. The former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, Param  Cumaraswamy, called the KLWCT a private enterprise with no legal basis, and questioned its legitimacy. It does not possess a mandate from the United Nations, nor does the UN grant it recognition. It has no power to order arrests or impose sentences, and it is unclear if its verdicts are anything other than symbolic. A statement on the tribunal's website states: "In the event the tribunal convicts any of the accused, the only sanction is that the name of the guilty person will be entered in the Commission’s Register of War Criminals and publicized worldwide." Kuala Lumpur War