Michael Polak acts for World Uyghur Congress and Uyghur Human Rights Project as Argentinian Court of Cassation reverses case closure

Michael Polak, barrister at Church Court Chambers and chair of Lawyers for Uyghur Rights, has acted for the World Uyghur Congress and Uyghur Human Rights Project in relation to a criminal complaint heard at the Argentinian Federal Court of Criminal Cassation concerning genocide and crimes against humanity.

The criminal complaint concerns international crimes being committed against the Uyghur people, including forced labour, forced abortion and sterilization, torture, mass internment in camps, and killings.

The Court of Cassation decision follows the filing on 16 August 2022, of a criminal complaint in Buenos Aires, under the universal jurisdiction provisions set out in Article 118 of Argentinian Constitution, which allow for complaints concerning international crimes to be tried by any court in Argentina, no matter where these offences occur around the world.

The Court of Cassation held that the Court of Appeal of Buenos Aires had been wrong to agree with the prosecutor’s decision to archive the complaint, and ordered the Court of First instance to reverse their decision to archive the case. The result of this decision is that the judge will have to open the case and begin the Court’s investigatory stage of proceedings. In addition to this, the Court of Cassation also overruled the Court of Appeal’s decision not to grant the victims civil party status.

Michael, commented: “This is a monumental decision in countering impunity for the most serious crimes that can be committed against people based on their ethnicity and religion.

“There is a strong movement in international criminal law towards universal jurisdiction, that is the hearing of cases concerning crimes such as genocide, crimes against humanity, and torture in domestic courts. This case demonstrates why this is taking place as whilst China can block the creation of an international tribunal focussed on their well-documented repression of the Uyghurs, given their permanent membership of the Security Council, they are unable to do this when independent objective judges are involved, as is the case in Argentina.

“This will be the first opportunity for victims to give firsthand evidence about the torture and abuse that they have witnessed and suffered in a criminal court. We are confident that once the investigatory stage begins the Court will find that the evidence only points in one direction and will decide to issue arrest warrants for those responsible.

“The treatment of the Uyghurs is of a type that we thought had been confined to history and it is important that democratic states around the world renew their calls on China to stop the repression and to show that these types of crimes have consequences for those who commit them.”

Michael acted alongside esteemed Argentinian lawyers Gabriel Cavallo and Juan Nieto.