Stephen Rapp
Stephen J. Rapp (born January 26, 1949) is an American lawyer and the former United States Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues in the Office of Global Criminal Justice. Career Rapp has been a lawyer in private practice, a Democratic member of the Iowa House of Representatives, and a Staff Director and Counsel for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. Rapp ran for the U.S. House of Representatives for Iowa's 3rd congressional district twice, losing to Charles Grassley. From 1993 to 2001, Rapp was the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa. In 2001, he joined the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, where he led the prosecution in the "Media Trial" against the leaders of the RTLM radio station and Kangura newspaper for inciting the Rwandan genocide of 1994. He became the Chief of Prosecutions of the ICTR in 2005, and continued to assist Chief Prosecutor Hassan Jallow in prosecuting those involved in the 1994 genocide. In 2007, Rapp succeeded Desmond de Si ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
United States Ambassador-at-Large For War Crimes Issues
The United States Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice is the head of the Office of Global Criminal Justice in the United States Department of State. The ambassador-at-large advises the United States Secretary of State and the Under Secretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights directly and formulates U.S. policy responses to atrocities committed in areas of conflict and elsewhere throughout the world. As the President’s envoy, this Ambassador travels worldwide engaging heads of state and international organizations to build bilateral and international support for U.S. policies. As part of this, the Ambassador visits affected countries and engages a range of diplomatic, legal, economic, military, and intelligence tools to help secure peace and stability and build the rule of law. As the head of the Office of Global Criminal Justice, this Ambassador also has the rank of Assistant Secretary. David Scheffer served as the first U.S. Ambassador ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Charles Grassley
Charles Ernest Grassley (born September 17, 1933) is an American politician serving as the president pro tempore emeritus of the United States Senate, and the senior United States senator from Iowa, having held the seat since 1981. In 2022, he was reelected to his eighth Senate term, having first been elected in 1980. A member of the Republican Party, Grassley served eight terms in the Iowa House of Representatives (1959–1975) and three terms in the United States House of Representatives (1975–1981). He has served three stints as Senate Finance Committee chairman during periods of Republican Senate majority. When Orrin Hatch's Senate term ended on January 3, 2019 following his retirement, Grassley became the most senior Republican in the Senate and its president pro tempore. During his four decades in the Senate, Grassley has chaired the Senate Finance Committee, the Senate Narcotics Committee, the Senate Judiciary Committee, and the Senate Aging Committee. Early life ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
State Department
The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy of the United States, foreign policy and foreign relations of the United States, relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other nations, its primary duties are advising the President of the United States, U.S. president on international relations, administering List of diplomatic missions of the United States, diplomatic missions, negotiating international treaties and agreements, and representing the United States at the United Nations Security Council, United Nations conference. Established in 1789 as the first administrative arm of the Executive branch of the U.S. Government, U.S. executive branch, the State Department is considered among the most powerful and prestigious executive agencies. It is headed b ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Sierra Leone Civil War
The Sierra Leone Civil War (1991–2002), or the Sierra Leonean Civil War, was a civil war in Sierra Leone that began on 23 March 1991 when the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), with support from the special forces of Liberia, Liberian dictator Charles Taylor (Liberian politician), Charles Taylor's National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), intervened in Sierra Leone in an attempt to overthrow the Joseph Momoh government. The resulting civil war lasted 11 years, enveloped the country, and left over 50,000 dead.Gberie, p. 6 During the first year of the war, the RUF took control of large swathes of territory in eastern and southern Sierra Leone, which were rich in alluvial diamonds. The government's ineffective response to the RUF, and the disruption in government diamond production, precipitated a military ''coup d'état'' in April 1992 by the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC).Gberie, p. 103 By the end of 1993, the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces, Sierra Leone Ar ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
International Criminal Law
International criminal law (ICL) is a body of public international law designed to prohibit certain categories of conduct commonly viewed as serious atrocities and to make perpetrators of such conduct criminally accountable for their perpetration. The core crimes under international law are genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of aggression. Classical international law governs the relationships, rights, and responsibilities of states. After World War II, the Charter of the International Military Tribunal and the following Nuremberg trial revolutionized international law by applying its prohibitions directly to individuals, in this case the defeated leaders of Nazi Germany, thus inventing international criminal law. After being dormant for decades, international criminal law was revived in the 1990s to address the war crimes in the Yugoslav Wars and the Rwandan genocide, leading to the establishment of a permanent International Criminal Court in 2001. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Charles Taylor (Liberia)
Charles McArthur Ghankay Taylor (born 28 January 1948) is a former Liberian politician and convicted warlord who served as the 22nd president of Liberia from 2 August 1997 until his resignation on 11 August 2003, as a result of the Second Liberian Civil War and growing international pressure. Born in Arthington, Montserrado County, Liberia, Taylor earned a degree at Bentley College in the United States before returning to Liberia to work in the government of Samuel Doe. After being removed for embezzlement and imprisoned in Massachusetts by President Doe, Taylor would escape prison in 1989. He eventually arrived in Libya, where he was trained as a guerrilla fighter. He returned to Liberia in 1989 as the head of a Libyan-backed rebel group, the National Patriotic Front of Liberia, to overthrow the Doe government, initiating the First Liberian Civil War (1989–1996). Following Doe's execution, Taylor gained control of a large portion of the country and became one of the most promi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Special Court For Sierra Leone
