Critiques on the Tribunals and The Hague Court

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (7) ◽  
pp. 445-491
Author(s):  
Bishnu Pathak

This critique is a review of heinous crimes. It assesses to connect with perpetrators, victims, people and institutions and change professed through the works of the Tribunals and The Hague Court and share the feeling with the concerned ones. The objectives of the paper are three-fold: (1) to study the situations of the investigation, prosecution and punishment on accountability; (2) to analyze the preference for justice: victors’ justice or victims’ justice; and (3) to access the critiques on violations of human rights and humanitarian law beyond the borders. Experiences on Transitional Justice, Human Security, and Human Rights among others feel touched, inspired and motivated to the author for this pioneer paper. This state-of-the-art paper is examined based on archival research, exchanging and sharing way forward with over 100 international publications and lessons-learned centric theoretical approach comprising snow-ball techniques. The study theorizes: (1) Retributive Justice Theory: Punishment is justified as perpetrator deserves for penalty, equivalent vengeance; (2) Utilitarian Justice Theory: Punishment is justified to mid-and-junior level perpetrators scooting-free to the top-most policymakers including Emperor Hirohito. Allied powers believed that Hirohito can only fight against the communism; (3) Denunciation Justice Theory: Punishment is justified by pressure of society that sends a clear message: offence is a heinous crime and sentencing a perpetrator is logically just; (4) Restorative Justice Theory: Punishment is justified as crimes of perpetrators hurt everyone and justice repairs the damage satisfying through accountability, reparation, rehabilitation and reconciliation; and (5) Transnational Justice Theory: Punishment is justified to operate outside a nation territory that penalizes the perpetrators as a crime of international concern. The Nuremberg and Tokyo Tribunals had virtually been victor’s justice with self-righteous fraud and lynching bodies. The Tokyo Tribunal never talks about bombings at Chinese cities. The U.S. and its axis powers discourage future aggressions accepting victor’s justice. The UN failed to restore peace and security. Cronyism was/is widespread. All Tribunals seemed pseudo justice bodies. People criticize these for being one-sided, inefficient, ineffectiveness, politicized, lengthy, very costly and unfair bodies. The U.S. and its satellite nations control both Tribunals and The Hague Court providing funds, instruments and staff. The Hague Court is a highly debated body with many flaws, targeting mostly poor and opponent African countries. Most grave crimes committed go unpunished. Thus, justice delivery appears as a sword in a judge's toupee. If The Hague Court is continuously influenced by powerful non-signatories of Statute, the relevance of its functions are hopeless. Justice becomes elusive for the innocent, weak and poor ones.

2008 ◽  
Vol 90 (871) ◽  
pp. 629-651 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylvain Vité

AbstractThe current legal regime relative to occupation is no longer based solely on the contributions made by customary law and treaty-based law as set forth in the law of The Hague and the law of Geneva. It has undergone a thorough change with the progressive recognition of the applicability of human rights law to the situations which it governs, and their complementarity has been highlighted on several occasions. The question of the interrelation of international humanitarian law and human rights is not resolved merely by analysing their respective areas of application. The author examines the issue at the level of their individual rules. He considers whether the rules of international humanitarian law are confirmed, complemented, relativized or even contradicted by those deriving from human rights. The analysis focuses more particularly on the interrelation of the law of occupation and economic, social and cultural rights by concentrating on the promotion of adequate standards of living (right to food, right to health) and respect for property.


2000 ◽  
Vol 94 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theodor Mero

Together with the principle prohibiting weapons “of a nature to cause superfluous injury” or “calculated to cause unnecessary suffering,” the Martens clause, in the Preamble to the Hague Conventions on the Laws and Customs of War on Land, is an enduring legacy of those instruments. In the years since its formulation, the Martens clause has been relied upon in die Nurembergjurisprudence, addressed by the International Court of Justice and human rights bodies, and reiterated in many humanitarian law treaties that regulate the means and methods of warfare. It was restated in die 1949 Geneva Conventions for the Protection of Victims of War, the 1977 Additional Protocols to those Conventions, and the Preamble to the Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons, albeit in slightly different versions. The Martens clause was paraphrased in Resolution XXIII of the Tehran Conference on Human Rights of 1968, and is cited or otherwise referred to in several national military manuals, including those of the United States, die United Kingdom, and Germany. Moreover, attempts have recently been made, including by parties before die International Court of Jusdce, to invoke the clause, in the absence of specific norms of customary and conventional law, to oudaw the use of nuclear weapons.


