scholarly journals GENDER: INTEGRATING CRIMES AGAINST WOMEN INTO INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL LAW

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 104
Author(s):  
Mohammad Irfan
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Gender Violence ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
International Criminal Tribunals ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
Significant Measure ◽  
Crimes Against Women

The author identifies the major goals and achievements in the area of recognizing women as full subjects of human rights and eliminating impunity for gender crimes, highlighting the role of non-governmental organizations ("NGO's"). Until the 1990s sexual violence in war was largely invisible, a point illustrated by examples of the "comfort women" in Japan during the 1930s and 1940s and the initial failure to prosecute rape and sexual violence in the ad hoc international criminal tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. Due in a significant measure to the interventions by NGOs, the ad hoc international criminal tribunals have brought gender into mainstream international jurisprudence. For example, the Yugoslavia tribunal has devoted substantial resources to the prosecution of rape and explicitly recognized rape as torture, while the Rwanda tribunal has recognized rape as an act of genocide. Elsewhere, the Statute of the International Criminal Court is a landmark in codifying not only crimes of sexual and gender violence as part of the ICC's jurisdiction, but also in establishing procedures to ensure that these crimes and their victims are properly treated. Working towards this end the Women's Caucus for Gender Justice met with significant opposition. It persisted because of the imperative that sexual violence be seen as part of already recognized forms of violence, such as torture and genocide.

What We Talk About When We Talk About Early Release in International Criminal Law: The Sui Generis Nature of the Reduction of Sentence Under the Rome Statute

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-29
Author(s):  
Cristina Fernández-Pacheco Estrada
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Law ◽  
Rome Statute ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Early Release ◽  
International Criminal Tribunals ◽  
The Many

Abstract Early release has been regularly granted by the ad hoc tribunals for over 20 years. However, it could be argued that some issues still remain contentious. In fact, in May 2020, the Practice Direction ruling early release in the Mechanism of the International Criminal Tribunals was amended. This was intended to clarify key matters, such as the time needed to be served before early release, the possibility of imposing conditions upon those released, and the unappealable character of the resulting decision. At a glance, it could be argued that the International Criminal Court is better equipped to confront the many challenges posed by early release. This is owing to its detailed regulation, which may consequently lead to a more reasoned and solid case law. After comparatively examining ten features key to the application of early release, however, this paper argues that the ultimate problem lies within the nature generally conferred to early release in the Rome Statute.

National Law: A Small but Neat Utensil in the Toolbox of International Criminal Tribunals

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-241 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harmen van der Wilt
Keyword(s):  
Ad Hoc ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Responsibility ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Customary Law ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Criminal Proceedings ◽  
National Legislation ◽  
Territorial State ◽  
International Criminal Tribunals

AbstractThis article explores to what extent the ad hoc tribunals have made use of the national law of the state where the crimes have allegedly been committed in their quest for elements of crimes, concepts of criminal responsibility, grounds for excluding criminal responsibility and guidelines for sentencing. At first sight, one would expect the legislation of the territorial state to feature only as an indication of 'general principles of law' or 'international customary law'. However, the investigation of case law reveals that the law of the territorial state holds a far more prominent place. In search for rationales, the author suggests that, initially, national legislation has been used to plug the legal gaps in international criminal law. However, more recently the ad hoc tribunals have canvassed the national legislation of the territorial state, in order to find out whether this state would qualify to take over criminal proceedings against mid-level perpetrators. The author suggests that the International Criminal Court might follow suit, in order to give shape to its policy of 'positive complementarity'.

Hybrid Courts and Amicus Curiae Briefing

2020 ◽  
pp. 351-365
Author(s):  
Sarah Williams
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Violence ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Amicus Curiae ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
International Criminal Tribunals ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
And Gender

This chapter studies the amicus curiae brief drafted for the Extraordinary African Chambers (EAC) regarding sexual violence in order to theorize the appropriate role of such briefing in enabling silenced voices to participate in international criminal tribunals. The term amicus curiae means literally ‘friend of the court’ in Latin. The concept enables actors who are not a party to proceedings (third parties) to provide information that is relevant, but which may not otherwise be brought before the court. Submissions by amicus curiae have influenced the process and judicial outcomes of international and hybrid criminal tribunals, including the International Criminal Court (ICC). This was evident at the EAC. Several international criminal law practitioners and academics submitted an amicus brief to the Chambers highlighting the need to include crimes of sexual and gender-based violence in the charges to be considered by the Chambers (the SGBV brief). The chapter then explores how civil society actors have used amicus curiae briefs to highlight the experiences and needs of women and girls affected by conflict and failures by tribunals to investigate and prosecute sexual violence in other international criminal tribunals.

