scholarly journals PRINCIPLES OF TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE

2021 ◽  
Vol 117 (4) ◽  
pp. 96-106
Author(s):  
CHVALIUK Andrii ◽  
BABIN Borys

Background. The issue of reintegration of the temporarily occupied territories was emphasized by the President of Ukraine as one of the priority areas of work of the Commission on Legal Reform. Instructing to develop a concept of transitional justice in 2019, the President said that it should include measures to compensate victims of war, bring to trial those guilty of serious crimes, realize the right to receive the truth about the course of the conflict. However, neither the country’s leadership nor the scientific community has yet determined the principles on which these measures should be implemented. Analysis of recent research and publications has revealed that, when thinking about the principles of transitional justice policy, human rights activists and scholars use such language clichés as «directions», «measures», «main principles»,«postulates», «essence», «policy principles to support transitional justice». This creates some confusion that needs to be eliminated. The aim of this article is to formulate the principles of the Ukrainian model of transitional justice. Materials and methods. During the study, both general and special methods of cognition were used: dialectical, terminological, systemic, formal-logical, generalization, structural-functional, modelingand forecasting. The information base of the study was the norms of international law, national legislation and draft laws, expert opinions, works of domestic and foreign scientists. Results. The article considers the principles on which the Ukrainian model of transitional justice should be based. Taking into account the fact that at the normative and doctrinal levels the consolidation of the principles of the domestic model of transitional justice has not yet taken place, the author offers his vision of the system of principles of the domestic model of transitional justice and outlines promising areas for their practical implementation. Conclusion.The author believes that the basic system of principles of the domestic model of transitional justice should look like this: the primacy of international law; objective (judicial) truth; universal justice; post-conflict modernization of public relations; efficiency and timeliness. Keywords: transitional justice, principles, model, measures, directions, reintegration of temporarily occupied territories.

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy Julian Sarkin

This article explores how conditional amnesties can assist post-conflict societies to recover truth. It examines how such amnesties can be used optimally to achieve the best results as part of transitional justice mechanisms. Thus, a central question is to see how amnesties can be used for truth recovery purposes. For that reason, the status and role of amnesties, and whether such amnesties can be used to learn more about the past and assist in truth recovery is explored. The article explores what amnesties are, how prevalent they are and how amnesties can be used optimally to achieve the best results. An issue that is also explored is whether amnesties are needed for perpetrators to participate in transitional justice mechanisms. The argument that is made, in this regard, is that amnesty is absolutely necessary to persuade perpetrators to testify. If they do not have such legal protection, perpetrators fear the legal consequences that may result if they admit to crimes for which they have not been charged. Another question that is examined concerns whether amnesties, and specifically conditional amnesties, pass international law muster. This article therefore investigates the continual and extensive use of amnesty to determine whether a conditional amnesty violates international law. The article suggests how a conditional amnesty process could be structured and what difficulties such a process should avoid if perpetrators are to enter such a process.


2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-180
Author(s):  
Bronik Matwijkiw ◽  
Anja Matwijkiw

AbstractIn this article, the two authors examine the leap from business management to contemporary international law in the context of stakeholder theory. Because stakeholder theory was developed for business management, they provide a thorough account of the original framework. Furthermore, to illustrate the theory's application as a recently adopted parameter for the United Nations, they use former Secretary-General Kofi Atta Annan's 2004-report to the Security Council, "The Rule of Law and Transitional Justice in Conflict and Post-Conflict Societies". Proceeding on the hypothesis that while all premises ultimately match traditional positions in general jurisprudence, it appears that stakeholder theory nevertheless forces the United Nations to take sides in an unprecedented manner, especially pertaining to rights-typology and the credentials-checking for this. Finally, some of the most important implications are distilled as part of an attempt to formulate a few recommendations for United Nations justice managers and administrators.


TheHandbookconsists of 32 Chapters in seven parts. Part I provides the historical background and sets out some of the contemporary challenges. Part II considers the relevant sources of international law. Part III describes the different legal regimes: land warfare, air warfare, maritime warfare, the law of occupation, the law applicable to peace operations, and the law of neutrality. Part IV introduces key concepts in international humanitarian law: weapons and the notion of superfluous injury and unnecessary suffering, the principle of distinction, proportionality, genocide and crimes against humanity, grave breaches and war crimes, internal armed conflict. Part V looks at key rights: the right to life, the prohibition on torture, the right to fair trial, economic, social and cultural rights, the protection of the environment, the protection of cultural property, and the human rights of the members of the armed forces. Part VI covers key issues such as: the use of force, terrorism, unlawful combatants, the application of human rights in times of armed conflict, forced migration, and issues of gender. Part VII deals with accountability issues including those related to private security companies, the need to focus on armed groups, as well as questions of state responsibility brought before national courts, and finally, the book addresses issues related to transitional justice.


