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Lest We Forget: Discussing Saddam Hussein’s Crimes And His Trial In The Light Of Individual Criminal Responsibility Under International Law (By- Yagya Bharadwaj)
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Article Details
Lest We Forget: Discussing Saddam
Hussein’s Crimes And His Trial In The Light Of Individual Criminal
Responsibility Under International Law
Authored
By- Yagya Bharadwaj
Abstract
When a leader decides to rule his country according to his whims and
wishes, and thinks himself above everyone else, his ideas and motives are bound
to be corrupted, however innocent and patriotic they may have been in the
beginning. This is what happened in Iraq when Saddam Hussein came to power. The
list of his crimes is long, and the extent of his brutality is almost
unimaginable.
The development of international criminal law makes it possible for State
officials to be held individually liable for the crimes committed by them.
Saddam Hussein was tried in the Iraqi High Tribunal for his crimes against humanity
and sentenced to death.
This paper discusses his crimes and how he violated the international
criminal law during his presidency, and his subsequent trial in Iraq for his
crimes where the tribunal did not give him impunity but held him responsible in
his individual capacity.
KEYWORDS: Saddam Hussein, International Criminal Law, Crimes under International
Law, Rome Statute, Iraqi High Tribunal, Individual Criminal Responsibility
Research
Methodology
The research done for this paper is secondary in nature and the data for this paper were collected from
official documents of treaties and statutes, official websites of the tribunals
mentioned in the paper, articles and books written by academicians and
journalists, and from certain other sources.
This method of research was chosen by me to make content of the paper as credible and impartial as possible.
This method of research was chosen by me to make content of the paper as credible and impartial as possible.
OBJECT
The object behind writing this paper is to once again bring into light
the crimes committed by Saddam Hussein during his presidency in Iraq so that we
do not forget his grave crimes, and understand the extent of crimes that the Head
of a State can be responsible for. Further, to reiterate that the international
criminal law makes it possible to hold individuals, even leaders and State
officials, criminally responsible for their crimes, and that they do not enjoy
impunity.
TABLE OF
CONTENT
Introduction
The
Succession of Saddam
International
Criminal Law
Individual
Criminal Responsibility
Saddam
Hussein’s Crimes as the President of Iraq
Trial of the
Tyrant
Observations
and Concluding Remarks
Introduction
“I guess humans like to watch a
little destruction. Sand castles, houses of cards, that's where they begin.
Their great skill is their capacity to escalate.”
-Markus Zusak, The Book Thief.
If the world history tells us
anything, it is that often when a monarchy is overthrown in the wake of a
revolution, it is eventually replaced by something worse. The revolutionaries
who sought equality and justice end up shedding more blood and oppressing more
communities than their predecessors. The French Revolution of 1789, the Russian
Revolution of 1917, and the 14 July Revolution in Iraq are some examples where
those who came after the monarchs brought more destruction- the Reign of
Terror, the Red Terror, and the coming of Ba’ath party into power, with Saddam
as its leader.
When a leader decides to rule his
country according to his whims and wishes, and thinks himself above everyone
else, his ideas and motives are bound to be corrupted, however innocent and
patriotic they may have been in the beginning. This is what happened in Iraq
when Saddam came into power. The list of his crimes is long, and the extent of
his brutality is almost unimaginable.
The development of international
criminal law makes it possible for State officials to be held individually
liable for the crimes committed by them. While it does not exclude State
responsibility, it does make the individual responsible, and liable for
punishment for those acts that constitute crime under international law[1].
In the further sections of this
paper, I seek to discuss the crimes committed by Saddam Hussein and how he
violated the international criminal law, his subsequent trial, and the extent
of individual criminal responsibility under international law.
1. The Succession Of Saddam
“One does not establish a
dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes a revolution in
order to establish a dictatorship.”
-George Orwell, 1984
In 1968, the Ba’ath Party seized
power from Abdul Rahman Arif, the President of Iraq, and the Iraqi Prime
Minister Tahir Yahya. The government was overthrown during the 17 July coup
d’état which was led by Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr[2],
who became the fourth president of Iraq after the coup’s success. Saddam
participated in the coup and was named al-Bakr’s deputy, and the Deputy
Chairman of the Ba’athist Revolutionary Command Council (RCC)[3]. He
then worked to strengthen the rule of Ba’ath party and helped in expanding the
party’s following and influence.
