Coherence in International Criminal Justice: A Victimological Perspective

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 339-368 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Pemberton ◽  
R.M. Letschert ◽  
A.-M. de Brouwer ◽  
R.H. Haveman

This article develops a victimological perspective on international criminal justice, based on a review of the main victimological characteristics of international crimes: the complicity of government agencies, the large numbers of victims involved and the peculiar position of victims of international crimes, who at the time of the commission of the crimes are viewed as perpetrators and/or beyond the moral sphere, rather than as victims. Key elements of the framework concern the external coherence of the criminal justice reaction – the interlinking of criminal justice with other reparative efforts – as well as its internal coherence – the extent to which the procedures of international criminal justice are aligned with what it realistically can and should achieve. This latter aspect of coherence is used in an examination of victims’ rights in international criminal justice procedures.

Author(s):  
Matthew Seet

Abstract This article challenges scholarly claims that a post-national ‘cosmopolitan citizenship’ — an expanded and less territorially bounded belonging of ‘humanity’ — has been emerging in the international criminal justice context. In examining the contemporary denationalization of terrorists from the under-explored angle of criminal justice, this article argues that states’ territorial borders prevent denationalized terrorists — deemed enemies of ‘humanity’ — from being brought to justice. Some states strip citizenship from terrorists without holding them accountable for terrorist offences and international crimes, subsequently deporting them to — or leaving them stranded in — states which are, according to international criminal law, ‘unable’ or ‘unwilling’ to prosecute. As such, states’ territorial borders serve as a ‘shield’ which not only enable denationalized terrorists to avoid accountability for their terrorist offences and international crimes, but which also enable states to avoid their international obligations to bring terrorists to justice. This case study of denationalized terrorists not only demonstrates the enduring relevance of territoriality to international criminal justice but also broadly demonstrates how post-national ‘citizenship’ remains tied to the territorial state in a globalized world.


Author(s):  
Kjersti Lohne

The figure of the victim is the sine qua non of the fight against impunity for international crimes. Engaging the victimological imagination of international criminal justice, the chapter shows how victims are represented, and how justice for victims is imagined. The first part focuses on imaginations of ‘justice for victims’, and argues that the ICC represents a form of hybrid justice by incorporating ‘restorative’ and ‘transformative’ rationales for justice. Unlike ordinary courts, the ICC incorporates what can be thought of as both ‘punitive’ and ‘reparative’ arms. Part of the latter is the Rome Statute’s provisions for victims’ rights to participation and reparation. However, a closer look at the implementation of these processes reveal a conspicuous discrepancy between ideologies and realities. The second part of the chapter situates victims as a source of moral authority, and one that is claimed in representational practices by both human rights NGOs and international criminal justice generally. The chapter explores suffering as a type of ‘currency’, both on an individual level for victims’ advocates, as their source of ‘purpose’, and on a broader cultural level as the source of ‘global’ moral outcry. The chapter demonstrates how the victim is culturally represented through imaginations from the global North and becomes universalized as a symbol of humanity, of which the gendered and racialized victim of sexual and gender-based violence provides particularly powerful victim imagery. In this way, the image of the victim of international crimes is characterized by her essential ‘otherness’: it is humanity that suffers.


2020 ◽  
pp. 134-141
Author(s):  
Kim Thuy Seelinger ◽  
Naomi Fenwick ◽  
Khaled Alrabe

This chapter details the preparation and submission of the amicus curiae brief on sexual violence to the Extraordinary African Chambers (EAC). The amicus curiae brief offered by over a dozen experts on the prosecution of sexual violence under international law may have been a game changer for the Hissène Habré trial, both in terms of its relevance as a mechanism of international criminal justice, as well as in highlighting the EAC's power to address crimes of sexual violence despite their omission from original charges. Among other international crimes, Habré had been convicted of rape and sexual slavery as a crime against humanity and as a form of torture. The affirmation of Habré's life sentence for massive sexual violence committed by his Documentation and Security Directorate (DDS) agents was hailed as a tremendous victory for international criminal justice and the rights of sexual violence survivors. However, the conviction for sexual crimes was not complete and its path was not linear.


