ii. The ICC and Restorative Justice
The recognition of victim’s rights as an integral part of the ICC is exemplified in the Preamble of the Rome Statute, which declares that the ICC was created, in part, in recognition of the fact that “during this century millions of children, women and men have been the victims of unimaginable atrocities that deeply shock the conscience of humanity.” However, the ICC’s recognition of victim’s rights does not go towards the effectiveness of the ICC at achieving the victim’s goals. The ICC cannot effectively achieve the goals of restorative justice because of: (1) it’s inflexible demand for Western methods of adjudication; and (2) its inherent emphasis on societal rehabilitation as opposed to individual rehabilitation.
First, the ICC places an unabated amount of pressure on the demand for a criminal prosecution in the context of a courtroom. The Preamble and Article 1 of the Rome Statute sets forth an important restriction on power of the ICC: it “shall be complementary to national criminal jurisdictions.” A case will be considered inadmissible when it is “being investigated or prosecuted by a State which has jurisdiction over it” or “has been investigated by a State which has jurisdiction over it and the State has decided not to prosecute…” The question most often posed by commentators is: can non-prosecutorial measures demonstrate “an intent to bring the person concerned to justice?” In the trial against Congolese warlords Germain Katanga & Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui, Katanga’s defense counsel challenged the admissibility of the case. The Trial Chamber offers two interpretations of the word “unwillingness” as used in Article 17: (1) unwillingness “motivated by the desire to obstruct the course o...
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...avior, i.e. laws, prosecutions support societal rehabilitation by influencing the moral values of that society. Such societal rehabilitation can inoculate the population against lapses into oppressive behavior and repressive regimes. However, prosecutions do not attempt to rehabilitate or change the moral values of the perpetrator, or individual victims. This is primarily brought about by the challenge to balance the goal of restorative justice with the interests of efficiency and fairness. Also, the remoteness of the ICC may play a role in its inability to serve as a rehabilitative function for individuals. Prosecutions at The Hague builds further distance between the conflict and those who participated in and were victims of it. The empirical weight of the ICC’s geographic remoteness has been long disputed; however, no conclusive determinations have been reached.
There have been many humanitarians that strive to help countries suffering with human right abuses. People think that the help from IGOs and NGOs will be enough to stop human rights violations. However, it hasn’t been effective. Every day, more and more human rights violations happen. The problem is escalating. People, including children, are still being forced to work to death, innocent civilians are still suffering the consequences of war, and families are struggling to stay firm together. Despite the efforts from the people, IGOs, and NGOs, In the year 2100, human rights abuse will not end.
I take into consideration that instead of authorizing the state or professional to ratify and speak their mind, the most relevance to a case the court should take into consideration of what the victim seems fit as a fair punishment or payment in forms of restitution, whether it is labor or monetary to then go along with the judge 's sentence. “The Charter, apart from other things, sets forth that the victim should enjoy the same rights as the culprit. But it is not enough to put this in writing, the law has to be changed in such a way that the victim is not only not deprived of his say, but has rights at least equal to those enjoyed by the accused”. I agree with the previous quote due to the fact that victims should not be deprived from speech and equality. I believe that by having the original parties engaged rather than being driven to the side, society will be more concerned to make sure that everyone is given fair, equal and consistent resolution to a conflict. This would establish that the neighbourhood and state have a set of shared values and goals that they are working towards to support social order. “At present, the role of a victim of a crime is only at the periphery of the criminal justice delivery system. Once the first information is furnished, the only stage at which the victim comes into the picture is when she is called upon to give evidence in court by the prosecution. The victim virtually
Back some couple centuries ago, genocide committed by states was seen as heroic, as they were allowed to commit such an atrocity in pursuit of building a larger empire (Lecture 9/18). Keep in mind, that the term “genocide” had not been officially defined by that time, thus not containing the same meaning as it does today. Instead of being seen as evil, states that committed genocide were seen as heroic. In-fact, William Blackstone once said “the king can do no wrong is a necessary and fundamental principal of the English constitution (Lecture 9/18). It wasn’t until 1948, that the term “genocide” had been officially labeled as an official term and international crime. This was declared by the United Nations. One of the first trials to occur due to this was the Nuremberg Trials. In the Nuremberg Trials, twenty-four Nazi leaders and six Nazi organizations were convicted on four counts (Lecture 9/18). Of those twenty-four convicted, twelve of those people were sentenced to the death penalty for the crimes they had committed. Fast-forwarding to the 90’s, 120 countries had signed an international treaty that established the International Court. The International Court was established in 1998 as a result of the treaty and it gave the ICC the jurisdiction to prosecute any related Genocide crimes (History.com). Before I move on
Lorraine Stutzman Amstutz states how schools that claim they are following restorative approaches through their policies in discipline are not necessarily restorative, but have enough flexibility to allow a restorative response.