In the years that followed, Saddam
built a reputation as a progressive, effective politician[4]
and kept accumulating power and favours. He ordered a mandatory literacy
program and also created one of the best public health systems in the Middle
East which earned him an award from United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO)[5].
In 1979 he took over as President
when al-Bakr stepped down. Saddam Hussein served as the fifth president of Iraq
from 16 July 1979 till 9 April 2003. After he became the President, he ordered
the execution of hundreds of members of the Ba’ath Party, accusing them of
disloyalty and treason.
Through his political activities and
authoritarian decisions, he turned the regime into a vehicle for ensuring his
personal power and propagating his own personality cult[6].
2. International Criminal Law
International criminal law is the
body of public international law that prohibits certain categories of conduct
deemed to be serious crimes, regulates procedures governing investigation,
prosecution and punishment of those categories of conduct, and holds perpetrators
individually accountable for their commission. It also includes laws,
procedures and principles relating to modes of liability, defences, evidence,
court procedure, sentencing, victim participation, witness protection, mutual
legal assistance and cooperation issues[7]
Talking about the sources of
international criminal law and given the fact that international criminal law
is a part of public international law, their sources are somewhat the same:
1. Treaties
2. Customary international law
3. General principles of law
4. Judicial decisions
5. Writings of learned jurists
1. Treaties
2. Customary international law
3. General principles of law
4. Judicial decisions
5. Writings of learned jurists
These sources often overlap and
influence each other as reflect each other in some or the other way and the
changes or development in one source is bound to reflect in another when new
cases or issues come up related to international criminal law.
The International Criminal Court
(ICC) and the ad hoc tribunals form the most important institutions of
international criminal law. These institutions were established to hear
international crimes, which are discussed in the next section.
2.1 Crime under International Law
Following World War II, the
International Military Tribunal was created by the Nuremberg Charter to
prosecute certain categories of crime that were committed by the military
officials of Nazi Germany[8].
Similarly, a tribunal was set up in Japan, the International Military Tribunal
for the Far East (IMTFE), commonly known as Tokyo Trial, to try the leaders of
Japanese empire for their crimes immediately before, and during World War II[9].
In both trials, the officials and
leaders were prosecuted for the following three categories of international
crime:
1. Crimes against peace
2. War crimes
3. Crimes against humanity
1. Crimes against peace
2. War crimes
3. Crimes against humanity
Decades later in the 1990s, two ad
hoc tribunals were established by the United Nations (UN) in Yugoslavia and
Rwanda: The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) by
UN Security Council Resolution 827 in May 1993, and the International Criminal
Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) by UN Security Council Resolution 955 in November
1994.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY)
The ICTY, along with being the first
international war crimes tribunal since the Nuremberg and Tokyo, was also the
first war crimes court created by the UN. This establishment was a response to
mass atrocities that were taking place in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina at
the time. The tribunal had authority to prosecute and try individuals on four
categories of offences[10]:
1. Grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva Conventions
2. Violations of the laws of war
3. Genocide
4. Crimes against humanity
1. Grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva Conventions
2. Violations of the laws of war
3. Genocide
4. Crimes against humanity
The key objective of the tribunal was
to hold accountable those individuals who were responsible for horrifying acts
like murder, torture, rape, enslavement etc.
ICTY set precedents for decisions on
genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity and also showed that an
individual’s senior position could not protect them from prosecution, putting
an end to impunity[11].
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR)
The ICTR was established to prosecute
persons responsible for genocide and other serious violations of international
humanitarian law committed in the territory of Rwanda and neighbouring States,
between 1 January 1994 and 31 December 1994.[12]
Following the trial of Jean-Paul Akayesu, it became the first international
tribunal to deliver verdicts against those responsible for genocide, and to
define rape in international criminal law and to recognize it as a means of
perpetrating genocide.[13]
The tribunal also held members of the
media responsible for broadcasts intended to inflame public to commit acts of
genocide and confirmed that the legal doctrine of superior responsibility,
which makes the superior responsible for failing to prevent or punish crimes
committed by their subordinates, applies to civilians in leadership positions[14].
