The Position Of Witnesses Before The International Criminal Court

The book examines the implications of cosmopolitan thought for the functioning of the ICC, and the implications of this for the position of witnesses before the ICC/other tribunals. The cosmopolitan theory becomes a way of critiquing their practice and jurisprudence.

This volume is an analyses of international criminal law as applied by the ICTY, as well as the ICC, ICTR and other international or hybrid criminal tribunals, and are all authored by persons in a position to give great insight into the subject matter discussed.

This book canvasses the autonomous position of victims before the International Criminal Court. It seeks to provide an objective and balanced perspective, and neither rejects the idea of victims’ participation or seeks to extend it beyond the contours determined by the founders of the ICC.

Some injustices are so massive, so heinous, and so extraordinary that ordinary courts are no longer adequate. The creation of international courts and tribunals to confront major violations of human rights sought to bring justice to affected communities as well as to the entire world. Yet if justice is a righting of the imbalance between what has happened and what is reflected in the law, no amount of punishment and no judgment could compensate for that suffering and loss. In order to understand the meaning of justice, James David Meernik and Kimi Lynn King studied the perspective of witnesses who have testified before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Using a unique survey, Meernik and King look at the identity of the victims and their perception of the fairness of ICTY. Because of the need to justify the practical and emotional difficulties involved in testifying before an international tribunal, witnesses look not just to the institution to judge its effectiveness, but also to their own contribution, by testifying effectively. The central elements of the theory Meernik and King develop—identity, fairness, and experience—transcend specific conflicts and specific countries and are of importance to people everywhere.

The book analyses the difficulties the International Criminal Court faces with the definition of those persons who are eligible for participating in the proceedings. Establishing justice for victims is one of the most important aims of the court. It therefore created a unique system of victim participation. Since its first trial the court struggles to live up to the expectancies its statute has generated. The book offers a new approach of how to define victimhood by looking at the different international crimes. It seeks to offer guidance for the right to participate in the different stages of the proceedings by looking at the practice in national jurisdictions. Lastly the book offers insights into the functioning of the reparation regime at the ICC by virtue of the Trust Fund for Victim and its different mandates. The critical analysis of the ICC-practice with regard to definition, participation and reparation aims at promoting a realistic approach, which will avoid the disappointing of expectations and thus help to enhance the acceptance of the ICC.

This book focuses on the testimonial evidence of traumatised witnesses in trials of international crimes, which deal with acts of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Such trials often involve the testimonies of those who experienced or witnessed extremely traumatic events, which can make it hard for these witnesses to recall specific details. Testifying during trial may in itself also pose challenges to their well-being. Yet the legal process of determining whether someone can be held criminally responsible for the alleged crimes needs to be fair, in accordance with the right to a fair trial of the accused, and the facts need to be determined as accurately as possible. This book argues that to ensure fair and accurate fact-finding when in particular traumatised witnesses testify, a balance needs to be struck between the needs of witnesses who testify about traumatic experiences, the fair trial rights of the accused and the objective of the court to establish as accurately as possible the responsibility of the accused. This is crucial throughout the stages of selecting, preparing, presenting and assessing the testimonial evidence of traumatised witnesses. The methodology involves an analysis of transcripts of proceedings and case law of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the International Criminal Court and Dutch courts prosecuting international crimes. The research demonstrates that it is often difficult to strike a balance between the competing objectives during proceedings when traumatised witnesses testify due to the current lack of regulations and guidelines applicable during investigations and prosecutions. This book shows that this balance can, and should, be achieved when traumatised witnesses testify during criminal proceedings for international crimes. The work is an invaluable resource for researchers, academics and practitioners in criminal law, criminology, legal psychology, legal psychiatry, social anthropology and forensic sciences.

In recent years, the world community has demonstrated a renewed commitment to the pursuit of international criminal justice. In 1993, the United Nations established two ad hoc international tribunals to try those responsible for genocide and crimes against humanity in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. Ten years later, the International Criminal Court began its operations and is developing prosecutions in its first two cases (Congo and Uganda). Meanwhile, national and hybrid war crimes tribunals have been established in Sierra Leone, Kosovo, Serbia and Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, East Timor, Indonesia, Iraq, and Cambodia. Thousands of people have given testimony before these courts. Most have witnessed war crimes, including mass killings, torture, rape, inhumane imprisonment, forced expulsion, and the destruction of homes and villages. For many, testifying in a war crimes trial requires great courage, especially as they are well aware that war criminals still walk the streets of their villages and towns. Yet despite these risks, little attention has been paid to the fate of witnesses of mass atrocity. Nor do we know much about their experiences testifying before an international tribunal or the effect of such testimony on their return to their postwar communities. The first study of victims and witnesses who have testified before an international war crimes tribunal, The Witnesses examines the opinions and attitudes of eighty-seven individuals—Bosnians, Muslims, Serbs, and Croats—who have appeared before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.