ISIS And Syrian Regime War Crimes Could Go Unpunished Under Trump State Department Plan

Details

Publish Date:
July 22, 2017
Author(s):
Source:
Newsweek

Summary

President Donald Trump has railed against the crimes of the Islamic State militant group (ISIS), yet his administration may make it more difficult to bring the leaders of the radical Islamist movement to justice.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is planning to shutter the State Department office that handles gathering evidence and prosecuting war crimes and crimes against humanity, such as genocide, according to two former U.S. officials.

Stanford Professor Beth Van Schaack first reported the closure July 17. Shaack recently stepped down from the office as Deputy to the Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues.

The office “ is at the center of efforts to gather and preserve evidence of ISIS crimes, to hold those individuals responsible” and to “promote the rehabilitation of ISIS victims,” says Van Schaack, who is now working as a human rights law professor and visiting scholar at Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation.

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