2.2 The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (Rome Statute)
The Rome Statute was adopted in 1998
and came into force in 2002. It established the International Criminal Court
(ICC), its functions, jurisdiction, structure etc.
It is perhaps the most important
document with regard to international crimes as it established the four core
international crimes:
1. Genocide (Article 6)
Under this Statute, "genocide" means any of
the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a
national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such[15]:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
2. Crimes against humanity
(Article 7)
Under the Statute, "crime
against humanity" means any of the following acts when committed as part
of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population,
with knowledge of the attack[16]:
(a) Murder;
(b) Extermination;
(c) Enslavement;
(d) Deportation or forcible transfer of population;
(e) Imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law;
(f) Torture;
(g) Rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity;
(h) Persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender, or other grounds that are universally recognized as impermissible under international law, in connection with any act referred to in this paragraph or any crime within the jurisdiction of the Court;
(i) Enforced disappearance of persons;
(j) The crime of apartheid;
(k) Other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health.
3. War crimes (Article 8)
Under the Statute, "war crimes" means[17]:
(a) Grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, namely, any of the following acts against persons or property protected under the provisions of the relevant Geneva Convention:
Under the Statute, "war crimes" means[17]:
(a) Grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, namely, any of the following acts against persons or property protected under the provisions of the relevant Geneva Convention:
(i) Wilful killing;
(ii) Torture or inhuman treatment, including biological experiments;
(iii) Wilfully causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or health;
(iv) Extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly;
(v) Compelling a prisoner of war or other protected person to serve in the forces of a hostile Power;
(ii) Torture or inhuman treatment, including biological experiments;
(iii) Wilfully causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or health;
(iv) Extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly;
(v) Compelling a prisoner of war or other protected person to serve in the forces of a hostile Power;
(vi) Wilfully depriving a prisoner of war or other protected person of the rights of fair and regular trial;
vii) Unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful confinement;
(viii) Taking of hostages
(b) Other serious violations of the
laws and customs applicable in international armed conflict, within the
established framework of international law[18].
4. Crime of aggression (Article 8 bis)
Under the Statute, “crime of
aggression” means the planning, preparation, initiation or execution, by a
person in a position effectively to exercise control over or to direct the
political or military action of a State, of an act of aggression which, by its
character, gravity and scale, constitutes a manifest violation of the Charter
of the United Nations[19].
Tracing the development of
international law in relation to the addition of new categories of crime and
the elements of the crime is important to understand how criminal jurisprudence
has evolved on an international level and how grave human rights violations by
States or State Officials are not above being held responsible for these
crimes. Additionally, it would also help us in analyzing the extent and gravity
of Saddam Hussein’s crimes.
3. Individual Criminal
Responsibility
“It is forbidden to
kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers
and to the sound of trumpets.”
?
?
Individual criminal responsibility is
a relatively newer concept in international criminal law. As has been discussed
in the previous section of this paper, the Nuremberg and Tokyo international
tribunals tried German military officials and Japanese leaders respectively for
the crimes committed by them that amounted to crime against peace, war crimes,
and crime against humanity.
The Judgment of the Nuremberg Tribunal stated, “crimes against international law are committed by men,
The Judgment of the Nuremberg Tribunal stated, “crimes against international law are committed by men,
not by abstract
entities, and only by punishing individuals who commit such crimes can the
provisions of international law be enforced”, establishing the principle of
individual criminal accountability for all who commit such acts as a
cornerstone of international criminal law[20].
Article 6 of the Charter of Nuremberg
International Military Tribunal established the legal basis for trying
individuals accused of the following acts[21]:
a) Crimes against peace
b) War crimes
c) Crimes against humanity
a) Crimes against peace
b) War crimes
c) Crimes against humanity
Both the Nuremberg and the Tokyo trials
produced a large number of judgments that contributed to expanding the scope of
individual criminal responsibility under international law.
Then in 1950, a report on the
Principles of International Law Recognised in the Charter of the Nuremberg Tribunal
and in the Judgment of the Tribunal was adopted by the International Law
Commission. According to Principle I, any person who commits an act which
constitutes a crime under international law is responsible therefor and liable
to punishment, officially recognizing the fact that individuals may be held
responsible for committing crimes[22].
