The International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), together with the University of Western Ontario Faculty of Law and the Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations, hosted an Expert Group Meeting entitled Closing the International and Hybrid Criminal Tribunals: Mechanisms to Address Residual Issues on 4-5 February 2010 in New York.
The establishment of temporary international criminal tribunals has given rise to complex legal, technical, and political questions regarding their post-closure residual functions.
The legacy of systematic human rights violations committed during violent conflict and repressive rule can reach well into the new order. Transitional justice can help societies address the past through prosecutions, truthseeking, reparations for victims and institutional reform. Justice in this sense includes and goes beyond criminal justice, encompassing broader notions of accountability and redress.
Five years since the government of Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement signed the Helsinki Memorandum of Understanding, key provisions for accountability for mass crimes have not yet been implemented. Attempts to avoid the difficult truths of Aceh’s recent history and to allow perpetrators of horrific crimes to remain free continue to weaken popular respect for national legal institutions and feed existing anger and divisions that could lead to a recurrence of violence.
Kenya plunged into a dark episode of violence following the controversial presidential election of 2007. The International Criminal Court’s (ICC) recently announced its investigation into issues of complementarity, peace, justice, victims, and affected communities in the country.
The passing of the Constitution of Kenya of 2010 and its promulgation on August 27, 2010, heralds the deep desire of Kenyans, as individuals and communities, to live in a society that respects and protects their liberties and livelihoods without discrimination. With respect to transitional justice, it seeks to heal society, facilitate exit from authoritarianism, and establish a just society based on the rule of law.
Efforts underway to address the 2008 Kenyan post-election crisis and the conditions that caused it have provided the country with a unique opportunity to address its long history of human rights violations.
In the wake of the April uprising, the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) undertook a weeklong mission in Kyrgyzstan to assess whether a transitional justice approach might assist the country in its transition process.
It is highly unlikely that we will see ad hoc international tribunals or elaborate hybrid courts such as the SCSL and the ECCC in the future, asserted ICTJ President David Tolbert at an expert meeting about the future of international justice in light of past experiences and progress made at the...