{"id":735,"date":"2011-03-02T11:23:29","date_gmt":"2011-03-02T16:23:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www3.law.harvard.edu\/journals\/hlpr\/?p=735"},"modified":"2015-10-02T15:58:05","modified_gmt":"2015-10-02T15:58:05","slug":"un-resolution-on-libya-awkward-for-u-s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/2011\/03\/02\/un-resolution-on-libya-awkward-for-u-s\/","title":{"rendered":"UN Resolution on Libya Awkward for U.S."},"content":{"rendered":"

Marshall Thompson<\/em><\/p>\n

Last week the\u00a0United Nations Security Council<\/a>\u00a0voted unanimously \u201cin swift and decisive action\u201d to refer Muammar Qadhafi\u2019s violent suppression of Libyan protests to the International Criminal Court. As the\u00a0French delegate<\/a>\u00a0put it, the Council\u2019s action will ensure that crimes against humanity won\u2019t go unpunished. It\u2019s a hopeful day for the future of international human rights, and a hopeful day for the people of Libya. There\u2019s just one problem:\u00a0Libya<\/a>\u00a0has never signed on to the ICC.<\/p>\n

This is where it gets awkward. The delegate from\u00a0India<\/a>\u00a0had to point out that there are five members of the 15-member Security Council who, like Libya, are not parties to the Rome Statute that created the ICC. India, China and Lebanon are not parties. Russia has signed, but has not ratified. The United States initially signed the Rome Statute, but then Pres. George W. Bush officially revoked in May of 2002.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

For nations that are not parties to the ICC, it was a delicate (and perhaps hypocritical) matter to assert international jurisdiction over a non-party country. That\u2019s why the resolution included this caveat:<\/p>\n

\u201c[N]ationals, current or former officials or personnel from a State outside the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya which is not a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of that State \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

This of course makes sure that no one from the U.S. will have to\u00a0answer<\/a>\u00a0question<\/a>s from the ICC about waterboarding. It also means that\u00a0Qadhafi-hired mercenaries<\/a>\u00a0from countries like Tunisa could potentially avoid all accountability for their participation in the suppression of peaceful protests.<\/p>\n

Awkward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Marshall Thompson Last week the\u00a0United Nations Security Council\u00a0voted unanimously \u201cin swift and decisive action\u201d to refer Muammar Qadhafi\u2019s violent suppression […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peZQka-bR","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}