scholarly journals Crimes of Sexual Violence within International Criminal Law: A Historical Outline

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Miranda Das ◽  
Sukhdev Singh
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
Sexual Crimes ◽  
International Criminal Tribunals ◽  
Historical Outline

This article will provide a synoptic historical outline of international criminal law (ICL) from a gender perspective. An effort is made to highlight the landmark stages in the evolution of the ICL, particularly in its treatment of rape and other sexual crimes perpetrated against women during armed conflict. For this purpose, a critical examination of Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals, criminal tribunals for Yugoslavia and Rwanda as well as Special Court for Sierra Leone, and the International Criminal Court is attempted. Endeavour is to outline the gender and sexual crimes jurisprudence developed by the above mentioned international criminal tribunals as well as courts, and then to examine its effectiveness in prosecuting crimes of rape and sexual violence carried out against women. An analysis of what might have gone wrong within the ICL in dealing with rape and crimes of sexual nature is also attempted.

scholarly journals The International Criminal Court: Promise and Politics

2015 ◽  
Vol 109 ◽  
pp. 269-272
Author(s):  
Makau Mutua
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
International Criminal Court ◽  
Rome Statute ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Tribunal ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
International Criminal Tribunals

The International Criminal Court (ICC or Court) is an institution born of necessity after a long and arduous process of many false starts. The struggle to establish a permanent international criminal tribunal stretches back to Nuremberg. The dream, which was especially poignant for the international criminal law community, for a permanent international criminal tribunal was realized with the adoption in 1998 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The treaty entered into force in 2002. Those were heady days for advocates and scholars concerned with curtailing impunity. No one was more ecstatic about the realization of the ICC than civil society actors across the globe, and particularly in Africa, where impunity has been an endemic problem. Victims who had never received justice at home saw an opportunity for vindication abroad. This optimism in the ICC was partially driven by the successes, however mixed, of two prior ad hoc international criminal tribunals—the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.

The Swinging Pendulum of Cultural Heritage Crimes in International Criminal Law

2020 ◽  
pp. 109-132
Author(s):  
Anne-Marie Carstens
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Hague Convention ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Cultural Property ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
International Criminal Tribunals

Contemporary prosecutions in international criminal tribunals have exposed a long-standing debate over the role of cultural heritage-based crimes in international criminal law. This chapter presents an historical analysis that reveals that the pendulum has swung back and forth with regard to support for including offenses that expressly refer to the destruction or seizure of artistic, historic, and scientific property and of ‘historic monuments’. While cultural heritage destruction was proposed as an offense after the First World War, a pervasive reluctance to include it largely prevailed from the postwar Nuremberg trials until the late 1980s. This chapter attributes this reluctance in part to coinciding developments in cultural property protection that were occurring outside international criminal law, such as the 1954 Hague Convention and the early drafts of the 1948 Genocide Convention. Before the end of the century, though, the pendulum swung back in favor of including the deliberate and unnecessary destruction of certain cultural heritage as a discrete and separate war crime. Both ad hoc international criminal codes and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court reflect lasting recognition of the role that cultural heritage destruction can play in the larger narrative of oppressing, persecuting, and even eradicating targeted collective groups.

International legal immunities and privileges of the Рrosecutor amicus curiae

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 55-63
Author(s):  
EKATERINA A. KOPYLOVA ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Ad Hoc ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
International Treaties ◽  
Amicus Curiae ◽  
Criminal Courts ◽  
Criminal Proceedings ◽  
International Criminal Tribunals ◽  
Foreign Science

