A few days before the trial of Ex-President Macías took place in Eguatorial Guinea at the end of September, 1979, the ICJ was invited by the leader of the coup which overthrew him, Lt.-Colonel Teodoro Obiang Nguema, in the name of the Supreme Military Council, to send an Observer to the trial.
The ICJ has for some time been following with interest and concern developments concerning the advancement and protection of human rights in Iran.
When the April 1974 revolution in Portugal brought about the downfall of the Portuguese African empire, the situation in Southern Africa was transformed.
Defining aggression is a task to which the nations of the world have now devoted exactly half a century.
In April 1972, Niall MacDermot, Q.C, Secretary-General of the ICJ, paid a visit to Dacca with two objects in view.
The first was to obtain further information for the study which the staff of the International Commission of Jurists was preparing on the events in East Pakistan in 1971. The second was to seek to persuade the government of Bangladesh that, if, as stated, they were going to bring to trial senior Pakistani generals and officials on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, they should do so under international penal law before an international tribunal containing a majority of judges from neutral countries.
In order to explain why this was urged upon the Bangladesh government,the nature of the violations of human rights which occurred on both sides will be outlined briefly, followed by comments upon their implications under international penal law, before dealing with the trial procedures which the Commission suggested should be followed.
Reprinted from The International Lawyer, volume 7 number 2, of April 1973.
Bangladesh-crimes against humanity-1973-eng (full text in English, PDF)
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