Author(s):  
Merryl Lawry-White

This chapter considers the interaction of some of the applicable norms related to liability and reparation for environmental damage in a post-conflict setting, including human rights and humanitarian law norms (including precedents) and their interaction with each other, with a focus on the potential consequences for victims. Using displacement as a specific case study, the discussion regarding potential consequences is supported by the learning that may be drawn from precedent reparations schemes, including those implemented in a ‘transitional justice’ framework as part of an attempt to afford ‘justice’ for breaches of human rights and humanitarian law (whether related to the environment or otherwise). The chapter considers some of the potential challenges of this interaction, particularly for justice initiatives, and particularly reparations schemes, experienced in the aftermath of conflict, such as constructing a coherent post-conflict narrative, restitution (or ‘truth’), awarding reparation (including ‘restitution’), and reconciliation as part of ‘peacebuilding’.


2019 ◽  
Vol 113 ◽  
pp. 365-366
Author(s):  
Saira Mohamed

Welcome to this discussion on “Emerging Accountability Mechanisms: Innovative or Ineffective?” During this session, four expert panelists will examine the evolution and future of so-called “alternative” or “non-traditional” mechanisms that aim to secure accountability for serious violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law. This category comprises mechanisms with a range of goals and forms, from investigative institutions that prepare evidence to be handed off to criminal courts, to transitional justice mechanisms that seek through non-criminal means to redress violations, prevent a relapse into violence, and facilitate reconciliation.


2019 ◽  
Vol 75 (3) ◽  
pp. 334-350
Author(s):  
Ronald Chipaike ◽  
Nduduzo Tshuma ◽  
Sharon Hofisi

Africa’s relationship with the International Criminal Court (ICC) has been strained over the past few years. Threats by a number of African states to withdraw from the ICC’s jurisdiction have marked a crescendo in the strained relationship. This study looks at the issues surrounding the proposed or threatened mass withdrawal by African countries and the implications for peace and justice in the African continent. Utilising interviews with a cross section of key informants including members of the African diplomatic community resident in Zimbabwe, this study highlights that it is difficult for African states to withdraw en masse since not all states are agreeable to this stance. The study further highlights that although the ICC is not a perfect institution, it is the only alternative court of last resort that can deal with human rights and international humanitarian law violations as well as impunity in the continent. The proposed African Court of Justice and Human Rights (ACJHR) has not yet taken root owing to a shortage of adequate ratifications of the protocol establishing it.   Thus, although concerns of unfair targeting of African leaders and individuals by the ICC could be considered valid, African states need to find a way of establishing a cordial relationship with the ICC to ensure the protection of individual rights while they establish regional institutions to deal with cases currently being referred to the ICC.


2000 ◽  
Vol 94 (2) ◽  
pp. 239-278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theodor Meron

The centennial of the Hague Convention (No. II; No. IV in the 1907 version) on the Laws and Customs of War on Land and the fiftieth anniversary of the four Geneva Conventions for the Protection of Victims of War of August 12, 1949, present an opportunity to reflect on the direction in which the law of war, or international humanitarian law, has been evolving. This essay focuses on the humanization of that law, a process driven to a large extent by human rights and the principles of humanity. As the subject is vast, major issues must inevitably be left out of my discussion, including the impact of the prohibitions on unnecessary suffering and indiscriminate warfare on the regulation of weapons, the proscription of antipersonnel land mines and blinding laser weapons, and the progression of international humanitarian law from largely protecting noncombatants to protecting combatants as well.


Author(s):  
Juliana Laguna Trujillo

Abstract This article discusses the existence of an international obligation for the State of Colombia to guarantee access to abortion services for women and girls who are victims of conflict-related sexual violence in the context of the Colombian armed conflict. By examining international humanitarian law rules from an international human rights law lens, it sets out the interdependence between both frameworks from reproductive health and human rights perspectives. Furthermore, the article provides considerations on the recognition and redress of these violations in the transitional justice scenario in Colombia.


2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 526-542
Author(s):  
VO Ojo ◽  
N Filbert

Transitional justice developed as a pragmatic concept prescribing a set of mechanisms to be used by societies or countries experiencing systematic periods of armed conflicts or emerging from authoritarian regimes characterised by egregious violations of human rights or humanitarian law. While relative success stories of its utilisation have been recorded, questions have been raised regarding the recent tendency to prescribe transitional justice for societies which have not or are yet to undergo any transition. Through its lack of success in Nigeria and debatable effectiveness in Uganda, the article shows that transitional justice mechanisms are not a cure-all. While it does not contend that there is a perfect notion of transitional justice, the article proposes that transitional justice mechanisms must be designed from the ground up, with the victims at the centre of the process. While transitional justice is a global project, this article argues that its success can be achieved when its applicability and administration take into account the contextual and indigenous focus with a move towards localising its mechanisms.


2006 ◽  
Vol 88 (862) ◽  
pp. 327-353 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Salmón G.

Compliance with or violations of international humanitarian law during an armed conflict undoubtedly influence the conduct of the judiciary, the situations of the victims and the correlation of forces in the post-conflict society. This article seeks to determine the influence of international humanitarian law on the transitional justice process. The author examines the specific experience of certain Latin American states that have been deeply affected by serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document