The Gender of Transitional Justice: Law, Sexual Violence and the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

2007 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 411-432 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Tribunal ◽  
Former Yugoslavia

scholarly journals Traumatized War Criminal? Documenting the Case of Esad Landžo

2020 ◽  
pp. 105756772094078
Author(s):  
Olivera Simic
Keyword(s):  
Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Tribunal ◽  
Legal Discourse ◽  
Psychological Trauma ◽  
Former Yugoslavia ◽  
Traumatic Memories ◽  
Serious Injury ◽  
Main Protagonist

Perpetrators’ voices have been traditionally ignored in the transitional justice field and beyond. Esad Landžo was only 19 when he committed the crimes of willful killing, torturing, and causing serious injury to the detainees of notorious Čelebići camp in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 2001, Landžo was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia for the crimes he committed in 1992. After serving two thirds of his sentence in 2006 and settling in Finland, Landžo and the Danish filmmaker, Lars Feldballe Petersen, embarked on the project of making a documentary movie about Landžo’s traumatic memories, remorse, and regret. Landžo had a strong urge to extend his apology to each victim individually and in 2015 went to Čelebići to meet his former detainees. This article will build on a scarce conversation in scholarly, and legal discourse, as to why psychological trauma is considered to be an experience that belongs to victims. It will analyze difficult and untold perpetrators’ experiences of criminal acts and explore whether in these experiences there is potential for inner and group understanding. This article draws on the author’s interviews with Landžo, the main protagonist in the movie The Unforgiven: A War’s Criminal Remorse, a film that documents the extraordinary story of Landžo: from his denial to redemption.

Reparation to Victims of Sexual Violence: Possibilities at the International Criminal Court and at the Trust Fund for Victims and Their Families

2007 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 207-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANNE-MARIE DE BROUWER
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Restorative Justice ◽  
International Criminal Court ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Tribunal ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Former Yugoslavia ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Trust Fund ◽  
Female Survivors

In this contribution the reparation possibilities for victims of sexual violence at the Inter-national Criminal Court and at the Trust Fund for Victims and their families are explored. This is done by explaining first of all why victims of sexual violence – and especially women – are in urgent need of reparation during and after conflict, with a special focus on the situation of female survivors of sexual violence in Rwanda. The reparation possibilities for victims of sexual violence at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda are subsequently discussed, followed by a similar discussion with regard to the ICC. Questions such as the nature of the best forms of reparation for victims of sexual violence and at what point they are made are also dealt with. Although the ICC reparations regime offers in theory a good means of providing restorative justice to victims of sexual violence, it is important that the special concerns and needs of such victims are not easily overlooked by the Court and that swift action is taken by the Trust Fund for Victims and their families to address their plight.

Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in Kosovo and Lessons to be Learned from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Remzije Istrefi ◽  
Arben Hajrullahu
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Justice System ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Tribunal ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
Former Yugoslavia ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Roles And Responsibilities ◽  
System A ◽  
Gender Based

Abstract This article examines challenges in seeking justice for Conflict-Related Sexual Violence (crsv) survivors in Kosovo. It analyses the roles and responsibilities of international missions and how deficiencies impact the prosecution and adjudication of crsv by Kosovo’s justice system. A key question is why two decades after the 1998–1999 war in Kosovo survivors of crsv cannot find justice? The end of the international mandates, the large number of war crime cases transferred, unfinished files, and the necessity for specific expertise in handling the gender-based violence are some of the existing challenges which undermine the prosecution and adjudication of crsv in Kosovo. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (icty) established accountability for sexual violence in armed conflicts. This article seeks to scaffold the icty experience by developing an accurate and comprehensive understanding of the nature of crsv and by examining its impact on survivors and victims’ alike. This paper then explores how a contexualist interpretation of international and domestic criminal law provisions can prioritise the prosecution of crsv amid other pressing needs in Kosovo.

Some Kind of Justice

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diane Orentlicher
Keyword(s):  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Interdisciplinary Research ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Tribunal ◽  
War Crimes ◽  
International Justice ◽  
Former Yugoslavia ◽  
Local Impact ◽  
Over Time

Created in 1993, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has operated longer than any war crimes tribunal in history. It thus offers a singularly important case study of how and why the local impact of an international criminal tribunal (ICT) evolves over time; the circumstances in which international justice can advance the normative, reparative, and other aims of transitional justice; and, more generally, the goals ICTs are either well-suited or unlikely to advance. The book explores the ICTY’s impact in Serbia, whose wartime leader plunged the former Yugoslavia into vicious ethnic conflict, and Bosnia-Herzegovina, which experienced searing atrocities culminating in the Srebrenica genocide, over the life of the Tribunal. It focuses on the Tribunal’s impact in three spheres: victims’ experience of justice; official, elite, and community discourses about wartime atrocities, as well as official gestures of acknowledgment; and domestic accountability processes, including the work of a hybrid court in Bosnia. While highlighting the perspectives of Bosnians and Serbians interviewed by the author, the book incorporates a rich body of interdisciplinary research to deepen their insights.

