Their unprecedented legislative initiative has provided an opportunity to bring the 1993 and 1999 legislation into line with the most recent developments in international criminal prosecution. For instance, the proposed interpretive law recognizes that sitting foreign and prime ministers are immune from prosecution until they complete their terms and return to civilian life, bringing Belgium's universal jurisdiction law into conformity with the ICJ ruling in February. The law clarifies the judicial "division of labor" between the ICC and Belgian courts, which limits victims' invocation of universal jurisdiction to the following case: those in which the alleged crimes have not been committed on Belgian territory and the plaintiffs are neither Belgian nor resident on Belgian territory for one year or more, and the accused is not on Belgian territory. Hence the interpretive law clarifies that accused parties need not live in Belgium or be found on Belgian soil in order to be prosecuted.
The new law has a good chance of passing the Senate in October before being sent to the Chamber of Deputies. Should it pass, the Sabra and Shatila plaintiffs' appeal of the Court of Appeals decision will be rendered redundant, since the Supreme Court will be bound by the decisions of Parliament. The proposed interpretive law has the public support of the president of the Senate's Commission of Justice. Lawyers for the Sabra and Shatila plaintiffs noted that the June 26 ruling threatened not only their case, but many others besides. Even conservative newspapers in Belgium were calling for the defense of the 1993 and 1999 law of universal jurisdiction. Crucial to the parliamentary effort are politicians, some from the right, who hope to prosecute the murderers of Belgian peacekeepers in Rwanda in 1994.
The new law has a good chance of passing the Senate in October before being sent to the Chamber of Deputies. Should it pass, the Sabra and Shatila plaintiffs' appeal of the Court of Appeals decision will be rendered redundant, since the Supreme Court will be bound by the decisions of Parliament. The proposed interpretive law has the public support of the president of the Senate's Commission of Justice. Lawyers for the Sabra and Shatila plaintiffs noted that the June 26 ruling threatened not only their case, but many others besides. Even conservative newspapers in Belgium were calling for the defense of the 1993 and 1999 law of universal jurisdiction. Crucial to the parliamentary effort are politicians, some from the right, who hope to prosecute the murderers of Belgian peacekeepers in Rwanda in 1994.