Ignorantia Facti Excusat? The Viability of Due Diligence As a Model to Establish International Criminal Accountability for Corporate Actors Purchasing Natural Resources from Conflict Zones

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniilla Dam
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Due Diligence ◽  
Conflict Zones

scholarly journals The European Union and natural resources that fund armed conflicts: Explaining the EU’s policy choice for supply chain due-diligence requirements

2018 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 407-425 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martijn C Vlaskamp
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Policy Design ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
Due Diligence ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Conflict Zones ◽  
Resource Governance ◽  
Conflict Minerals ◽  
The Eu

Natural resources can be an important source of funding for warring parties in armed conflicts. Curbing the trade in these so-called conflict resources is, therefore, part of the European Union’s conflict management policies. The article explores the EU’s policies in this field and asks, specifically, why the EU is using supply chain due-diligence measures to achieve this goal. The author argues that they are the response to enforcement problems of most existing multilateral and unilateral sanction regimes because of state weakness in the targeted regions. This approach results from a broader idea from the EU that transparency can improve resource governance and, therefore, safeguard both its political and economic interests in conflict zones, such as the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. However, when the issue becomes specific—as in the EU Conflict Minerals Regulation—translating this idea into concrete policies becomes more contentious as the EU institutions set different priorities for the final policy design.

THE PITFALLS OF UNILATERAL LEGISLATION IN INTERNATIONAL LAW: LESSONS FROM CONFLICT MINERALS LEGISLATION

2020 ◽  
Vol 69 (3) ◽  
pp. 685-717
Author(s):  
Phoebe Okowa
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
International Law ◽  
Civil Disobedience ◽  
The United States ◽  
Conflict Zones ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
Conflict Minerals ◽  
Meaningful Participation ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Eu

AbstractThis article examines the compatibility of the extraterritorial application of unilateral legislation with the project of international law. Focusing on two instruments, the Dodd-Frank Act passed by the United States Congress and intended to regulate the activities of US listed companies operating in the Congo and the EU conflict minerals legislation, the article challenges their underlying premises that revenues from natural resources perpetuate conflict and resulting human rights abuses. In so far as these instruments make no provision for meaningful participation by the foreign populations which are the objects of legislation, it is argued that there is a tension between these unilateral instruments and the basic premises of law-making in international law as a democratic enterprise centred around governmental representation. By exclusively directing sanctions and other disciplinary measures at rebels, both legislative instruments have the problematic effect of strengthening the exploitation of natural resources by kleptocratic regimes and undermining the right of populations in conflict zones to civil disobedience as an inescapable component of their right of self-determination.

The eu “Conflict Minerals Regulation”: Potentialities and Limits in the Light of the International Standards on Responsible Sourcing

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 235-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentina Grado
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Mineral Resources ◽  
International Standards ◽  
Due Diligence ◽  
Conflict Zones ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
Conflict Minerals ◽  
Risk Areas ◽  
The Eu ◽  
Responsible Sourcing

Business enterprises involved in the exploitation of mineral resources originating from conflict zones are at risk of financing armed activities and fuelling systematic violations of international law and human rights abuses. This article first analyses the initiatives developed by the UN and OECD aimed at encouraging companies to respect human rights and avoid contributing to conflict by adopting “supply chain due diligence” practices. Second, it focuses on a recent Regulation adopted by the EU to tackle trade in certain minerals sourced from conflict-affected and high-risk areas in order to highlight its main positive aspects and challenges and, at the same time, to ascertain whether and to what extent this new legislation is consistent with the UN/OECD international standards on responsible sourcing.

scholarly journals The Effectiveness of Plea and Sentence Agreements in Environmental Enforcement in South Africa

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
pp. 1-41
Author(s):  
Tumai Murombo ◽  
Isaac Munyuki
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
South African ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
Sustainable Use ◽  
Due Diligence ◽  
Environmental Enforcement ◽  
Criminal Sanctions ◽  
Institutional Strengthening

A recent development in South African environmental law is the use of plea and sentencing agreements. The main objective of environmental law is to promote the sustainable use of natural resources while preventing pollution and ecological degradation. Grand environmental due diligence processes could achieve sustainable development; the use of criminal sanctions with sentencing agreements could be more effective. This paper answers the question whether the plea and sentencing agreements in reality achieve the objectives of environmental regulation? This study analyses this recent development by looking at selected recent cases in South Africa. The study found that plea and sentence agreements are potentially effective, subject to the effective monitoring of compliance and enforcement against non-compliance with the undertakings made by the accused person. Without institutional strengthening and effective monitoring, the plea and sentence agreement procedure remains ineffective.

Corporate Complicity in International Crimes through Arms Supplies despite National Authorisations?