Further, Principle III and IV provide that a person acting in their capacity as
head of State or as a government official and those acting on the orders of the
government or of a government superior are not relieved of their
responsibility.[23] Also,
Principle VI codifies the three categories of crimes mentioned above.
The setting up of the two ad hoc
tribunals in the 90s i.e. the ICTY and the ICTR, further strengthened the
foundation of individual criminal responsibility. Those who had committed
crimes that violated the Geneva Conventions, including genocide and crimes against
humanity were prosecuted and held liable for punishment. The conviction of
Radislav Krstic for the crimes committed by him in Potocari[24]
and that of Jean Kambanda for genocide and crimes against humanity[25]
are two instances where State Officials holding high positions were held
criminally responsible for their acts.
The principle is now
well expressed in the Preamble of the Rome Statute of 1998, where it affirms
that “the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a
whole must not go unpunished” and that the International Criminal Court aims
“to put an end to impunity for the perpetrators of these crimes and thus to
contribute to the prevention of such crimes.”[26]
Thus, it is an integral part of
international law to hold individuals criminally responsible for the grave
crimes committed by them, no matter their official rank or status.
The next section of the paper
discusses the crimes of Saddam Hussein as the head of State of Iraq. Now that
we have established the responsibility and accountability of State officials
for the crimes of grave concern to the international community, it is easier to
categorize Saddam’s crimes and affirm his violations of the international law
and of human rights.
4. Saddam Hussein’s Crimes As The President Of
Iraq
“Power tends to corrupt, and
absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
-Lord Acton
“When religion and politics travel in
the same cart, the riders believe nothing can stand in their way. Their
movements become headlong - faster and faster and faster. They put aside all
thoughts of obstacles and forget the precipice does not show itself to the man
in a blind rush until it's too late.”
-Frank Herbert, Dune
Saddam, as a leader, was not someone
to look up to. He was a tyrant who abused his power and committed a number of
crimes during his presidency.
The deportation of the Fayli Kurds
The Fayli Kurds are an ethnic group
of Shia Muslims of Iraq, who were regarded as Iranians by the Ba’ath Party
because of their minority and the fact that they lived close to the Iran
border.[27]
The first massive wave of
deportations of the Fayli Kurds took place in 1969, and the second in 1971. The
estimates of those deported were 200,000 people. The third and most horrendous
campaign started in 1980 and involved more than 200,000 people, mostly Fayli
Kurds and some Shiite Arabs and Persians, who settled centuries ago in Iraq.[28] During
the deportation campaign, thousands of Fayli Kurds were persecuted, expelled,
to Iran or killed. Fayli women were often
imprisoned or sent to camps.[29]
This ethnic cleansing of Kurds under Saddam’s regime was just one of his brutal crimes against a community. Going by the definition under Article 8 of the Rome Statute, this was a crime against humanity that Saddam committed against the Kurds, as all of this was done on his orders, and he had knowledge of it all.
This ethnic cleansing of Kurds under Saddam’s regime was just one of his brutal crimes against a community. Going by the definition under Article 8 of the Rome Statute, this was a crime against humanity that Saddam committed against the Kurds, as all of this was done on his orders, and he had knowledge of it all.
The Barzani abductions
In 1983, between 5,000 and 8,000
males belonging to the Barzani clan, some as young as 10 years old, were
abducted on Saddam’s order. This happened after the Kurdish clan reader Masoud
Barzani aligned the forces of his rebel Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) with
the Iranians in the Iran-Iraq war, and this was Saddam’s way of punishing him
for it. Those who were abducted were never seen again.[30] A
month after their disappearance, Saddam Hussein admitted publicly at a
gathering of Kurdish dignitaries that his regime was involved in their
disappearance, strongly hinting the Barzani men were no longer alive.[31]
In 2003, documents were found by
agents working for the Kurdistan Region’s intelligence services that proved
that over 2000 Barzani males were killed by the Iraqi government near Bussia,
in the southern deserts of Iraq. In 2005, three mass graves were located close
to where the borders of Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait meet, and the remains of
500 Barzani males were found[32].
There are other graves yet to be discovered. Evidence of Saddam’s direct involvement in this crime
was found on the discovery of a letter in Baghdad that from his personal
secretary.[33] This
involvement also amounted to crime against humanity under Article 7 of the Rome
Statute.
