Lawyers meet to create international criminal bar association
Fri Jun 14,12:01 AM ET
MONTREAL - Defense lawyers who plan to handle cases at the International Criminal Court were reminded of the risks of representing people charged with war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide — offenses that prompt anger and revenge.
Such clients "will be people who will be hated, and the lawyers who represent them will be hated," defense lawyer Nancy Hollander of Albuquerque, New Mexico, said Thursday to about 350 attorneys from around the world who gathered at a three-day meeting in Montreal.
"But let it never be said that an accused appeared before the International Criminal Court without a lawyer by his or her side."
With the court due to begin operating next March, lawyers from about 80 countries were holding the a three-day meeting aimed at creating an International Criminal Bar to guide their own role in the legal process. The results of the meeting, which ends Saturday, will go to the United Nations ( news - web sites).
The U.S. government opposes the International Criminal Court. U.S. President George W. Bush ( news - web sites) does not want its jurisdiction to apply to American military personnel and political officials.
Canada supports the court and has ratified the Rome Statute establishing it.
The lawyers hope the International Criminal Bar will help ensure accused people are treated fairly by the court.
"The right to a fair trial is there on paper," said Elise Groulx, president of the International Criminal Defense Attorneys Association. "This is to make sure those rights aren't only paper rights."
Hollander said the rule of law hasn't been applied in the case of Brooklyn-born Jose Padilla, who is behind bars and accused of plotting to set off a radioactive "dirty" bomb in the United States.
She said Padilla, 31, who was sought following the arrest of an associate of Osama bin Laden ( news - web sites), has been denied proper access to a lawyer.
Hollander said authorities arrested him getting off a plane from Pakistan on May 8 but they don't have any evidence against him — only the word of an informant that he's associated with al-Qaida.
Padilla's lawyer told him not to talk to investigators. The U.S. government, on a presidential executive decision, put him in a military jail where he can't have access to his counsel, she said.
"This is a very frightening situation," said Hollander.
The world's first permanent war crimes tribunal in April received the ratifications necessary to become a reality on July 1.
The court will fill a gap in the international justice system first recognized by the U.N. General Assembly in 1948 following the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials for World War II's German and Japanese war criminals, respectively.
At present, the International Court of Justice deals with disputes between states. Tribunals have been created for special situations, like the 1994 Rwanda genocide and war crimes in the former Yugoslavia. But no permanent mechanism has held individuals criminally responsible.
Groulx noted that when ad hoc international criminal tribunals looked into war crimes in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, defense lawyers found they were subject to the court registrar, which limited their freedom.
"There was nothing for the defense," said Groulx, of Montreal.
The new court will step in only when countries are unwilling or unable to dispense justice themselves for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and eventually crimes of aggression, when parties agree to a definition.
It will have jurisdiction only over crimes committed after the treaty enters into force. Cases can come to the court through a state that has ratified the treaty, the U.N. Security Council, or the court's prosecutor, who must get the approval of a three-judge panel.
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