On December 22, the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to tighten economic sanctions on North Korea in response to its sixth nuclear test on November 29th, which involved the launching of a missile that the regime warns could reach the United States. This is the Council’s tenth attempt to exert enough pressure on Kim Jong-Un that he will halt the nuclear weapons program and come to the table for negotiations. According to U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, in order for talks to begin North Korea must show “a sustained cessation" of its aggressive behavior, while Pyongyang vows that it will not consider joining the negotiations until the United States ends its practice of hostility towards the DPRK.  

In 2016, the Kosovar government established the Kosovo Specialist Chambers (KSC) and Specialist Prosecutor’s Office with the approval of Law No. 05/L-053.  The KSC is tasked with conducting trials for allegations stemming from the 2011 Council of Europe report, which alleges serious violations of international law.  These chambers have a specific mandate and jurisdiction over certain crimes against humanity, war crimes and other crimes under Kosovo law which are alleged to have occurred between 1998 and 2000.  In July 2017, the Rules of Procedure and Evidence before the KSC (KSC Rules) entered into force.  They set out the general principles governing the conduct of proceedings before the KSC.  An unusual aspect of the KSC is that it appears to allow the Specialist Prosecutor’s Office to use investigative tools, “Special Investigative Measures”, not traditionally available to prosecutors in other international courts.  This article discusses the investigative measures available under the KSC Rules in light of international human rights and generally accepted constitutional standards.

On October 16, 2017, customs agents in John F. Kennedy International Airport arrested Keston Lett, a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago, after they discovered he was carrying more than two kilos of cocaine. Lett was charged with importation of a controlled substance in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 952(a) and 960.  After satisfying his conditions for release from criminal custody pending trial, the District Court issued an order requiring that the defendant be released on bond. Lett was then transferred to the United States Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody pursuant to an immigration detainer.  Defense counsel for Lett filed a motion to dismiss the indictment, arguing Lett’s continued detention by ICE following his release on bail violated his statutory rights under the Bail Reform Act of 1984 (BRA) as well as his constitutional rights under the Fifth, Sixth, and Eighth Amendments.

On January 11, 2018, Ecuador’s Foreign Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa announced that Ecuador granted WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange naturalization on December 12, 2017.[1]  On December 20, 2017, Ecuador formally requested that Assange receive diplomatic status.  Britain rejected the request the following day,

On January 11, 2018, on the 16^th anniversary of the Guantánamo prison’s opening, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), Reprieve, and co-counsel filed a motion on behalf of 11 men held at the military facility for 16 years, challenging indefinite detention without charges or trial.

On January 11, 2018, a European Union delegation in Myanmar urged the government to launch a thorough and credible investigation into violence against Rohingyas in the western Rakhine State. The statement was issued by the EU delegation, the Heads of Mission of EU member states accredited to Myanmar and the Head of Mission of Norway. The call from the EU came a day after the Myanmar army acknowledged it carried out extrajudicial killings of Rohingyas in the state.

On January 10 Department of Homeland Security agents raided 100 7-Eleven stores nationwide as part of an effort to ensure employees’ legal work authorization in the United States. This week’s raids stemmed from a 2013 investigation against multiple 7-Eleven franchisees and managers who allegedly employed undocumented workers in New York and Virginia.

On January 3, 2018, a jury in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York found Mehmet Hakan Atilla guilty of conspiring with others, including Reza Zarrab, who already pleaded guilty to evading U.S. sanctions among other offenses, to use the U.S. financial system to make transactions on behalf of the Iranian government and other Iranian entities, which U.S. sanctions barred, and to defraud U.S. financial institutions by concealing these transactions’ true nature.

On December 21, 2017, the United Nations Security Council adopted two resolutions addressing various aspects of counter-terrorism.

The first resolution concerns foreign terrorist fighters (FTFs) connected to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da’esh), the Nusrah Front (ANF) and other cells, affiliates, splinter groups or derivatives. The Council, along with many experts in security cricles, are increasingly concerned about FTFs returning to their home countries to foster radicalization and attacks on soft targets. The Council urged Member States to step up implementation of resolution 2178 (2014) and to strengthen their efforts to stem the threat through measures related to border control, criminal justice, information‑sharing and counter‑extremism.

The 16^th session of the Assembly of States Parties (ASP or Assembly) to the Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC or Court) was held from December 4 to December 14, 2017 in New York.

The expectations were high – and so were the stakes. During the session, the Assembly was to consider matters fundamental to the Court, through holding a General Debate on the ICC and its operations, holding two plenary discussions on cooperation and the 20^th anniversary of the ICC Statute, adopting a number of resolutions on matters such as cooperation, complementarity, and universality, and its mandate towards victims, aiming at ameliorating the ICC implementation of its mandate.