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Dear friends,

 

We hope that you have had a good start to the new year. On behalf of all the team at TRIAL International, we want to take the opportunity while sending you this newsletter to wish you all the best for 2023.

 

2022 was filled with many events and marked by significant progress in the fight against impunity. Indeed, our organisation redoubled its efforts in its fight to ensure that those who are responsible for the most serious crimes are punished and that the voices of victims and survivors are heard.

 

In 2022, TRIAL celebrated its 20^th birthday. On November 25, Philip Grant, co-founder and director of our organisation received an honorary doctorate from the University of Basel in recognition of the work that he has led for 20 years with TRIAL International in the fight against impunity. He recounts when, how and where it all started in the text (only in French) Vertiges.

 

Looking back at the key events of last year:

 

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the Brcko district, children born as a result of conflict-related sexual violence were recognised as civilian victims.

 

In Switzerland, the final hearing of Khaled Nezzar, former minister of Algerian defence, by the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG) in February 2022, gave hope that he will soon be sent to trial. This is on the basis of him having been an accomplice in multiple war crimes (murders, torture, inhumane treatment, illegal detentions) as well as assassinations in the context of a systematic and widespread attack against the civilian population between January 1992 and January 1994.  We are expecting a development in this case in the coming weeks.

 

Further, the investigation targeting Ousman Sonko, former Minister of the Interior and Chief of Police in Gambia, opened by the OAG after a criminal complaint filed by TRIAL International in 2016 should lead to the indictment of the defendant in the first half of 2023. 

 

The opening of these two trials in Switzerland would represent giant steps in the fight against impunity under the principle of universal jurisdiction. In Germany, in Celle, in April 2022 the first trial looking into crimes committed in Gambia during the Jammeh dictatorship, opened on the basis of the principle of universal jurisdiction.

 

In Democratic Republic of the Congo, in Kasai central, the Karanga garrison military court sentenced nine people belonging to a militia, associated with the Kamuina Nsapu insurrection, for war crimes, crimes against humanity, as well as for other atrocities committed during the attack on several villages from April to May 2017.

 

All of this would not have been possible without your support… thank you for making our action possible and therefore for allowing us to continue our fight against the most serious crimes and to reduce impunity!

 

Enjoy reading this first newsletter of 2023.

 

The TRIAL International team

 

 

 

 

 

PS: Do you know that by subscribing to a monthly donation of just 10 CHF your impact is doubled? You become a crucial player in ending impunity for international crimes and you enable us to accompany victims in the long run! 

 

 

 

Podcast "Tracking Down War Criminals is My Job” – meeting with Éric Emeraux   On October 13, 2022 we met with the former head of the Central Office for the Fight against Crimes against Humanity (OCLCH in French) and author of the book, La traque est mon metier (roughly translating as Tracking Down War Criminals is My Job) (published by Éditions l’Abeille Plon 2020), in which he details some of his operations. He also recounts how French prosecuting authorities and NGOs, like TRIAL International, carry out their work. The discussion was moderated by Giulia Soldan, Manager of the International Investigations and Litigation program at TRIAL International.  [🔈​ FRENCH]   Listen to the podcast Podcast NGOs in the fight against wartime sexual violence, review of achievements in Bosnia and DRC   Adrijana Hanušić Bećirović, legal advisor in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Chiara Gabriele, senior legal adviser in DRC, shared their experiences and their lessons learned on the ground about the fight of NGOs against sexual violence in times of conflict. They discussed progress, as well as the challenges to be overcome in this area, during a conference on October 14.     Listen to the podcast   Algeria 11 years after his arrest in Geneva, TRIAL International still hopes for the opening of Khaled Nezzar's trial in Switzerland   On October 20, 2011, the Algerian general Khaled Nezzar was arrested in Geneva by the police following a criminal denunciation by TRIAL International and complaints from two victims of torture during the black decade. Questioned for 48 hours by the Office of the Attorney General, he was released on condition that he would be present for the rest of the investigation. His final hearing in February 2022 allowed victims as well as TRIAL International, who supported them for 11 years, to see the possibility of him being sent to trial.    Read more Bosnia and Herzegovina Recognition of children born as a result of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina as civilian war victims On July 14, 2022 the Brčko district in Bosnia and Herzegovina adopted a law on civilian war victims, with a ground-breaking innovation which legally recognised the children born as a result of wartime sexual violence. This report analyses the significance of the law in comparison with previous national and international efforts, along with other policies concerning children born as a result of wartime rape   Read our article and the interview with Ariq Hatibie, author of the report.

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