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Kai Ambos
Keyword(s):  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Responsibility ◽  
German Law ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Export Control ◽  
Control Law ◽  
Due Diligence ◽  
International Crimes ◽  
Starting Point

Abstract I examine the criminal responsibility of companies for crimes committed with their exported weapons, even if that export was authorised by national authorities. Responsibility may rise directly from the national export control law and/or from (international) criminal law (icl) concerning (international) crimes committed. While (transnational) corporations have a due diligence obligation to prevent serious human rights violations, it is unclear how a national authorisation relates to this. Does it displace it, or is the authorisation overridden by the obligation? To better understand how a national authorisation procedure works, before analysing this issue from an icl perspective, I analyse German law regarding a recent case of weapons supply to Mexico. The situation under icl law is then examined regarding the Yemen complaint submitted to the International Criminal Court (icc). The article attempts some thoughts on dealing with this and similar cases, hoping to serve as a starting point for further debate.

scholarly journals The attempt to regulate conflict diamonds

2006 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
David Gold
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Significant Degree ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Conflict Zones ◽  
Active Involvement ◽  
Conflict Diamonds ◽  
Violent Conflicts ◽  
Peace And Development

NGO's with an interest in peace and development in Africa documented the role of diamonds in conflict while social scientists were researching and modeling the role of natural resources in long-standing violent conflicts. Journalists described what was happening on the ground. The United Nations took an active role as it expanded its mandate to broker and maintain the peace in these conflict zones. And industry, responding to political pressures and changing economic conditions, joined in the efforts to find a solution. Not all governments participated with equal vigor, and many participants prefer to retain a significant degree of ambiguity in the procedures that are established. Future prospects depend upon these stakeholders maintaining an active involvement in the issue. Of even greater importance is to produce a viable pattern of economic development that permits countries to utilize their natural resources without driving conflict.

Towards a European Economic Criminal Law of Human Rights

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-35
Author(s):  
Adán Nieto
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
Multinational Enterprises ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Multinational Companies ◽  
Financial Information ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Due Diligence ◽  
Protection Of Human Rights ◽  
The Eu

The work proposes the emergence of a new sector within economic criminal law whose objective would be the protection of human rights and the sanctioning of multinational companies. This new sector should be promoted by the EU, which in recent years and from various sources, has been enacting a set of directives and regulations that affect this area. The economic criminal law of human rights would complement the possibilities already offered by international criminal law to sanction these conducts. The basis of the new incriminations found in this work connects with the obligations to establish compliance measures (due diligence) that have been established in the United Nations Guiding Principles for Multinational Enterprises and also with the new duties of transparency linked to non-financial information.

Fighting Deforestation in Non-International Armed Conflicts: The Relevance of the Rome Statute for Rosewood Trafficking in Senegal

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Pauline Martini ◽  
Maud Sarliève
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
International Criminal Court ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Rome Statute ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
War Crimes ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Armed Conflicts

Abstract This article examines rosewood trafficking in the Casamance region of Senegal to determine whether acts of massive deforestation committed in the context of a non-international armed conflict can be prosecuted before the International Criminal Court (ICC) as war crimes of pillage and destruction of property under Article 8(2)(e)(v) and (xii) of the Rome Statute, respectively. It examines two of the main challenges resulting from the application of these provisions to acts of massive deforestation in the light of the ICC Elements of Crimes. Firstly, the article addresses the delicate issue of the establishment of a nexus between these acts and the related non-international armed conflict. Secondly, it discusses whether natural resources may qualify as ‘property’ for the purpose of Article 8(2)(e)(v) and (xii). It then offers avenues of reflection regarding the determination of ownership of these resources to fulfil the requirements of the Rome Statute.

scholarly journals A Bridge Too Far? Attacks against Cultural Property used as Military Objectives as War Crimes: The Prlić et al. Case and the Mostar Bridge

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 214-250
Author(s):  
Luke Moffett
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Legal Protection ◽  
War Crimes ◽  
Cultural Property ◽  
Conflict Zones ◽  
Cultural Objects ◽  
International Attention ◽  
Military Objective ◽  
The Cost

The destruction of the cultural property in conflict zones around the world has captured international attention on the need to prevent its destruction and prosecute those responsible. This article examines the current legal protection and international criminal framework on the criminalisation of the destruction of cultural property and in particular the exception to such destruction amounting to a war crime where they have become military objectives. This article discusses the recent decision in the Prlić et al. case involving the Mostar bridge, in light of its being justified to be attacked as a military objective. This article argues that considerations of proportionality are still required in such circumstances. This is vital to minimise the cost to communities and peoples whose cultural identity is bound up with such cultural objects. The article also suggests that the perfidious use of cultural property by parties to a conflict should be criminalised.

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