Anfal campaign
The Anfal campaign, also called the
Anfal genocide[34] was a
campaign by the Ba’athist party that was aimed at eliminating Kurdish rebels.
Gen. Ali Hassan al-Majid, or ‘Chemical Ali’, who was a cousin of Saddam, led
the operation on Saddam’s order and deployed military resources to kill Kurds
in mass. He ordered the use of chemical weapons (hence the name Chemical Ali)
on the Kurdish population, and according to Human Rights Watch estimates,
between 50,000 and
100,000 people were killed. During
the campaign, he also ordered the Iraqi forces to drop bombs containing mustard
and nerve gases on the town of Halabja, killing an estimate of 5000
individuals, including children. The consequences of the poison gas has had a
long-term effect on the area[35].
This campaign has been recognized as
genocide and crime against humanity by some countries, and the mass killing,
the use of chemical weapons, and targeting a particular ethnic group make the
campaign a genocide and a crime against humanity under Article 6 and 8 of the
Rome Statute.
The invasion of Kuwait
In his desperate attempt to acquire
its oil reserves and pay off the debts, Saddam Hussein ordered the invasion of
Kuwait in 1990. And so, Kuwait was invaded and occupied by the Iraqi troops.
During the occupation of Kuwait, a systematic campaign of pillage, torture,
rape, murder, and theft of the country’s economic assets was carried out by
Iraqi troops. It was reported by Amnesty International that the Iraqi soldiers
carried out hundreds of extrajudicial killings and took thousands of Kuwaiti
civilians prisoners[36].
Hundreds of oil wells were set on fire and pipelines were opened, which
resulted in oil spill into the Gulf.
The invasion was a crime of
aggression, going by the definition under Article 8 bis of the Rome Statute,
and the acts of Iraqi troops constituted war crimes.
Saddam was not convicted for any of
the crimes mentioned above, or for some of the other crimes by him like
destruction campaign against the Marsh Arabs, the attack on Kurdish and Shiite
rebels. All the people who disappeared and were never seen again, all the
children who died without getting a chance to see the world, all the women who
lost their husbands and male children, and were raped and tortured, all the
males whose bodies were thrown into mass graves and have not been discovered
yet- they were all his victims.
5. Trial Of The Tyrant
In 2003, American forces carried out
Operation Red Dawn that led to the capture of Saddam Hussein from his hiding
place in a hole in the ground somewhere near Tikrit. He was then taken to the
American base near Baghdad.
In December 2003, the Iraqi Special
Tribunal was created by the Iraqi Interim Government to try Saddam Hussein and
those who aided him in his crimes. It was renamed in 2005 as the Iraqi High
Tribunal (IHT) after the Statute
establishing it was revoked and replaced by an amended one.[37]
The Tribunal had been established to
try Iraqi nationals and residents accused of genocide, crimes against humanity,
war crimes, and such other serious crimes that had been committed between July
1968 and May 2003. But the primary object was the prosecution of Saddam and his
aides.
While Saddam had also been accused of
the crimes that are mentioned in the previous section of this paper, he was not
tried for them, the main reason being his conviction and execution for the
first crime that he was charged with i.e. the massacre of 148 Shiites from
Dujail.
This attack in Dujail had come after
a failed assassination attempt on Saddam. After the incident, more than a
thousand people were rounded up and taken to detention centres. The town of
Dujail was destroyed, and houses and orchards were bulldozed.[38]
On November 5, 2006, Saddam was
convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death by hanging for his
crimes in Dujail. Other defendants like Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, Taha Yassin
Ramadan, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar were also tried and sentenced.
5.1 Why was Saddam not tried in the International Criminal Court?
The International Criminal Court
(ICC) investigates and, where warranted, tries individuals charged with the
gravest crimes of concern to the international community: genocide, war crimes,
crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression.[39]
Even though Saddam had been accused
of all of these crimes, why was he not tried in ICC but in IHT?
