ASIL Side Event: Crimes Against Humanity: From Draft Articles to Treaty in 2024?
In 2022, the U.N. General Assembly’s (UNGA) Sixth Committee adopted a resolution on the International Law Commission’s 2019 Draft Articles on Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Humanity (CAH), establishing a two-year process for exchange of “substantive views” on the draft articles in April of 2023 and 2024, with a decision on next steps in Fall 2024.
A CAH treaty based on the draft articles would require States to prevent and punish CAH; provides for interstate cooperation; and confers jurisdiction on the International Court of Justice. The treaty could also progressively develop the definition of CAH, provide for capacity-building, and establish a treaty mechanism.
This panel will examine key questions before the UNGA in 2024:
1) Why are States generally supporting a new CAH treaty based upon the draft articles?
2) What would be the relationship of any new treaty to the Rome Statute for the International Criminal Court and the new Ljubljiana-Hague Treaty on Mutual Legal Assistance?
3) What political and legal challenges might block moving to treaty negotiations?
4) How will civil society demands for sexual, gender-based, and reproductive violence crimes; environmental crimes; or the crime of slavery and the slave trade play out during future treaty negotiations?
Featuring:
- Akila Radhakrishnan, Strategic Legal Advisor, Gender Justice, Atlantic Council
- Professor Leila Sadat, James Carr Professor of International Criminal Law and Director of the Crimes Against Humanity Initiative at Washington University in Saint Louis College of Law
- Ambassador Beth Van Schaack,Office of Global Criminal Justice, U.S. State Department
- Pablo Arrocha Olabuenaga, Mexican Diplomat specialized in public international law
- Chair, Professor Hannah R. Garry, Executive Director, The Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA Law
Short Presentations followed by Roundtable Q/A
Friday, April 5
3:30 PM Eastern Time
ASIL Annual Meeting, Room: Columbia 3-4
This side-event is co-sponsored by the American Society of International Law, the Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute, the Crimes Against Humanity Initiative at Washington University in Saint Louis College of Law and The Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA Law.