Search: Affective Justice: Book Symposium: A Response
17 Mar SCSL Symposium: The Sierra Leone Perspective – When the Story is as Important as the Storyteller
assistance to ensure accountability for the heinous crimes committed post the 1996 Abidjan Accord. In this period of seeming global retreat in international criminal justice in the continuum of “tribunal fatigue” in the UN system, it is useful to reflect on the remarkable desire of the Government of Sierra Leone for “credible justice” to punish adversaries, a framing which allowed the SCSL to move away from the hitherto victors’ justice archetype of ICL. The motivation for credible justice laid the foundation for the credible contributions of the SCSL to international...
20 Feb Assessing Syria’s Progress Since Assad
...governed only Syria’s northwestern Idlib province and surrounding areas. It assumed control of a central government that had served mainly to uphold the Assad dictatorship and had no control over broad swathes of the country. The new authorities took significant stabilizing steps by establishing transitional constitutional frameworks, forming interim governing structures, and creating justice mechanisms, as well as securing the lifting of international sanctions and achieving positive diplomatic engagement. They also deserve credit for providing a higher level of security and allowing a greater margin of freedom than under Assad,...13 Mar Why the ICC Should Not Step Aside — At Least Not Yet
...traditional justice, which is more compensatory than a retributive system,” he said on a visit to London. “That is what we have agreed at the request of the local community. They have been mainly tormenting people in one area and it is that community which asked us to use traditional justice.” It is, if course, tempting to reply to this bait-and-switch by saying “so what?” If ordinary Ugandans believe that peace through traditional justice is more important than punishing the LRA for its many crimes, isn’t that their right? Maybe...20 Apr Kony 2012: The Complex Kaleidoscope of Transitional Justice in Uganda
[Michael A. Newton is Professor of the Practice of Law, Vanderbilt University Law School] The Kony 2012 campaign had the laudable goal of increasing public awareness in order to aid the search for justice and accountability in the wake of LRA atrocities. In fact, the worldwide attention had the paradoxical effect of demonstrating the lamentable reality that the optimal pathway towards authentic justice for LRA victims in that setting is neither simple nor self-obvious. This is true for a number of reasons which I shall summarize. Firstly, the complexity of...
08 Dec Symposium on Forensic and Counter-Forensic Approaches to International Law: The New Geometries of International Law – Deploying Self-Reflexive Inquiry to Re-Build the Discipline
...with international justice as a lived reality and not just a mere set of rules. ’Playfulness’ in this context is not the opposite of ‘seriousness’ and is not to be interpreted as a way of bypassing the gravity of the problems addressed by the field of international justice. Quite the opposite, the idea is to utilize the urgency of the current polycrisis to question the solidity of some of the outdated structures in the edifice of international justice and the inability or unwillingness of the actors in the field to...02 Oct Kiobel Roundtable: The Supreme Court Gropes Toward a Sensible Solution
...alleged to have occurred on U.S. soil or in U.S. waters” was quickly rebutted by Justice Breyer, invoking Attorney General Bradford’s 1795 opinion that expressed “no doubt” that a civil suit could be brought under the ATS for violations of the law of nations in Sierra Leone. Meanwhile, Justice Kagan offered a variation of the 1784 Marbois incident, hypothesizing that the French ambassador to Britain was attacked in London by an American citizen who sought refuge in the United States and suggesting that the ATS “contemplated exactly that sort of...21 Jul Dispatch From Kenya: Justice Delayed
meaning to the maxim justice delayed is justice denied. I have just returned from visiting the courts of Kenya in Nairobi in conjunction with my training program with IJM Office in Kenya. During my time with IJM, I was briefed on cases in which it took years for criminal defendants to receive basic judicial process. For example, in one disturbing case the defendant was framed by a corrupt policeman. The officer demanded a bribe that the defendant could not pay, so in retaliation the officer falsely accused the defendant of...
25 Aug Six Years After the Myanmar Military Committed International Crimes Against the Rohingya, Survivors are Still Seeking Justice in Courts Around the World
...UN’s World Food Programme cutting their food rations, and with the deteriorating security situation inside the camps, many Rohingya find themselves in a dire situation with impunity being but one of many pressing concerns. Through its offices in Cox’s Bazar, Legal Action Worldwide (LAW) provides legal assistance and support to Rohingya survivors in these refugee camps. Having been deported en masse to Bangladesh, and without a fair legal remedy available within Myanmar, Rohingya survivors are forced to rely on pathways for justice outside of Myanmar. A variety of efforts on...
18 Sep Anchoring Accountability for Mass Atrocities: Providing the Support Necessary to Fulfil International Investigative Mandates
...Rights Institute; Chair, Commission on International Justice and Accountability; former US Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice (2009-2015). Sareta Ashraph is a Visiting Fellow of Practice with the Oxford Programme on International Peace and Security, Institute for Ethics, Law, and Armed Conflict (ELAC), Oxford Blavatnik School of Government; she is a barrister with Garden Court Chambers; and the Co-Vice Chair of the IBA War Crimes Committee] [This blog post describes new research being carried out at the University of Oxford around the question of whether some form of permanent support –...
23 May Environmental Justice at the JEP and Indigenous Worldviews: A Mismatch?
regions, home of the Nasa indigenous people. This marked the first time the JEP charged for environmental harms, expressly stating that “transitional justice is also environmental justice”. Right after the press conference, the two main Nasa indigenous organisations of the Cauca (ACIN, CRIC) convened an internal emergency meeting with Nasa indigenous authorities to discuss this decision. During the meeting, Nasa representatives heavily criticized the decision for having discarded their cosmovision and own laws (derecho proprio) and reduced Uma Kiwe, their Mother Earth, to natural resources. For the Nasa people, territory...