Tag Archives: Complicity
12 March 2013
There is a wide diversity of actions by which states can aid or assist other states in the commission of an internationally wrongful act. Well known examples, listed in the Commentary to the ILC Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts, include providing arms, funding or training, or other material support to foreign states that use such recourses in the commission of a wrong. The Independent reports a policy that hitherto has not been widely documented; stripping people of their nationality. Also Lawfare has blogged on the policy.
The reported facts suggest that since 2010, the United Kingdom (UK) Home Secretary has revoked the passports of 16 individuals, many of whom were alleged of having links to terrorist or militant groups. The legal basis for this was a 2002 law, enabling the Home Secretary to remove the citizenship of any dual nationals, if doing so would be in the public interest. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism has been able to establish that some of these people were subsequently killed by American drone attacks. (more…)
17 January 2013
The French corporation Amesys is being investigated for complicity in acts of torture by supplying communications surveillance equipment to the Gaddafi regime. The complaint filed by human rights associations in October 2011 had been considered inadmissible by the Prosecutor, but on 15 January 2013 the Court of Appeal of Paris allowed the investigation to proceed.
The role of Amesys and other companies in providing surveillance materials to the Libyan regime has been revealed by the Wall Street Journal in August 2011.
Source: FIDH | Amesys Case: The Investigation Chamber green lights the investigative proceedings on the sale of surveillance equipment by Amesys to the Khadafi regime
Source: Le Figaro | Libye: feu vert à l'enquête sur Amesys
25 September 2012
The continuing conflict in Syria has raised many questions of shared responsibility (see, for example, here and here). This blog post will discuss the issue of the provision of weapons and other military equipment to Syria.
In June this year, Human Rights Watch urged governments and companies around the world to stop signing new contracts (and evaluate existing contracts) with arms suppliers that are providing weapons to the Syrian government, such as the Russian firm Rosoboronexport, and suggested that those providing weapons to the Syrian regime could be regarded as being complicit in the crimes committed by the Syrian army. (more…)
7 November 2011
Germany paid officials of other States such as Sierra Leone to issue identity documents for asylum seekers that arrive in Germany without any indication of their countries of origin. The lack of identity documents is a very frequent phenomenon among persons that flee from places of persecution.
Source: www.sueddeutsche.de
26 September 2011
A new book on ‘Complicity and the Law of State Responsibility’, written by Helmut Philipp Aust, has recently been published by Cambridge University Press.
In an honest, critical and thoroughly researched manner Aust covers several SHARES issues through the lens of a principle of complicity. His definition of complicity is thereby inspired by Article 16 of the ILC Articles on State responsibility (ILC ASR). This Article (on ‘aid and assistance’) and Article 41 ASR (on non-assistance, non-recognition and cooperation in the face of serious violations of peremptory norms of international law) consequently form the main focus of the book. The study in detail addresses the content of these Articles and their relation to an international legal system that in Aust’s view increasingly involves an international rule of law and community interests. In doing so, it touches upon several adjacent SHARES issues such as the ‘Monetary Gold principle’ and bilateralism in international law. More information about the book can be found here.
Source: http://www.cambridge.org
