The Special Court for Sierra Leone, otherwise called the "Special Court" or the SCSL, is a judicial body set up by the government of Sierra Leone and the United Nations to "prosecute persons who bear the greatest responsibility for serious violations of international humanitarian law and Sierra Leonean law" committed in Sierra Leone after 30 November 1996 and during the Sierra Leone Civil War. The court's working language is English. The court lists offices in Freetown, The Hague, and New York City.
On 26 April 2012, former Liberian President Charles Taylor became the first African head of state to be convicted for his part in war crimes.
Read more about Special Court For Sierra Leone: Origin, Jurisdiction, Structure, Indictees, See Also
Famous quotes containing the words special and/or court:
“I think those Southern writers [William Faulkner, Carson McCullers] have analyzed very carefully the buildup in the South of a special consciousness brought about by the self- condemnation resulting from slavery, the humiliation following the War Between the States and the hope, sometimes expressed timidly, for redemption.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)
“The Twist was a guided missile, launched from the ghetto into the very heart of suburbia. The Twist succeeded, as politics, religion, and law could never do, in writing in the heart and soul what the Supreme Court could only write on the books.”
—Eldridge Cleaver (b. 1935)