The article considers the international legal regime of immunities and privileges of amicus curiae prosecutors of international criminal courts which are intended to ensure independent and unhindered performance of their functions in prosecuting crimes against the administration of justice. Due to the lack of doctrinal research in this field, whether in the domestic or foreign science of international law, the study is characterized by scientific novelty. Its empirical basis is constituted of the provisions of international treaties governing the immunities and privileges of staff of the ad hoc international criminal tribunals and the International Criminal Court. It is noted that today the state of international legal regulation of immunities and privileges of amicus curiae prosecutors is not quite satisfactory as it contains significant gaps. Two possible approaches to determining the scope of the immunities and privileges of amicus curiae prosecutors are identified: the first based on their status and the second – on the functions they perform. Their critical analysis leads to the conclusion that the functional approach is more in line with the principle of equality of arms in international criminal proceedings. As a result of its application, the scope of the immunities and privileges of amicus curiae prosecutors coincides with the scope of the immunities and privileges granted to staff of the Offices of Prosecutors at the international criminal tribunals.

scholarly journals Nazi Crimes in Poland. A Never-Ending Search for Justice

2019 ◽  
pp. 142-160
Author(s):  
Hanna Kuczyńska
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
International Law ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
World War ◽  
National Courts ◽  
International Criminal Tribunals ◽  
Efficient Machine

This article deals with the model for prosecuting Nazi crimes committed in Poland in the light of the model presently used in international criminal law. It tries to answer the question: should the investigation of crimes of international law be handed over to transnational tribunals? Should they be hybrid tribunals involving a national factor, or completely supra-national tribunals like the International Criminal Court? Is it legitimate to transfer jurisdiction over these matters to national courts? The case of unpunished Nazi crimes in Poland may give a partial answer to this question. Certainly, various attempts made after World War II, including procedures brought before Polish courts, have contributed to understanding the function of international criminal law, and finding the answer to the question of the best model for prosecuting crimes of international law. At present, we also have the experience of international criminal tribunals, in particular the ICC, which is an efficient machine for prosecuting crimes of international law. Interesting conclusions can be drawn from its functioning that could improve the work of Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) prosecutors, and shed new light on the considerations regarding the prosecution of Nazi crimes in Poland after World War II.

scholarly journals The Legacy of the ICTY and ICTR in China

AJIL Unbound ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 110 ◽  
pp. 245-250
Author(s):  
Bing Bing Jia
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Law ◽  
International Criminal Court ◽  
Rome Statute ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Tribunal ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
International Tribunal

Legacy is a matter that may become topical when its creator finally stops producing. Normally, the silent years would be many before the thought of legacy enters into open, formal discourse among lawyers and decision-makers. This comment treats the meaning of the word as relative to the circumstances in which it is invoked. The more closely it is used in relation to the present, the more distant it drifts from its literal meaning, to the extent that it denotes what the word “impact” signifies. This essay questions whether the word “legacy” is apt in describing the footprint of the work of the two ad hoctribunals in China, where its influence has, as a matter of fact, been waning ever since the adoption of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court in 1998 (“Rome Statute” ). The Chinese example suggests that the work of the tribunals is (at least so far) no more significant to international criminal law than the illustrious Nuremberg and Tokyo Trials of the 1940s. The most major impact (a more apposite term than legacy) of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) for China may be that China’s policy with regard to the tribunals, manifested mostly in the United Nations, has determined its approach to the International Criminal Court (“ICC” ). For that, the work of the tribunals could be considered as having left China something in the nature of an indirect legacy.

The Birth of Atrocity Speech Law Part 1

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory S. Gordon
Keyword(s):  
Ad Hoc ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
Genocide Convention ◽  
International Military Tribunal ◽  
Military Tribunal ◽  
Comparable Control

Chapter 3 considers the initial choices made by the newly formed body of international criminal law vis-à-vis atrocity speech. The framers of the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal (IMT) recognized that Nazi barbarities were rooted in propaganda. Article 6(c) of the IMT Charter”(and a comparable Control Council Law No. 10 provision) permitted prosecutors to charge “crimes against humanity” against Nazi defendants, including Julius Streicher and Hans Fritzsche (before the IMT) and Otto Dietrich (before an American tribunal). This novel offense criminalized certain heinous acts committed against civilians that were outside the ambit of war crimes, including hate speech as persecution. The chapter then considers the origins of the Genocide Convention and its pioneering formulation of the incitement crime. Finally, it examines the ad hoc tribunal statutes and the Rome Statue of the International Criminal Court, each of which criminalizes incitement to genocide, persecution as a crime against humanity, instigation, and ordering.

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