The International Criminal Court has made available the text of the decision by its Pre-Trial Chamber to issue a warrant for the arrest of the current President of the Sudan for crimes against humanity – specifically murder, extermination, forcible transfer, torture and rape – and the war crimes of intentionally attacking civilians and pillage. (Violations of articles 7 & 8 of the Rome Statute – see further the second edition of Triffterer’s Commentary on the Rome Statute of the ICC (2008) at Internat 580 T828a2)
The arrest warrant does not mention genocide – one of Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo’s original charges against Al-Bashir, as the majority of the Pre-Trial Chamber judges did not think he had produced sufficient evidence. However, paragraph 207 of the decision reads “Nevertheless, the Majority considers that, if, as a result of the ongoing Prosecution’s investigation into the crimes allegedly committed by Omar Al Bashir, additional evidence on the existence of a GoS’s genocidal intent is gathered, the Majority’s conclusion in the present decision would not prevent the Prosecution from requesting, pursuant to art. 58(6) of the Statute, an amendment to the arrest warrant …. so as to include the crime of genocide.” (See Para 208 re adding other crimes against humanity or war crimes after further investigation.)
The interpretation of genocide may well become a hot topic – watch for developments on the blog Opinio Juris for example …
