The Security Consequences of Bearing Witness

2019 ◽  
Vol 64 (5) ◽  
pp. 933-957
Author(s):  
James Meernik ◽  
Kimi King
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Alternative Explanation ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Tribunal ◽  
Human Security ◽  
Former Yugoslavia ◽  
Security Threats ◽  
Exposure Risk ◽  
Bearing Witness ◽  
Selective Targeting

It is a central assumption of our research that threats to a fragile security and violence can continue during postconflict peacebuilding and that these threats are driven by many of the same sociopolitical dynamics that initially led to war. We examine a critical but much less queried area of postwar societal instability—violence directed at segments of the population who may still be targets for those seeking dominance. Using a survey of 300 individuals who testified before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), we seek to explain violence, threats of violence, and other forms of intimidation directed at those who witnessed human rights violations during the wars in the former Yugoslavia. Our theory of postwar violence emphasizes the vulnerability of the (potential) victims of postwar violence. We argue that victims are selectively chosen because of their vulnerability. We develop and test an alternative explanation for this selective targeting that emphasizes the level of exposure an individual may have because of testifying at the ICTY. The results demonstrate quite convincingly, however, that it is vulnerability rather than exposure risk that predicts who is most likely to be targeted with human security threats.

Rape and Human Rights

PMLA ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 121 (5) ◽  
pp. 1662-1664 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean Franco
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Ethnic Group ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Tribunal ◽  
Former Yugoslavia ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
Geneva Conventions ◽  
War Criminals ◽  
The United Nations

According to the report of the United Nations commission on Human Rights, rape is the least condemned war crime (coomaraswamy, Further Promotion 64n263). Although wartime rape was listed as a crime against humanity by the Nuremberg Military Tribunals and by the Geneva Conventions, it was not until 2001 that the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia identified rapists as war criminals. In that year the tribunal sentenced three men for violations of the laws or customs of war (torture, rape) and crimes against humanity (torture, rape) committed during the war in Bosnia during the 1993 takeover of Foca, where women were systematically raped and killed, the purpose being “to destroy an ethnic group by killing it, to prevent its reproduction or to disorganize it, removing it from its home soil.”

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 The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and Fair Trial Rights: A Closer Look

1996 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 479-501 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Sloan
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Recent Article ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Tribunal ◽  
The Other ◽  
Former Yugoslavia ◽  
Body System ◽  
European Court ◽  
Treaty Body

In a recent article lamenting the perception of partiality created by an activist judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), one commentator observed the general lack of scrutiny to which the ICTY is being held in its treatment of the rights of the accused. He noted that it “is a court without legal critics: no complaint about its conduct may be made to the Human Rights Committee in Geneva or to the European Court [of Human Rights], and human rights lobbies have tended to look the other way.” Indeed, it is in a position that many governments, fatigued by what many of them consider to be cumbersome reporting obligations and troublesome individual complaints procedures under the United Nations treaty body system, would envy.

Equality of Arms – Defining Human Rights in the Jurisprudence of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia

2003 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 269-320 ◽  
Author(s):  
GABRIELLE MCINTYRE
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Tribunal ◽  
Secretary General ◽  
Former Yugoslavia ◽  
Contextual Approach ◽  
Criminal Proceedings ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Just Decisions ◽  
Human Rights Standards

The success of the International Criminal Tribunal of the former Yugoslavia in fulfilling its mandate turns on the justness of the decisions it renders. To ensure that its judgements are accepted by the international community as just decisions the Tribunal is directed by the Report of the Secretary-General to adhere fully in its criminal proceedings to internationally recognized human rights standards. This directive suggests that the Tribunal should adhere to the interpretation of human rights principles as understood by other jurisdictions. However, in some instances the Tribunal has, by virtue of its statutory requirements, been unable to follow those standards as understood by other jurisdictions and it has justifiably adopted a contextual approach to the application of certain human rights principles to its criminal proceedings. In other instances, however, the Tribunal has purported to adhere fully to certain human rights principles as adopted by other jurisdictions. This has occurred with respect to the Tribunal's adherence to the principle of equality of arms. In this instance, however, the Tribunal's purported adherence to that principle has led to a situation where that adherence has had a negative effect on the justness of the decisions it has rendered. In the following it is argued that with respect to the application of the principle of equality of arms the Tribunal should adopt a contextual approach if the decisions it renders are to be just decisions and are to have the appearance of being just decisions.

