At the occasion of the unprecedented trial in France of Ely Ould Dah on 30 June and 1 July 2005, FIDH and its partner organisation in France, LDH, are publishing a report entitled: "Status of the implementation of the principle of universal jurisdiction".
This report describes the existing legal and political obstacles to the prosecution by French justice of international criminals, who "happen to be" on the French territory.
The report is based on the experience of dozens of procedures initiated or supported by FIDH and LDH in France and using the mechanism of universal jurisdiction.
The publication of the report, in the context of the Ely Ould Dah trial, aims at underlining the extreme importance:
– for the victims of international crimes, to see their right to an effective remedy before French tribunals guaranteed
– for the French authorities, to realise the urgency of respecting their international obligations by bringing down the obstacles to an effective implementation by French justice of its universal jurisdiction concerning the repression of perpetrators of the gravest crimes, who were found in France.