2019 ◽  
Vol 113 (4) ◽  
pp. 727-771 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan Liss

AbstractThe scope of international criminal jurisdiction poses a fundamental challenge for criminal law theory. Prevailing justifications for the state's authority to punish crime assume the existence of connections between the state and either the criminal or the crime that are not always present in the international criminal context. Recognizing this gap, this Article introduces a new theory of what distinguishes international crimes from domestic crimes and justifies the unusual scope of international criminal jurisdiction. As this Article explains, international crimes are unique in the way they undermine international society's structure as a system of sovereign states.


2008 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 971-993 ◽  
Author(s):  
ALETTE SMEULERS

How do we and how should we punish perpetrators of international crimes such as war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide? Is it fair to hold individuals responsible for their role in manifestations of this type of collective violence? Do the punishments issued by international criminal institutions support the usual penological rationales? Do they actually attain their goals? Is the Westernized international criminal justice system the most appropriate means of dealing with mass violence, especially in non-Western countries which might have a different perception of justice? What are the alternatives? These are just some of the questions which Mark Drumbl addresses in this book.


2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 905-935 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentina Azarov ◽  
Sharon Weill

Following Israel’s ‘Operation Cast Lead’, the UN called upon the Israeli and Palestinian authorities to conduct investigations and prosecutions of international crimes in accordance with international standards. The measures that the Israeli authorities undertook, when carefully examined, fall short of international standards. When examined under the lens of the admissibility criteria of the complementarity principle under Article 17 of the ICC Statute, this deficient practice emerges as part of a broader policy intended to shield perpetrators and maintain a climate of impunity for those committing international crimes. The need to find alternative avenues to provide victims with access to justice calls for an interrogation of the role of international criminal justice mechanisms, such as the ICC, in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. This article examines recent developments concerning Israel’s investigations under the criteria set out by the complementarity principle.


In this chapter, the study moves from the legal basis upon which these crimes can be prosecuted to victim-oriented approaches in the criminal justice system. It critically examines the emerging trend of victims-centred approach in international criminal justice system and especially how developments in some domestic systems have informed the growing trend to address the needs of victims in international criminal justice. The discussion in this chapter indicates that the relatively new idea of justice for victims of international crimes suggests that the international criminal justice process should attend to victims' needs, thereby contributing in the rebuilding of war-torn communities. The author argues that while the relatively new victim-centred approach to international crimes remains a significant component of comprehensive victim-focused responses, the complex realties of victims of sexual violence in conflict situations provide a unique range of challenges in addressing the needs of victims in the context of international criminal justice system.


2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 595-621 ◽  
Author(s):  
Farhad Malekian

AbstractWhen implemented, the systems of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and Islamic criminal jurisdiction have to ensure equality, justice and peace for humanity. Consequently, implementation of international or Islamic justice does not necessarily emphasise applying the power of law but rather, as well as possible, the power to achieve appropriate human rights principles, which can reach the heart of the international community as a whole. Giving priority to any concept of law, thus recognizing one concept over another, diminishes the value of international criminal justice and creates contradictions in the application of an impartial equal jurisdiction and basic philosophy of cultural attitudes. Therefore, when the ICC Statute was being drafted, there was a strong tendency to overlook the cultural context of law within the social structures of various nations. The chief purpose of this article is to look into the basic principles of the Statute and examine whether similar principles can also be found within Islamic criminal jurisprudence. The article indicates the ability of both systems to function together and increase the practical intensification of international criminal justice. The study also offers, in a homogenous manner, to expand the juridical relationship, seeking cooperation and accommodation between the two systems in order to modify, adapt, adjust or alter laws for the better understanding of justice and equality between nations around the world. Prevention of international crimes will not be achieved through Islamic or ICC jurisprudence, or through any other system of law, but solely by cultivating equal justice together with the spirit of love and mutual admiration. This is the only seed for the promulgation of the ethic of reciprocity or the celebration of the golden rule of humanity.


Author(s):  
Samuel Matsiko

Abstract The prosecution of international crimes in domestic and international criminal justice systems may involve aged defendants. Such prosecutions often implicate aged witnesses as well. There is a dearth of literature not only on the expressive value and optics of punishing aged defendants but also on the role of aged witnesses in the trial process. The need to interrogate these optics and perceptions—be it from an empirical or a theoretical perspective—is not only necessary, it is also timely. This article assesses the prosecution of Chadian dictator Hissène Habré in 2015–2016 at the Extraordinary African Chambers. This trial not only concerned an aged defendant, but also over 90 witnesses, the majority of whom was aged. This article explores the dialectics between the optics of punishing aged defendants and the optics of aged witnesses at the Habré trial.


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