Human Rights Law Commons^™

Documentation For Accountability, Paul Williams, Jessica Levy

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

The cost of armed conflict is borne not only in the stark number of lives lost, but also in the grave atrocity crimes committed during these periods. Despite the legal protections set forth in the Geneva Conventions and other foundational documents of international humanitarian law, perpetrators continue to commit crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide. Documenting these atrocity crimes has become a crucial step in efforts to secure justice for victims and survivors of these atrocities. To support the expanding field of human rights documentation, the international community must redouble its efforts to ensure that civil society actors engaged …

Crashing The Misdemeanor System, Jenny M. Roberts

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

With “minor crimes” making up more than 75% of state criminal caseloads, the United States faces a misdemeanor crisis. Although mass incarceration continues to plague the nation, the current criminal justice system is faltering under the weight of misdemeanor processing.

Operating under the “broken windows theory,” which claims that public order law enforcement prevents more serious crime, the police send many petty offenses to criminal court. This is so even though the original authors of the theory noted that “[o]rdinarily, no judge or jury ever sees the persons caught up in a dispute over the appropriate level of neighborhood order” …

Owning Justice And Reckoning With Its Complexity, Diane Orentlicher

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

A series of developments, both doctrinal and political, seem to signify a retreat from earlier innovations in the law and practice of international justice. On closer examination, however, recent developments in international justice cannot be reduced to a single trend line. Even as various actors and processes continue to work out the ground rules for exercising jurisdiction in respect of human rights violations that international law condemns as criminal, and as international and national courts work through the inherently challenging project of redressing mass atrocities, states have increasingly internalized, owned and acted on the principle that they should ensure accountability …

Victim Participation At The International Criminal Court And The Extraordinary Chambers In The Courts Of Cambodia: A Feminist Project?, Susana Sacouto

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

INTRODUCTION: Over the last couple of decades, and particularly since 1998, incredible advances have been made in the effort to end impunity for sexual and gender-based violence committed in the context of war, mass violence, or repression. Before this, crimes committed exclusively or disproportionately against women and girls during conflict or periods of mass violence were either largely ignored, or at most, treated as secondary to other crimes. However, evidence of the large-scale and systematic use of rape in conflicts over the last two decades helped create unprecedented levels of awareness of sexual violence as a method of war and …

R. V. Munyaneza: Pondering Canada's First Core Crimes Conviction, Robert Currie, Ion Stancu

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Canada recently completed its first genocide trial, which resulted in the conviction of the Rwandan accused, Desiré Munyaneza, for crimes committed during the Rwandan genocide. While the case is still under appeal, it represents a significant success for Canada’s relatively new core crimes legislation, the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act, and was the first prosecution undertaken pursuant to that law. Drawing upon the Munyaneza case, the authors analyze the legislation and evaluate its effectiveness. They conclude that the model is an effective one that both bodes well for Canada’s future participation in the battle against impunity, and provides …

Preventing, Implementing And Enforcing International Humanitarian Law, Juan E. Mendez

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

That Someone Guilty Be Punished: The Impact Of The Icty In Bosnia, Diane Orentlicher

Reports

In That Someone Guilty Be Punished, Diane F. Orentlicher, professor of law at American University, looks at the effects and effectiveness of the ICTY, including lessons to improve future efforts to provide justice for survivors of atrocious crimes. Perhaps most importantly, Orentlicher examines the impact of the tribunal through the words and experiences of those in whose name it was established: the victims and survivors. Their expectations, hopes, and disappointments are chronicled alongside the tribunal’s achievements and limitations. Based on hundreds of hours of interviews—and featuring the voices and perceptions of dozens of Bosnian interlocutors—That Someone Guilty Be Punished provides …