The Special Court for Sierra Leone, or the "Special Court" (SCSL), also called the Sierra Leone Tribunal, was a judicial body set up by the government of Sierra Leone and the United Nations to "prosecute persons who bear the greatest responsibility for serious violations of international humanitarian law and Sierra Leonean law" committed in Sierra Leone after 30 November 1996 and during the Sierra Leone Civil War. The court's working language was English. The court listed offices in Freetown, The Hague, and New York City. Following its dissolution in 2013, it was replaced by the Residual Special Court for Sierra Leone in order to complete its mandate and manage a variety of ongoing and ad-hoc functions, including witness protection and support, supervision of prison sentences and claims for compensation. On 26 April 2012, former Liberian President Charles Taylor became the first African head of state to be convicted for his part in war crimes. Origin On 12 June 2000, Sierra ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Sir Desmond Lorenz De Silva
Sir George Desmond Lorenz de Silva, (13 December 1939 – 2 June 2018) was a British criminal law barrister and international lawyer who served as the United Nations Chief War Crimes Prosecutor in Sierra Leone. Early life Desmond de Silva was of Sri Lanka, Sri Lankan, English, and Scottish descent, and comes from a family of lawyers. He was the son of Fredrick de Silva MBE, formerly Ceylon's ambassador to France and Switzerland, and his wife Esme Gregg de Silva; a grandson of George E. de Silva; and a second cousin of Lasantha Wickrematunge. Educated at Dulwich College Preparatory School, London, and Trinity College, Kandy, Sri Lanka, de Silva trained as a barrister at the Middle Temple, London. "De Silva, Rt Hon. Sir Desmond (George Lorenz)", in '' Who's Who and Who Was Who'', online edition, https://doi.org/10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U13560 Published 01 December 2018: "De Silva, Rt Hon. Sir Desmond (George Lorenz) (13 Dec. 1939–2 June 2018), QC 1984; international lawye ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Hassan Bubacar Jallow
Hassan Bubacar Jallow (born 14 August 1951) is a Gambian judge who has served as Chief Justice of the Gambia since February 2017. He was the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) from 2003 to 2016, and Prosecutor of the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT) from 2012 to 2016, both at the rank of United Nations Under Secretary-General. He served as Minister of Justice and Attorney General from 1984 to 1994 under President Dawda Jawara. Early life and education Jallow was born in Bansang, British Gambia on 14 August 1951. He was the son of Abubacar Jallow (d. 1997), an Imam and Islamic Scholar. He attended Saint Augustine's High School in Banjul from 1963 to 1969, and the Gambia High School from 1969 to 1971. He studied at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in 1973 and graduated in 1976. He became a barrister-at-law in Nigeria in 1977 after studying for a year at the Nigerian Law School in Lagos. He acquired a master's de ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Rwandan Genocide
The Rwandan genocide occurred between 7 April and 15 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War. During this period of around 100 days, members of the Tutsi minority ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Twa, were killed by armed Hutu militias. The most widely accepted scholarly estimates are around 500,000 to 662,000 Tutsi deaths. In 1990, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a rebel group composed mostly of Tutsi refugees, invaded northern Rwanda from their base in Uganda, initiating the Rwandan Civil War. Over the course of the next three years, neither side was able to gain a decisive advantage. In an effort to bring the war to a peaceful end, the Rwandan government led by Hutu president, Juvénal Habyarimana signed the Arusha Accords (Rwanda), Arusha Accords with the RPF on 4 August 1993. The catalyst became assassination of Juvénal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira, Habyarimana's assassination on 6 April 1994, creating a power vacuum and ending peace accords. Gen ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Kangura
''Kangura'' was a Kinyarwanda and French-language magazine in Rwanda that served to stoke ethnic hatred in the run-up to the Rwandan genocide. The magazine was established in 1990, following the invasion of the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), and continued publishing up to the genocide. Edited by Hassan Ngeze, the magazine was a response to the RPF-sponsored ''Kanguka'', adopting a similar informal style. "Kangura" was a Rwandan word meaning "wake others up", as opposed to "Kanguka", which meant "wake up".Linda Melvern, ''Conspiracy to Murder: The Rwandan Genocide'', Verso, 2004, , p. 49 The journal was based in Gisenyi. The magazine was the print equivalent to the later-established Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM), publishing articles harshly critical of the RPF and of Tutsis generally. Its sensationalist news was passed by word-of-mouth through the largely illiterate population. Copies of ''Kangura'' were read in public meetings and, as the genocide ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Radio Télévision Libre Des Mille Collines
(RTLM) ( rw, Radiyo yigenga y'imisozi igihumbi) was a Rwandan radio station which broadcast from July 8, 1993 to July 31, 1994. It played a significant role in inciting the Rwandan genocide that took place from April to July 1994, and has been described by some scholars as having been a ''de facto'' arm of the Hutu government. The station's name is French for "Free Radio and Television of the Thousand Hills", deriving from the description of Rwanda as ''"Land of a Thousand Hills"''. It received support from the government-controlled Radio Rwanda, which initially allowed it to transmit using their equipment. Widely listened to by the general population, it projected hate propaganda against Tutsis, moderate Hutus, Belgians, and the United Nations Mission Assistant to Rwanda (UNAMIR). It is regarded by many Rwandan citizens (a view also shared and expressed by the UN war crimes tribunal) as having played a crucial role in creating the atmosphere of charged racial hostility tha ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |