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Human rights lawyers sue Trump administration for 'silencing' them
Source: The Guardian
Human rights lawyers sue Trump administration for 'silencing' them
Exclusive: group claims executive order targeting ICC led them to halt work on war crimes cases
Julian Borger in Washington
Thu 1 Oct 2020 13.21 BST
Prominent US human rights lawyers are suing the Trump administration over an executive order they say has gagged them and halted their work pursuing justice on behalf of war crimes victims around the world.
As a result of the order in June threatening “serious consequences” for anyone giving support to the work of the international criminal court (ICC) in The Hague, the lawyers say they have had to cancel speeches and presentations, end research, abandon writing ICC-related articles and dispensing advice and assistance to victims of atrocities.
The effect, according to the plaintiffs, has been an unprecedented infringement of their constitutional right to free speech and a chill that has pervaded the world of international humanitarian law.
“This is just a wallop, a gut punch, silencing the activities that really have been my life’s work,” said Diane Marie Amann, professor of international law at the University of Georgia and one of the plaintiffs.
She argued Donald Trump’s order was a betrayal of an American tradition of global leadership on human rights, including the creation of the Nuremberg Tribunal and a leading role in the establishment of the ICC.
-snip-
Exclusive: group claims executive order targeting ICC led them to halt work on war crimes cases
Julian Borger in Washington
Thu 1 Oct 2020 13.21 BST
Prominent US human rights lawyers are suing the Trump administration over an executive order they say has gagged them and halted their work pursuing justice on behalf of war crimes victims around the world.
As a result of the order in June threatening “serious consequences” for anyone giving support to the work of the international criminal court (ICC) in The Hague, the lawyers say they have had to cancel speeches and presentations, end research, abandon writing ICC-related articles and dispensing advice and assistance to victims of atrocities.
The effect, according to the plaintiffs, has been an unprecedented infringement of their constitutional right to free speech and a chill that has pervaded the world of international humanitarian law.
“This is just a wallop, a gut punch, silencing the activities that really have been my life’s work,” said Diane Marie Amann, professor of international law at the University of Georgia and one of the plaintiffs.
She argued Donald Trump’s order was a betrayal of an American tradition of global leadership on human rights, including the creation of the Nuremberg Tribunal and a leading role in the establishment of the ICC.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/01/human-rights-lawyers-sue-trump-administration-for-silencing-them
