Lebanese Prime Minister’s assassination case in light of the International Criminal Law
No doubt that establishing a fact finding mission by the UN Secretary General as decided by the Security Counsel to investigate the assassination of the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik El Harriri, carries significant implications. This raises the question whether international courts are competent to exercise jurisdiction over the Prime Minister’s assassination. The existing international courts are of three kinds

The first kind is the Ad hoc tribunals, which were formed by the resolution of the Security Counsel according to Chapter VII of the UN Charter, such as the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia.

The second kind is mixed international tribunals. These tribunals are of mixed legal character and usually are established through an international agreement between the UN and the concerned states. An example of that is the case of sierra Leon and East Timor

The third type is the permanent criminal courts and the sole example is the International Criminal Court established by Rome Statutes 1998.

The establishment of mixed international tribunals requires certain pre requisites and conditions such as the inability or the collapse of the domestic judicial system. This case does not apply to the Lebanese situation; hence this article limits itself to cover the other two kinds of tribunals

As for the possibility of establishing an ad hoc tribunal, that requires the establishment of an ad hoc tribunal for Lebanon through a Security Counsel resolution under Chapter VII of the UN charter. Under Chapter VII, the Security Counsel has the power to take any measures to preserve world peace and security. This scenario is theoretically possible, but in practice the Security Counsel has been reluctant to establish more ad hoc tribunals since the establishment of the ICTY and the ICTR ,and that is due to many reasons among which is the huge financial burden. The budget of the two ad hoc tribunals for Yugoslavia and Rwanda is around 100 million dollar annually. Therefore this scenario seems to be slim.

With respect to the possibility of bringing the case before the International Criminal Court, it is not disputable that the Rome Statute applies by territoriality among the ratifying states. Several researchers and analysts have discarded the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court on core crimes that took place in non member state, such as Lebanon. However this article argues that there is still a possibility for the International Criminal Court to exercise jurisdiction over the recent crimes that took place in Lebanon under certain conditions and limitations.

The personal, territorial, temporal and subjective jurisdiction should be available so that the international criminal court can be considered competent to rule in this case.
 

In the case of this assassination, and previous persecutions, the temporal jurisdiction is fulfilled, since the assassination took place after the Rome Statute came into force (article 11 of the Rome Statute). As to the territorial and personal competence, the Court, in abstract, has jurisdiction on crimes that took place on the territory of a contracting country, unless the suspected bares the nationality of one of the contracting countries. Nevertheless article 13 _ part B of the of the Court allows the security counsel under Chapter VII of the UN charter to refer a case to the international court general prosecutor In this case the international criminal court is competent to rule in such cases regardless whether the state is a contracting or non-contracting country. For in this case the competence of the court derives from chapter seven of the UN charter.
 

As to the subjective competence, it is known that the international criminal court is competent to rule in three core crimes; Genocide, War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity. The assassination of the Prime Minister Hariri cannot be considered in itself as a Crime against Humanity, unless the crime was committed as part of a systematic plan against a certain group of people. The occurrence of several crimes of killing in a systematic way and targeting certain group of people (the Lebanese opposition) can meet the definition of Crime against Humanity under the Rome Statute (article 7 / part one of the Rome Statute). Based on the above requirement, it can be concluded that the international criminal court can be considered competent to rule in the case of the assassination. (Published in Annahar Newspaper / 25 of March 2005)
Nidal N Jurdi
International Law Department

Do Prisoners Have Rights?

“A prisoner is a Human Being; we should not deprive his Humanity;

A Prisoner is a Citizen; we should not deprive his Dignity”

(Me. Salim Osta)

Watching the international arena and in particular focusing on inhuman and degrading treatments in Guantanamo Bay, Khiam Prison, and Abu Graib; no one can deny the atrocities of torture that tackled militants and specifically civilians that were detained in the name of stability, security and justice.

Then, zooming towards the domestic level, Lebanon; although passed and is still passing through a political turmoil, should never allow its reputation to be stamped by mal-practices and ill-treatment of prisoners. This subject was largely debated in the last months of year 2004 and till today some interested parties, individuals and NGOs are working on this subject to alleviate the condition of prisons in Lebanon for a better living condition. Moreover, a source of positive pressure has arisen; this major source is constituted of the parents of the prisoners and the Human rights Committee of the Parliamentary Council. A hard work is being undertaken to provide better relief and to attain higher achievements.

