Today, the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone (external link) sentenced convicted former Liberian President Charles Ghankay Taylor to a term of 50 years in prison for planning and for aiding and abetting crimes committed by rebel forces in Sierra Leone during the country's decade-long civil war. These crimes included acts of terrorism, murder, rape, sexual slavery and conscripting or enlisting of child soldiers, among others. Taylor is the first former head of state to be convicted of war crimes by an international court since the Nuremburg trials after World War II.