2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karine Mac Allister

This paper discusses the legal consequences following the transfer of settlers into occupied territories more precisely the dichotomy between the rights of settlers the rights of protected persons victims. At the heart of the matter are the questions: What to do with settlers transferred into occupied territories in the post-conflict period? Should settlers be removed from the territory where they were transferred to allow victims to access restitution? In the alternative, should settlers be considered to have acquired a de facto ‘right to stay’ or a right not to be expelled under international human rights law the principle of humanity? Do settlers have rights? Do all settlers have the same rights? There is no consensual answer to these sensitive questions where proposed solutions vary on a spectrum from collective expulsion to the unconditional integration of settlers. Emerging from a case analysis is an international response to settler transfer that is complaisant of fait accompli resulting in a balance tilting in favor of the status quo to the not infrequent detriment of protected victims’ rights. This article attempts to reconcile conflicting rights by proposing a response framework cognizant of all relevant branches of international law.


Author(s):  
Groome Dermot

Principle 2 is concerned with the inalienable right to truth, a right that arises from the right to know and obliges governments to establish mechanisms to facilitate the revelation of the truth about serious violations of human rights. The right to truth has been explicitly incorporated into several international instruments and, in 2010, became expressly guaranteed in the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPPED). In practice, the right to truth is realized through laws enabling requests for state-held information; archives; truth commissions; national and international courts; and human rights commissions. After providing a contextual and historical overview of Principle 2, this chapter describes its normative (legal/ethical) foundation, focusing on how its interpretation is influenced by international law and how it relates to notions of transitional justice. It also analyzes the applications of the Principle in practice.


Author(s):  
Lambert Hélène

This chapter explores customary refugee law. Refugee law is primarily treaty law. However, many of the major refugee-receiving countries are not parties to either the Refugee Convention or the Refugee Protocol, for example Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Iran, Jordan, and Lebanon. Hence, customary international refugee law can be critically important in the identification of key principles of refugee protection and as an indication of what is permitted or not. While customary international law may not play as significant a role in refugee law as it does in other areas of international law, there are at least three practices of refugee protection aimed at safeguarding access and admission to refugee protection for which varying degrees of agreement exist in favour of a rule (or emerging rule) of customary law: non-refoulement, temporary refuge, and the right to be granted (to receive) asylum. These practices are deeply intertwined in their humanitarian purpose.


Author(s):  
Anastasiia Diadiuk ◽  

An article explores theoretical and practical problems of the assignment of the claim dividends to joint-stock companies. The author pointed to the legal nature of the transfer of the right of claim. Were studied the peculiarities and procedure of transferring the shareholder's right to receive dividends due to him to third parties. The right to receive dividends by a shareholder gives rise to a monetary obligation, the parties to which are a company (the debtor) and a shareholder (the creditor). We can see the possibility of assignment of the right to claim payment of dividends as a legal basis for replacing the creditor (shareholder) in the obligation because of the absence of a direct legal prohibition, as well as the personal nature of the legal relationship between the company and the shareholder. The practical implementation of this possibility is complicated by several factors, including the lack of a clear legal position on the nature of dividends, as well as the right to receive dividends; legislative non-regulation of the procedure for assignment of the right to demand payment of dividends. The analyzed decisions of the state regulator indicate the impossibility of replacing the creditor in the obligation to pay dividends if the shareholder transfers his rights to another person under the transaction (agreement) in the manner prescribed by regulations. The legal doctrine shows, the essence of the shareholder's right to dividends allows distinguishing the corporate right to dividends, and the right to claim payment of dividends (obligatory). Accordingly, the right to claim payment of dividends has the characteristics of an independent property object (asset), which may be the object of a contractual relationship. The obligatory right to demand payment of dividends will be the subject of a contract of assignment of the right to claim dividends to be paid (cession), as a kind of agreement of assignment of the right to demand a monetary obligation. The conclusion of an agreement on the assignment of the right to claim dividends is possible only after the acquisition by the shareholder (original creditor) of the right to claim the company.


2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 474
Author(s):  
Ana Paula Barbosa-Fohrmann

<p>This paper examines the problematic of child soldiers, based on inter alia the strategy of research <br />and study of the United Nations Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for <br />Children and Armed Conflict and on the priorities of the Machel Study. Here, national and international <br />law will be applied on countries where children are recruited by armed groups. Concerning domestic <br />jurisdiction alternative or traditional methods of justice as well as formal legal methods will be <br />addressed. Specifically, this paper will focus on three main subjects: 1) the possibility of prosecution <br />and judgment of adolescents, who participated in armed conflicts; 2) prosecution and judgment of war lords <br />and 3) civil reparation proportional to the damage caused by an armed conflict. These three subjects will <br />be construed according to (traditional or alternative and formal) national and international law. Finally, <br />some recommendations will be made in order to improve the system of reintegration of child soldiers in <br />post-conflict countries.</p>


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