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Annual Kleh Lecture featuring Dr. Charles C. Jalloh "Crimes Against Humanity at the International Law Commission"

Crimes against humanity are always in the news. Today, in relation to the conflict in the Middle East. Last year and the year before that, regarding Myanmar, Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan and the Congo. What is less known is that the legal framework of international law for the investigation and prosecution of that core crime under international law remains underdeveloped and there is no global treaty for the prosecution of the crime. It is for that reason that, in 2017, the International Law Commission (“ILC”), which was established by the UN General Assembly in 1947 to assist States with the promotion of the progressive development of international law and its codification, adopted on second reading in 2019 a set of draft articles on crimes against humanity. The draft articles seek to help fill the present gap in the law of international crimes since States criminalized genocide in 1948 and war crimes in 1949, but missed the opportunity to do so for crimes against humanity. This lecture, taking as a point of departure recent events, examines the final text, as submitted to States in August 2019, using the lens of the ILC’s two-pronged mandate of codification and progressive development. In the first part of the lecture, I explain how the ILC selects new topics and the reasons why it decided to study crimes against humanity with the view to proposing a convention. In the second part, I discuss positive features of the draft crimes against humanity convention, highlighting key aspects of each of the draft articles. In the third part, I examine challenges posed by the ILC’s definition of the crime in relation to immunities, amnesties, and the lack of a proposal on a treaty monitoring mechanism. It is submitted that, if the General Assembly takes forward the ILC’s draft text to conclude a new crimes against humanity treaty, as reflected in the ongoing consideration of the topic in the Sixth Committee of the General Assembly, this will make a significant contribution to the clarity and consistency in the application of international criminal law by providing a more robust legal framework for national investigations and prosecutions of crimes against humanity.

When 12:45 pm - 2:00 pm on 20 November 2023
Building LAW, 765 Commonwealth Ave
Room Barristers Hall
Contact Email lawevent@bu.edu
Contact Organization LAW Marketing & Communications
Fees free
Open To public
Speakers Dr. Charles C. Jalloh