Belgium and its law. Universal incompetence

Date: 28/06/03

The Belgians may be finding their high-mindedness rather too expensive

THE moral high-ground is not always a comfortable spot. Under intense pressure from the United States, Belgium has all but scrapped its “universal competence” human-rights law, which allowed alleged violations of human rights anywhere in the world to be tried in Belgium.

Various aggrieved parties have launched cases against, among others, George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell and Tony Blair. On a recent visit to Brussels Mr Rumsfeld said that America would refuse to release money to build a new headquarters for NATO in Brussels while its officials remained under threat of prosecution.

Within days, Guy Verhofstadt, the Belgian prime minister, proposed reforming the law so that it would apply only when the victim or the accused were resident in Belgium. He stressed that his change of heart had nothing to do with American pressure. Belgium had already amended its law once, in April, by letting its courts refer lawsuits back to the home countries of the accused, provided that those countries are deemed democratic. But this change failed to stop a string of new cases being launched. Nor has it satisfied the Americans, who said it might still get officials involved in expensive and time-consuming legal actions.

Louis Michel, the Belgian foreign minister and a prime exponent of his country's moralistic diplomacy, is also enmeshed by the law. A Flemish MP has launched a case against him for authorising the sale of machineguns to Nepal. High-minded Mr Michel says the suit against him is “mad, pernicious, irrational and malign” - and will make Belgium a laughing stock.

The Belgians may be finding their high-mindedness rather too expensive.