scholarly journals The ICTY and the Right to a Fair Trial: A Critique of the Critics

1997 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivia Q. Swaak-Goldman
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Criminal Court ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Tribunal ◽  
Fair Trial ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Former Yugoslavia ◽  
Rules Of Procedure ◽  
The Right ◽  
Death Knell

In recent publications a rising tide of criticism directed against the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) is discernible, principally concerning whether or not the ICTY grants the accused a fair trial. The perceived lack of ability, or willingness, to satisfy the highest standards of human rights concerning the right of accused to a fair trial is regarded as a death-knell both for the broad acceptance of the ICTY's jurisprudence as well as the prospects for a permanent international criminal court. While most of the criticism centres around the interpretation and application of provisions of the ICTY's Statute and Rules of Procedure and Evidence addressing the right to a fair trial, some of it concerns the vigorousness with which ICTY officials insist upon the surrender of indicted persons. With all due respect these commentators, by applying norms that are not wholly applicable, misconceive the threat to the accused's fair trial rights.

scholarly journals La protección de los derechos humanos en la justicia penal internacional: el caso particular del Tribunal Penal Internacional para la ex-Yugoslavia en relación con el derecho consuetudinario y el principio de legalidad = The protection of human rights in international Criminal Justice: the particular case of the international criminal tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in relation to customary law and the principle of legality

2018 ◽  
pp. 70
Author(s):  
Elena C. Díaz Galán ◽  
Harold Bertot Triana
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Tribunal ◽  
Customary Law ◽  
Former Yugoslavia ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Derechos Humanos ◽  
Principle Of Legality

RESUMEN: La labor del Tribunal Penal Internacional para la Ex-Yugoslavia tuvo un momento importante en la compresión del principio de legalidad, como principio básico en la garantía de los derechos humanos, al enfrentar no sólo el derecho consuetudinario como fuente de derecho sino también diferentes modos o enfoques en la identificación de este derecho consuetudinario. Esta relación debe ser analizada a la luz de las limitaciones que tiene el derecho internacional y, sobre todo, de los procedimientos de creación de normas. No resulta fácil exigir responsabilidad en el cumplimiento del derecho internacional humanitario y de los derechos humanos. La práctica de este Tribunal abre una vía para la reflexión con la finalidad de asegurar el respeto de los derechos humanos en cualquier circunstancia, incluso de aquellos que llevaron a cabo la comisión de graves crímenes contra la comunidad internacional.ABSTRACT: The work of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia was important for understanding the principle of legality as a key principle on the guarantee of Human Rights. The former was due to the Tribunal’s work on having faced the customary law as a source of law using different perspectives for its identification. The link between customary law, principle of legality and human rights has to be analyzed taking in account the limits of International law and the procedures for creating legal norms. It is not easy to invoke responsibility in the fulfillment of international humanitarian law and international law of human rights. The practice developed by this Tribunal provides an avenue for thinking about ensuring the respect of the human rights in any case including the commission of grave crimes against international community. PALABRAS CLAVE: derecho internacional de los derechos humanos, principio de legalidad, derecho internacional humanitario, costumbre internacionalKEYWORDS: international law of human rights, principle of legality, international humanitarian law, international custom

Individual Criminal Responsibility before the International Criminal Court

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Goy
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
International Criminal Court ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Responsibility ◽  
International Criminal Tribunal ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Former Yugoslavia ◽  
Individual Criminal Responsibility

For more than 15 years the two ad hoc Tribunals, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), have interpreted the requirements of different forms of individual criminal responsibility. It is thus helpful to look at whether and to what extent the jurisprudence of the ICTY/ICTR may provide guidance to the International Criminal Court (ICC). To this end, this article compares the requirements of individual criminal responsibility at the ICTY/ICTR and the ICC. The article concludes that, applied with caution, the jurisprudence of the ICTY/ICTR – as an expression of international law – can assist in interpreting the modes of liability under the ICC Statute. ICTY/ICTR case law seems to be most helpful with regard to accessorial forms of liability, in particular their objective elements. Moreover, it may assist in interpreting the subjective requirements set out in Article 30 ICC Statute.

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