Former Liberian President Charles Taylor was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the last trial of a major figure for the Special Court for Sierra Leone. Taylor was convicted of aiding rebels in the Revolutionary United Front in neighboring Sierra Leone in exchange for blood diamonds, but was found innocent of having direct control over forces.

It is a landmark victory, as it is the first conviction of a former national leader for grave crimes since Karl Doenitz, who briefly ruled Nazi Germany after Hitler, was convicted at Nuremberg. This verdict lays the groundwork for holding fair trials of other heads of state accused of atrocities, such as Sudan's Omar Al-Bashir and Syria's Bashar Al-Assad.

As international law has developed over time, there has been a dramatic increase in the world community’s acceptance of the prosecution of tyrannical leaders.  From the U.N.’s request for an investigation into the Libyan conflict to Syrian protesters calling for Assad to stand trial at the International Criminal Court, it is encouraging that international courts are now regarded as a major tool to end the impunity of war criminals and to provide justice for their victims.

Taylor will be sentenced on May 30th to prison in Great Britain.

Citizens for Global Solutions CEO Don Kraus was quoted today in a story by Inter-Press Service on the U.S. being one of 7 countries that have still not ratified the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women treaty.  Kraus noted CEDAW provides

"a blueprint for increasing gender equality and reinforces our role as a global leader in standing up for the rights of women and girls. In countries that have ratified CEDAW, women have partnered with their governments to engage in a national dialogue about the status of women and girls, and as a result have shaped policies to create greater safety and opportunities for women and their families."

Click here to read the full story.

Yesterday, President Obama released a first-ever National Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security, which instructs agencies across the government to intergrate a gender persepctive in all matters relating to peace and security.

The plan's goal is to "empower half of the world's population as equal partners in preventing conflict and building peace in countries threatened and affected by war, violence, and insecurity." The NAP recognizes that long-term peace and stability cannot be maintained without the particpation of women.

Some of the plan's implementation steps mirror key recommendations found in the Partnership for Effective Peacekeeping's report, "U.S. Engagement in International Peacekeeping: From Aspiration to Implementation." For example, the NAP advocates for women to be considered for more senior level positions at the U.N. The peacekeeping report also identified a shortage of women in higher posts and called for this problem to be corrected.

The NAP calls for leveraging the participation of female U.S. military personnel to encourage and model gender intergration in other partner nations. The peacekeeping report takes this a step further and suggests that the U.S. engage with our own military and training institutions to increase the role of U.S. women in peacekeeping operations.

Lloyd Axworthy, the former Foreign Minister of Canada and twice elected President of the U.N. Security Council, gave a presentation on the Responsibility to Protect at the University of Minnesota Law School last Tuesday in an event co-sponosred by the Minnesota chapter of Citizens for Global Solutions.

Click here to watch the webcast.