JURIST - Paper Chase: Saturday, November 12, 2011

[JURIST] The State Tax Service of the Ukraine [official website] on Friday announced formal charges [press release, in Ukrainian] against former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko [personal website; JURIST news archive] for embezzlement and tax evasion. The new charges allege [RIA Novosti report] that during her time as head of United Energy Systems of Ukraine (UESU) in 1996, Tymoshenko hid $165 million of corporate revenue and accumulated $5.8 million through tax fraud. Tymoshenko received notice of the charges [JURIST report] earlier this week. Last month, the Security Service of Ukraine [official website] brought new corruption charges against Tymoshenko days after she was sentenced [JURIST reports] to seven years in prison on charges of abuse of power and corruption. Serhiy Vlasenko, Tymoshenko's lawyer also announced on Thursday that her official appeal [press release] will be heard on December 13.

Tymoshenko's trial resumed at the end of September after a two-week recess [JURIST reports]. In August, the Kiev Appeals Court refused Tymoshenko's appeal of her detention for contempt charges [JURIST reports]. Also in August, Judge Rodoin Kireyev rejected a request [JURIST report] from Tymoshenko to release her from prison. In July, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) [official website, in Ukrainian] announced that they are launching a criminal investigation [JURIST report] into UESU, an energy company at one time headed by Tymoshenko. In June, Tymoshenko filed a complaint [JURIST report] with the ECHR alleging violations of the European Convention of Human Rights [text, PDF]. The complaint argued that the charges against Tymoshenko are politically engineered by current Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych [official website, in Ukrainian], Tymoshenko's political rival. Tymoshenko's government was dissolved in March 2010 after she narrowly lost the presidential election to Yanukovych. Tymoshenko had alleged that widespread voter fraud allowed Yanukovych to win the election.

[JURIST] UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay [official profile] called Friday for an investigation [press release] of the previous day's aerial bombing of a refugee camp in Unity State in South Sudan. Refugees in the camp claimed to witness [BBC report] an Antonov plane, often used by northern Sudan [BBC backgrounder] as a makeshift bomber, circling the camp and then making two bombing runs, reportedly dropping five bombs, of which four exploded. Pillay noted that the information available at the time suggested that the bombing may amount to an international crime or serious human rights violation. Pillay expressed alarm about the fighting and indiscriminate attacks that continue to take place just across the border in Sudan's Southern Kordofan region, violence which has spilled over into neighboring states, including those in South Sudan:

This latest attack risks aggravating what is already an extremely tense and dangerous situation. ... The camp at Yida, which is close to the border with Sudan, is housing thousands of civilians, including women and children. ... There needs to be an independent, thorough and credible investigation to establish the precise circumstances of this aerial bombing, and if indeed it is established that an international crime or serious human rights violation has been committed, then those responsible should be brought to justice.

Many suspect that the bombing raid order came from Khartoum, but a Sudan Armed Forces spokesman vehemently denied any links to the raid. South Kordofan remains a disputed territory between Sudan and South Sudan due to the region's extensive oil reserves.

The Republic of South Sudan was recognized as an independent country [JURIST report] in July, making it the world's 193rd nation. In February, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], who campaigned against secession, issued a formal decree [JURIST report] accepting the result of the referendum. However, tensions between the newly independent country and Sudan remain high. Much of the recent violence stems from action in the South Kordofan region between Sudanese troops and troops loyal to South Sudan's army. In June a UN official denounced continued human rights abuses [JURIST report] against civilians in the region. The UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs [official website] and Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos [official profile] said that the UN knows of more than 70,000 people who have been displaced by the conflict, many of whom are subject to violence and targeting due to their ethnic heritage. Additionally, the UN reported that several peacekeepers had been held and tortured [UN News Centre report] in the region, and that those providing humanitarian relief are vulnerable.

[JURIST] An internal UN conflict was publicized [Fox News report] Friday concerning a dispute between UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon [official website] and the judges he appointed to his employee rights safeguards tribunals. Just over two years after Ban instituted the internal justice system, its judges have charged the UN chief with attempting to limit their powers and "undermine the integrity of the Tribunal and its independence" through his recommendations outlined in an August 8 report [text] to the UN General Assembly (GA) [official website]. Ban's review outlined several procedural changes to the operations of the UN Dispute Tribunal and Appeals Tribunal [official websites], prompting a response from the judges in an open missive [text] to the GA on October 10. One of the Ban's contentious proposals is to suspend the Dispute Tribunal's ability to enforce interlocutory orders while the judgments are being appealed to the to the Appeals Tribunal, the UN's highest judicial body. The judges claim such a change would render the court toothless and "enable either party [to a dispute] to paralyze the [case management] process, thus preventing the Dispute Tribunal from the speedy and cost-efficient disposal of cases for which it has been praised by the General Assembly." Also disputed is Ban's proposal to remove the Tribunals' appellate power over decisions of the UN Ethics Offices [materials] and the Office of Internal Oversight Services [official website]. A Washington-based organization that protects organizational dissidents, the Government Accountability Project (GAP) [official website; report], was heavily involved in the original design of the UN's whistleblower protection rules and stated this week that Ban's proposal "would result in UN whistleblowers having little recourse when they are subjected to retaliation and would effectively render whistleblower protections at the United Nations meaningless." GAP observed that over 99 percent of retaliation cases reviewed by the Ethics Offices resulted in no substantiation for the whistleblowers involved. Also contained in Ban's report are requests for a $1 million increase in the internal justice system budget and 26 additional support staff for the judges, as well as the creation of a mechanism to deal with complaints against the judges themselves.

The tribunals were authorized in 2007, pursuant to GA resolution 62/228 [text, PDF]. The Appeals Tribunal is charged with appellate review of decisions of the Dispute Tribunal, which hears grievance and discipline disputes between UN members. Judges were appointed [JURIST report] in 2009, including one American judge, Mark Painter [personal website]. The UN Internal Justice Council (IJC) [UN backgrounder] was responsible for advising the GA on appropriate judges for the two tribunals. The IJC was formed in 2007 following an independent review of UN internal justice procedures. The two-tiered tribunal system was also one of the suggestions put forth by the independent "Redesign Panel" convened in 2006 at the behest of the GA after then-secretary general Kofi Annan had called the UN's internal justice system slow and cumbersome.