Narratives of Justice and War in Croatia

2020 ◽  
pp. 445-461
Author(s):  
Ivor Sokolić
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Tribunal ◽  
Former Yugoslavia ◽  
War Narrative ◽  
Human Rights Norms ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Self Defence

This chapter examines the relationship between war and justice narratives in Croatia, based on focus groups, dyads, and interviews conducted in 2014 and 2015. The war narrative is based on a pervasive conception of self-defence against a larger Serbian aggressor. It contrasts with a justice narrative that is focused on the norms of transitional justice and the expressivist effects of trials. The two narratives exist in the same space and interact with each other. This chapter outlines these narratives and analyses their reproduction. It argues that the emotional war narrative’s strength makes it difficult for the justice narrative to take hold and, consequently, for the trickle-down expressivist effects of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and human rights norms to occur. This tolerance for deviance was based on notions of legality that were defined differently in relation to Croats and Serbs.

scholarly journals estupro como estratégia de guerra em conflitos armados: a experiência do Tribunal Penal Internacional para a antiga Iugoslávia nos casos de violência de gênero

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-116
Author(s):  
Bárbara de Abreu Oliveira ◽  
Jayme Benvenuto Lima Júnior
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Violence Against Women ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Crime ◽  
International Criminal Tribunal ◽  
Population Based ◽  
Former Yugoslavia ◽  
International Conflicts ◽  
Vulnerable Group ◽  
Gender Power

A violência contra a mulher é uma prática antiga e, com o passar do tempo, os crimes de natureza sexual foram se naturalizando ainda mais em conflitos domésticos e internacionais, em que a situação de vulnerabilidade é sentida de forma ainda mais contundente por mulheres que sofrem agressão sexual. O século XX foi marcado por conflitos como o da antiga Iugoslávia, conhecido como um dos marcos da discussão jurídica sobre a violência contra a mulher como crime internacional.  Por meio de uma pesquisa bibliográfica, este artigo propõe estudar como o Tribunal Penal Internacional para a antiga Iugoslávia incorporou os crimes de violência sexual na sua normativa e jurisprudência, considerando a prática desses atos de natureza sexual uma estratégia de guerra, em que o principal objetivo é desmoralizar e destruir uma população em função de elementos étnicos e nacionais.  Com a incorporação de gênero na jurisprudência do tribunal, o Tribunal Penal Internacional para a antiga Iugoslávia tipifica os crimes de violência sexual como crime contra humanidade e entende que esse tipo de violação também deveria ser julgado sob o art. 3.º, em condição de Violações das Leis ou Costumes de guerra. A prática desses crimes é muito mais que a simples prática de opressão a um grupo vulnerável por parte do Estado, mas uma imposição do símbolo de poder de gênero.     Abstract: Violence against women is an old practice and, over time, crimes of a sexual nature have been further naturalized in domestic and international conflicts, where the situation of vulnerability is felt even more bluntly by women who suffer sexual assault. The twentieth century was marked by conflicts such as that of the former Yugoslavia, known as one of the milestones of the legal discussion on violence against women as an international crime. Through a bibliographical research, the present article proposes to study how the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia incorporated the crimes of sexual violence in its normative and jurisprudence, considering the practice of these acts of a sexual nature a war strategy, in which the The main objective is to demoralize and destroy a population based on ethnic and national elements. With the incorporation of gender in the jurisprudence of the court, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia typifies crimes of sexual violence as a crime against humanity and understands that this type of violation should also be judged under art. 3, in the condition of Violations of Laws or Customs of war. The practice of these crimes is much more than the simple practice of oppression of a vulnerable group by the state, but an imposition of the symbol of gender power. Keywords: Humans rights; Sexual Violence; International Conflicts; International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.     Recebido em: outubro/2018.Aprovado em: abril/2019.

“I Would Do the Same Again”

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 317-332 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivera Simić
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Tribunal ◽  
Former Yugoslavia ◽  
International Criminal Justice ◽  
International Tribunal ◽  
Return Home

After more than 20 years in operation, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has closed down at the end of 2017. Biljana Plavšić made history by becoming the only woman, of 161 individuals, indicted by the ICTY. She was also the highest ranking official and the first Serb leader to plead guilty to charges raised against her before the ICTY. After entering into a plea agreement and serving two thirds of her 11-year sentence in Sweden, she returned to Belgrade in 2009 where she has been living ever since. In this article, I draw on interviews I undertook with Plavšić in the course of 2017. In the first part of the article, I briefly introduce Plavšić and situate the study within the field of international criminal justice and transitional justice. I then proceed to discuss four themes that Plavšić most frequently returned to during our conversations. These themes offer an original perspective into Plavšić’s experience of being tried and sentenced by the international tribunal and her subsequent release and return home. This article aims to fill a gap in the literature by analyzing the reflections on the ICTY from its only woman defendant.

scholarly journals The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia: The Promise and Reality of Reconciliation in Croatia

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Parker
Keyword(s):  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Local Level ◽  
International Criminal Tribunal ◽  
International Community ◽  
Former Yugoslavia ◽  
Truth Commissions ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
State And Local

The international community is increasingly interested in promoting post-conflict reconciliation in a variety of forms, with trials and truth commissions featured most prominently. The contemporary academic discussion over transitional justice (and the practice of transitional justice itself) is largely focused on whether and how these types of large-scale national transitional justice mechanisms contribute to reconciliation. This article examines the promise and reality of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) to contribute to national reconciliation. Ultimately, the ability of state-wide policies to contribute to reconciliation rests on the active participation of local level actors. This requires political backing at the state and local level beyond that of just the international community. More attention needs to be paid to domestic cultural factors in the initial decision to implement state-wide transitional justice procedures, and bottom-up mechanisms must be built into any large scale approach to reconciliation.

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