International Criminal Tribunals Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

International criminal tribunals are criminal courts designed to investigate, prosecute, and punish the perpetrators of gross human abuses. Unlike the International Criminal Court, which is a permanent standing court, and the military tribunals of Nuremberg and Tokyo (1946), which the Allied powers created to prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during World War II (1939–1945), international criminal tribunals are mandated or temporary courts established under chapter VII of the United Nations Charter. In

1993, for instance, in creating the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the United Nations Security Council declared that the unlawful detentions and mass killings in Bosnia-Herzegovina constituted a breach in international peace and security (the same rationale would later be invoked, under different circumstances, to create the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda). As such, the ICTY represented a novel mechanism for promoting peace and security. Although some would argue that it provided an excuse or a weak alternative to the more stringent demand for military intervention to stop the war, it eventually received strong financial backing and international support. More important, the ICTY seemed to overcome the problem of victor’s justice, in which criminal justice served the political interests of only a few of the most powerful states (the Allied Powers). It did so by providing a prosecutorial mechanism that operated independent of the UN Security Council and establishing the basis of concurrent jurisdiction whereby the prosecutor and national judiciary would work together to investigate and prosecute the perpetrators of gross human rights abuses.

Accordingly, the ICTY statute empowers the prosecutor to investigate the core crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes and targets the guilt of individual perpetrators. It is believed that by individualizing guilt and establishing a historical record, international criminal tribunals will help to promote national reconciliation. What is more, international criminal tribunals provide an arguably independent venue for investigating and prosecuting the above crimes. Aside from this intangible benefit, two problems should be noted. First, international criminal tribunals require substantial economic resources to investigate, prosecute, and punish the perpetrators of the above crimes. This is one main reason why they need to operate efficiently within given budgetary constraints. Second, because international criminal courts are a political solution to conflict (as opposed to political tools of Western states), they often tend to expose the politicization of international law, or complications of enforcement, as was the case with Louis Arbor’s decision to indict Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic at the height of the U.S.-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization war.

The looming issue, then, is whether international criminal tribunals, such as the recently established International Criminal Tribunal for East Timor, will be able to effectively complement commissions by furnishing a more credible historical record. Equally important is the issue of whether poorly funded national courts, which lack the funds and legitimacy to hold impartial and effective prosecutorial proceedings, would benefit from the legal assistance of international criminal tribunals. In Sierra Leone, for instance, where a truth commission and national court (funded by the United Nations) have been established (hybrid court), it is quite possible that an international criminal tribunal would serve a positive, complementary role. In short, these prospects should call attention to the important role that international criminal tribunals have played in promoting accountability.

Bibliography:

Bass, Gary. Stay the Hand of Vengeance: The Politics of War Crimes Tribunals. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2000.
Kerr, Rachel. The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia: An Exercise in Law, Politics, and Diplomacy. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Peskin,Victor. International Justice in Rwanda and the Balkans: Virtual Trials and the Struggle for Justice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Roper, Steven D., and Lillian Barria. Designing Criminal Tribunals: Sovereignty and International Concern in the Protection of Human Rights. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2006.

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