Belgium takes Senegal to UN court over prosecution of former Chadian president

Belgium has instituted proceedings against Senegal, pressing for the prosecution of a former Chadian president accused of mass torture and other human rights abuses, in the United Nations court that adjudicates disputes between States.

In the latest development of a dispute between the two countries that goes back to 2000, yesterday Belgium asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) – based in The Hague, Netherlands – to weigh in on its demand that Senegal prosecute or extradite former Chadian president Hissène Habré, who is now under house arrest in the West African country.

“Senegal’s failure to prosecute Mr. Habré, or to extradite him to Belgium to answer for the crimes against humanity which are alleged against him, violates the general obligation to punish crimes against international humanitarian law,” Belgium’s application read.

The European State, which issued an international arrest warrant for Mr. Habré in 2005, also requested the court for provisional measures, pending a ruling, to ensure that the former president remains in custody in the meantime.

Mr. Habré ruled Chad from 1982 to 1990, when he was overthrown and went into exile in Senegal, and it is alleged that during his rule thousands of Chadians were tortured and unlawful killings and other serious human rights violations took place.

He was charged in February 2000 by a lower court in Dakar, the Senegalese capital, but an appeals court later ruled that Senegalese courts did not have the legal competence to try such cases if they were perpetrated in another country.

In April 2008, however, Senegal’s National Assembly adopted an amendment to the constitution that together with previous changes allowed the country’s legal system to deal with such cases.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights at the time, Louise Arbour, welcomed the move as “a very positive development in the struggle to strengthen accountability and an important step forward in the never-ending fight against impunity.”

In today’s application, however, Belgium’s complaint points out that since then Senegal has cited financial difficulties preventing it from bringing Mr. Habré to trial.

Under conventional international law, it said, “Senegal’s failure to prosecute Mr. Habré, if he is not extradited to Belgium to answer for the acts of torture that are alleged against him, violates the Convention against Torture… [and] numerous texts of derived law (institutional acts of international organizations) and treaty law.”