The ICC was established in 2002 and can hear only those crimes which were committed since July 2002, and not the ones before that. It has no retrospective effect. This was a reason why the ICC could not prosecute Saddam Hussein and those who were involves as aides in his crimes. Another reason was that neither Iraq nor the United States was a party to the ICC treaty, and so a special resolution would have had to be passed by the United Nations Security Council to refer the matter to the Court.
The ICC was established in 2002 and can hear only those crimes which were committed since July 2002, and not the ones before that. It has no retrospective effect. This was a reason why the ICC could not prosecute Saddam Hussein and those who were involves as aides in his crimes. Another reason was that neither Iraq nor the United States was a party to the ICC treaty, and so a special resolution would have had to be passed by the United Nations Security Council to refer the matter to the Court.
Further, a trial in Iraq by a local
court was a way of closure for Iraqi people who had suffered so much under his
rule with no control over their fate for more than two decades[40].
Questions were raised about Saddam’s
trial, asking if it was fair and according to the international standards.
Also, his execution was opposed by some, and welcomed by others. Whether his
trial was fair and his execution just is an entirely different debate.
Observations And Concluding Remarks
Blot out his name, then, record one lost soul more,
One task more declined, one more footpath untrod,
One more devils'-triumph and sorrow for angels,
One wrong more to man, one more insult to God!
One task more declined, one more footpath untrod,
One more devils'-triumph and sorrow for angels,
One wrong more to man, one more insult to God!
-
Robert Browning, The Lost Leader
The history of dictatorship has been
violent. Dictators, once they come to power, forget that the rule of law
exists, and that human rights do not come from the State but from the virtue of
being human. Saddam was one of many who thought themselves above law and
accountability. During his lifetime, especially during his presidency, he was
responsible for the gravest of crimes and for extreme violations of human
rights.
Tyrants like Adolf Hitler and Joseph
Stalin could not be tried in a court of law for their crimes. If they had been
tried, most likely they would also have been sentenced to death for killing
millions. Mass killings, extreme human rights violations, terrorism, and
dictatorship are not a thing of the past, but those responsible are not always brought
to justice.
The application of international
criminal law on criminals who commit crimes like genocide, crimes against
humanity, war crimes and genocide (the core crimes under international law as
established by the Rome Statute) becomes necessary because such crimes do not
affect one person or one nation, but the whole international community, and are
often committed by those whose very job was to safeguard the human rights of
others and uphold the rule of law.
When human rights violations take place
on such large scales, when people are persecuted and killed for belonging to a
particular race community, religion, or gender, the trial and conviction of
those responsible becomes a necessity.
Saddam Hussein, as a Head of State,
did not only commit those crimes, but also violated the fundamental principles
of humanitarian law. Even though the ICC has jurisdiction to try the crimes he
committed, his trial at the court was not possible because of Jurisdiction ratione
temporis, meaning
that the ICC can try only those crimes that were committed after the Rome
Statute came into force[41].
Saddam’s trial in the Iraqi High
Tribunal ended with his conviction and death sentence for the massacre in
Dujail, which was a lesser crime compared to his other heinous ones. He was
given death penalty, which is the most severe punishment a modern court or
tribunal can give, but whether justice was done remains debatable.
The concept of individual criminal
responsibility has expanded the scope of international criminal law. The ICTY,
ICTR, and Rome Statute have made it possible to hold not only the State but
also individuals responsible for crimes under international law, and impunity
of State officials has come to an end.
To state the obvious, no one is above
law. Those in positions of power cannot claim impunity for the crimes they
commit and the laws they violate. The development of national and international
laws have strengthened the legal framework to deal with violations of human
rights, and even with great power does not come immunity from criminal
responsibility.
Article Information
Lest We Forget: Discussing Saddam Hussein’s Crimes And His Trial In The Light Of Individual Criminal Responsibility Under International Law (By- Yagya Bharadwaj)
Authors: Yagya Bharadwaj
- Journal IJLRA
- ISSN 2582-6433
- Published 2022/08/22
- Volume 2
- Issue 7
About Journal
International Journal for Legal Research and Analysis
- Abbreviation IJLRA
- ISSN 2582-6433
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