Chapter 7 • The Right to a Fair Trial: Part II – From Trial to Final Judgement only of “the applicable law”. Article 22 of the Statute of the International Criminal Court relates to crimes “within the jurisdiction of the Court”. The prohibition on retroactivity of criminal law is fundamental in a society governed by the rule of law, one aspect of which is to ensure legal predictability or foreseeability, and thus, legal security for individuals. Experience shows that, in the course of severe crisis situations, there has often been a temptation to penalize certain behaviour retroactively, but, as can be seen in article 4(2) of the International Covenant, article 27(2) of the American Convention and article 15(2) of the European Convention, the right to freedom from ex post facto laws has been made non-derogable, and must therefore apply with full force even in the direst of emergencies. ***** The Human Rights Committee found a violation of article 15(1) of the Covenant in a case where the author had been sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment for “subversive association”, although the acts concerned were lawful when committed.192 ***** In the case of Media Rights Agenda and Others against Nigeria, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights had to consider the compatibility of Newspaper Decree No. 43 of 1993 with article 7(2) of the African Charter. This Decree, which had retroactive effect, inter alia made it an offence punishable with a heavy fine and/or a long term of imprisonment for a person to own, publish or print a newspaper not registered under the Decree. The Commission condemned “the literal, minimalist interpretation” of the Charter provided by the Government, which had argued that there had been no violation of article 7(2) since the retroactive aspect of the Decree had not been enforced. In the view of the Commission, however, article 7(2) “... must be read to prohibit not only condemnation and infliction of punishment for acts which did not constitute crimes at the time they were committed, but retroactivity itself. It is expected that citizens must take the laws seriously. If laws change with retroactive effect, the rule of law is undermined since individuals cannot know at any moment if their actions are legal. For a law-abiding citizen, this is a terrible uncertainty, regardless of the likelihood of eventual punishment.”193 192 Communication No. R.7/28, I. Weinberger v. Uruguay (Views adopted on 29 October 1980), in UN doc. GAOR, A/36/40, p. 119, para. 16. 193 ACHPR, Media Rights Agenda and Others v. Nigeria, Communications Nos. 105/93, 128/94, 130/94 and 152/96, decision adopted on 31 October 1998, paras. 58-59 of the text of the decision as published at http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/africa/comcases/105-93_128-94_130-94_152_96.html. 296 Human Rights in the Administration of Justice: A Manual on Human Rights for Judges, Prosecutors and Lawyers