Article 10 of United Nations Standard Minimum Rules of the Treatment of Prisoner’s states basic requirements to be met in any prison stating that: “ all sleeping accommodation shall meet all requirements of health, due regard being paid to climatic conditions and particularly to cubic content of air, minimum floor space, lighting, heating and ventilation”.

The most flagrant accusation addressed by the pressure groups and pointed to the Lebanese government was over crowded cells. It happened to have 60 prisoners in one cell and for only one bathroom which contradicts the standards on the UN minimum rules. Again, Mr. Atef Majdalani declared that “Barbar Khazen”, women’s prison in Verdun, encloses 150 women distributed upon 5 rooms in a location not convenient for sufficient sun exposure. Exposure to the sun is primary for prisoners to stay healthy, energetic and to fight diseases; whereby it is suggested in art.21(1) of the UN Minimum Standards that: “every prisoner who is not employed in outdoor work shall have at least one hour of suitable exercise in the open air daily if the weather permits”.

Then, cells should be equipped to have adequate conditions of living by insuring minimum standards of hygiene, medical care (art.26), closing and bedding (art.17), books (art 40), and mainly a regular contact with the outside world (art.37) for a better well-being of the psychologies of prisoners.

Some officials declared that there are two buildings in Roumieh where religious practices are forbidden. Would this go hand by hand with human rights and the freedoms of belief and expression? As per article 3 of the Basic Principles for the treatment of Prisoners (1990): “religious beliefs and cultural percepts” ought to be respected. As commonly widespread in Lebanon, religion and faith help prisoners overcome long years of imprisonment and accordingly prison wardens should provide prisoners with sacred books if asked.

A prison should be an institution that ensures healthy and constructive individuals in society and especially detainees under 18 years old who should get special care and treatment to have more healthy generations who do not inflict danger on the Lebanese society.

Physical and psychological tortures are never accepted in any prison or any detention center, there is never a reason that justifies ill treatment of prisoners since this would develop major complications for the prisoners afterwards. Torture is seen as the most serious human rights violations and constitutes a direct attack on human dignity. In the Convention against torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatments or punishment, torture is defined as “any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him… Lebanon who signed the UN torture agreement should submit a report each four years to the UN convention against Torture (CAT), however Lebanon has failed to meet its international obligations especially that Amnesty international has reported of torture methods applied in Palestinian Camps of Lebanon and no measures are being taken to alleviate this situation

The budget allocated for food alimentation in Lebanese prisons is estimated to 2.5 Billion Lebanese Lira annually considered as a burden on the government. Whereas, in Swifa Prison of Jordan, prisoners are being able to add income to the budget by implementing small businesses to the government, as taking care of 35 000 olive tree, being the only national producers of military uniforms, manufacturers of car plates, etc…In this way, prisoners are not a burden anymore but a major source of income. Furthermore, allocating efforts and the know-how of prisoners in small businesses alleviates their psychological status and enhances the target of making them better individuals. Besides, teaching them some skills is an excellent vocational training for post-imprisonment period, in order to reintegrate into society prepared.

Recommendations and remedies to be proposed starts by abiding to legally binding documents of Human Rights and in a later stage to the non-legally binding documents where all the details of minimum standards and treatment of prisoners are set in details. .Major human rights documents are the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the UN Minimum Standards Rules of the Treatment of Prisoners, the Four Geneva Conventions, Basic Principles for the Treatment of Prisoners and all regional and international conventions related to Torture. Another major remedy is letting Human Rights Committees, social institutions and NGOs to have more say and impact on the condition of prisoners’ rights in Lebanon (art.10 in Basic Principles for Treatment of Prisoners). Moreover, Lebanon has to follow the motivating strategy that Europe follows in releasing prisoners before the end of his exact judgment period if he holds a positive behavior in prison to encourage good intentioned people.

To put in a nut shell, a prison, besides being a symbol of punishment, is a major institution for criminals to graduate as constructive and productive people who reintegrate society peacefully. Those individuals should be socially and politically aware of building a unified nation with a high level of democracy and human rights practices.

Zeina Mohanna
Human Rights Department