“Restorative justice is an approach to crime and other wrongdoings that focuses on repairing harm and encouraging responsibility and involvement of the parties impacted by the wrong.” This quote comes from a leading restorative justice scholar named Howard Zehr. The process of restorative justice necessitates a shift in responsibility for addressing crime. In a restorative justice process, the citizens who have been affected by a crime must take an active role in addressing that crime. Although law professionals may have secondary roles in facilitating the restorative justice process, it is the citizens who must take up the majority of the responsibility in healing the pains caused by crime. Restorative justice is a very broad subject and has many other topics inside of it. The main goal of the restorative justice system is to focus on the needs of the victims, the offenders, and the community, and focus
“The end result of a heinous crime remains the same, no matter who commits it. Our justice system depends upon holding perpetrators responsible for their acti...
Agreeing on a definition of restorative justice has proved difficult. One definition is a theory of justice that focuses mostly on repairing the harm caused by criminal behaviour. The reparation is done through a cooperative process that includes all the stakeholders. Restorative justice can also be explained as an approach of justice that aims to satisfy the needs of the victims and offenders, as well as the entire community. The most broadly accepted definition for restorative justice, however, is a process whereby all the parties that have a stake in a specific offence collectively resolve on how to deal with the aftermath. This process is largely focused around reparation, reintegration and participation of victims. That is to say, it is a victim-centred approach to criminal justice, and it perceives crime differently than the adversarial system of justice.
International law is based on positivism, what is observable and what is practiced. Like any system of laws, international law is meant to maintain order within the international system. International law is also meant to maintain a sense of justice. The attempts to meet these objectives are found in the international institutions such as the United Nations and the International Criminal Court. Unfortunately, there are times when order and justice come into conflict. The Cold War era, for example was highly ordered, but there were quite a few injustices observed at the time. In Kosovo, on the other hand, the UN Security Council could not maintain order and acted out of a sense of justice.
VonHofer, H. and R. Marvin. Imprisonment Today and Tomorrow: International perspectives. The Hague, The Neatherlands: Kluwer Law International, 2001. Print.
Wemmers (1996) highlights that an effective criminal justice system also protects human rights. Victims are gradually being seen as the notable possessors of such rights that lead to reviews in our domestic system and also by international bodies. The protection of said rights, such as in South Africa where less express definitions between ‘victim’ and ‘human’ rights are being made by policy m...
...th 2001). Roth argues that the concept of international jurisdiction is not a new idea but was exercised by the US government in the 1970 after an aircraft hijacking. Also the war crime courts established after the end of World War II exercised international jurisdiction. In fact the Geneva Convention states that is a person regardless of their nationality should be brought before the court of any state in which that person has committed grave breaches of law and convention. Roth states that the concept of international jurisdiction is not a new one but that only in recent years have states been willing to act on universal jurisdiction and go after criminals of the international community regardless of their stating or power within the international community. Roth believes in the ability and authority of international organizations and institutions (Roth 2001).
The Death Penalty and War.Full Text Available By: Duner, Bertil; Geurtsen, Hanna. International Journal of Human Rights, Winter2002, Vol. 6 Issue 4, p1-28, 28p
International law has generally been accepted and respected by the States to be the fundamental element in ensuring peace and diplomacy when dealing with matters concerning international relations. It should be noted that, within international law, there are various subjects who are considered to have international legal personality, to wit: States, international organizations, dependent territories, belligerent groups, multinational enterprises, non-governmental organizations, and individuals (Walter, 2007). However, the rights and obligations of these referenced subjects were considered and developed as international law itself evolved. More specifically, the international rights, duties, and obligations of individuals as subjects of international law were not effectively established until after the 20th century.
When comparing apples to pears, one is not making a fair comparison, but a disproportionate comparison. Often times when international law is discussed or attempts are made to understand international law; many often attempt to compare international law with existing laws such as national law or domestic law. Making such disproportionate comparisons leads to many misconceived notions and attitudes toward international law. For an adequate comparison of international law to other laws, one should look closely at the available facts. This essay will demonstrate the vitality of international law, in a world of nations which continue to increase in interdependence.
International Humanitarian Law (IHL) is seen as the law in which provides basic human rights in time of armed conflict. The use of IHL in a modern scenario is needed now more then ever with the increase of entities that wish to disrupt the peace by ignoring basic human rights. Organisations and treaties have been created to help govern the IHL; which will need to be analysed to provide insight into IHLs. This essay aims to critically analyse IHL and outline how it can be improved. To gain an understanding IHL will first be defined.