IMPHAL, October 30: The 21st century marks the beginning of the international perception of conferring on an individual, a status as subject of international law, in the domain of ever developing human rights, Prof Dr RC Borpatragohain, Department of Law, Gauhati University began his lecture at an ‘interactive discourse on Jurisdictional issues of the ICC and India’s International law Obligations: An appraisal with Prof Dr RC Borpatragohain,’ today.
The discourse was held at the New Social Science Bloc II, Manipur University and organised jointly by the Advance legal Forum, Manipur and the Center for Manipur Studies, MU.
The global commitment of the present century moves towards fixing accountability and individual criminal responsibility upon those persons, irrespective of their disposition, who commit serious international crimes, he said citing Prof N Sanajaoba’ article on ICC and individual criminal responsibility in 21st century–select Article on international Humanitarian Laws, 2003.
Heinous international crimes are committed by these persons in different capacities-as rulers, as army chief, as ordinary soldiers and also as guerilla-leaders of non-state entities and due to absence of suitable legal instrumental mechanism, in the present day international legal order, it becomes difficult to fix individual criminal responsibility, upon such wrong doers and to make them accountable for those crimes against humanity, he said.
He said the humanity element of the human society, right from its inception, has been demanding, in perpetuity, for a suitably established and workable legal/ moral mechanism to contain the heinous crimes against humanity, inflecting appropriate punishment to the guilty persons.
Elaborating on the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, the dean and head of department, of Law, GU said the court is established with a view to fixing individual criminal responsibility and to prosecute, try and impose sentence for committing heinous international crimes.
However, it does not exclude the state responsibility, he said.
He continued that there are five components in the jurisdiction of the ICC- subject matter, temporal, personal, territorial and complementary.
He said the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights stipulated the responsibility of the State as the primary responsibility for the promotion and protection of human rights is with the Governments; b). The promotion and protection of all human rights is a legitimate concern of the international community; c). The international community should foster processes leading to a better implementation of human rights and strengthening of democracy and the rule of law, and should take all necessary measures to prevent human rights abuses and to eradicate the gravest human rights violation; and d). The international protection and promotion of human right is effective only if based on the principles of individuality and equal value of all human rights.
The discourse was also attended by Dr N Vijaylakshmi Brara, Asoc Prof, CMS, MU and Dr Homen Thangjam, assistant prof, Pol. Sc. Dept, Maharaja Bodhchandra College as observers.