Victims' Rights and Advocacy at the International Criminal Court

Victims' Rights and Advocacy at the International Criminal Court

Author: T. Markus Funk

Publisher:

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 594

ISBN-13: 0199941467

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Since World War II, there have been some 250 conflicts throughout the world, leaving between 70-170 million atrocity crime victims. Unlike diseases or natural disasters, the injuries and tragedies of war are largely self-inflicted. Created in response to such outrages, the International Criminal Court (ICC) stands as the first and only permanent juridical body prosecuting genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Victims' Rights and Advocacy at the International Criminal Court introduces readers to the most significant restorative feature of the ICC's procedure: direct victim participation in war crime trials. Under this new model, the ICC has given victims a voice to speak out against their abusers. T. Markus Funk presents the first comprehensive guidance on this innovative dynamic, analyzing not just the procedural rules that apply, but also the practical problems in advocating for victims before the ICC. In the process, Funk provides an overview of ICC trial procedure, a candid assessment of the performance of the ICC and its predecessor tribunals, and a guide to the development of victims' rights under international law. Not only does he identify areas needing reform and reconsideration, but he also provides readers with concrete solutions. Funk, an experienced federal prosecutor and law professor who has advised prosecutors and judges at criminal tribunals as the U.S. Justice Department's Resident Legal Advisor for Kosovo, draws on that experience to suggest ways in which the ICC can improve the lot of victims of the world's worst crimes. This second edition provides a detailed analysis of the newly recognized right of victims to participate in the trials of their accused abusers. The author guides the reader through this unique, controversial body of procedural and substantive rights for victims of atrocity crimes, and discusses how to qualify as Legal Counsel for Victims, and how to seek Reparations. In addition, the author provides updated caselaw and other information to reflect the ICC's current position on victim involvement and related procedure as well as text to show how these changes in the law affect ICC procedure and advocacy.


Victim Advocacy before the International Criminal Court

Victim Advocacy before the International Criminal Court

Author: Elizabeth King

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2022-06-15

Total Pages: 365

ISBN-13: 3030567338

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This book is a practical guide for advocates interested in the representation of victims before the International Criminal Court (ICC). It has been developed by experts responsible for the advocacy training of the International Criminal Court's List of Counsel members. Written in a readily accessible style, this guide provides a firm grounding in relevant legal doctrine, essential advocacy techniques and valuable multidisciplinary perspectives. Drawing upon global expertise from legal practitioners, specialist advocacy trainers and multi-disciplinary writers, this book addresses both practical considerations and key challenges faced by ICC victim advocates. These include issues such as gender, child victims, victims of sexual violence, special need victims and victims who are themselves implicated in international crimes. Through its practical focus on advocacy techniques, hypothetical case studies, checklists, interviews from the field and lists of further resources, this manual equips readers with the knowledge and skills necessary to engage in sophisticated ICC victim advocacy. This book will also appeal to those interested in the workings of International Criminal Law and in victim advocacy and victimology more broadly.


The Right to The Truth in International Law

The Right to The Truth in International Law

Author: Melanie Klinkner

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-07-26

Total Pages: 287

ISBN-13: 1317335082

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The United Nations has established a right to the truth to be enjoyed by victims of gross violations of human rights. The origins of the right stem from the need to provide victims and relatives of the missing with a right to know what happened. It encompasses the verification and full public disclosure of the facts associated with the crimes from which they or their relatives suffered. The importance of the right to the truth is based on the belief that, by disclosing the truth, the suffering of victims is alleviated. This book analyses the emergence of this right, as a response to an understanding of the needs of victims, through to its development and application in two particular legal contexts: international human rights law and international criminal justice. The book examines in detail the application of the right through the case law and jurisprudence of international tribunals in the human rights and also the criminal justice context, as well as looking at its place in transitional justice. The theoretical foundations of the right to the truth are considered as well as the various objectives appropriate for different truth-seeking mechanisms. The book then goes on to discuss to what extent it can be understood, constructed and applied as a hard, legally enforceable right with correlating duties on various people and institutions including state agencies, prosecutors and judges.


Victims Before the International Criminal Court

Victims Before the International Criminal Court

Author: Christoph Safferling

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2021-09-16

Total Pages: 390

ISBN-13: 3030801772

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The book analyses the difficulties the International Criminal Court faces with the definition of those persons who are eligible for participating in the proceedings. Establishing justice for victims is one of the most important aims of the court. It therefore created a unique system of victim participation. Since its first trial the court struggles to live up to the expectancies its statute has generated. The book offers a new approach of how to define victimhood by looking at the different international crimes. It seeks to offer guidance for the right to participate in the different stages of the proceedings by looking at the practice in national jurisdictions. Lastly the book offers insights into the functioning of the reparation regime at the ICC by virtue of the Trust Fund for Victim and its different mandates. The critical analysis of the ICC-practice with regard to definition, participation and reparation aims at promoting a realistic approach, which will avoid the disappointing of expectations and thus help to enhance the acceptance of the ICC.


Victims' Rights and Advocacy at the International Criminal Court

Victims' Rights and Advocacy at the International Criminal Court

Author: T. Markus Funk

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2015-03-16

Total Pages: 594

ISBN-13: 0190236698

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Since World War II, there have been some 250 conflicts throughout the world, leaving between 70-170 million atrocity crime victims. Unlike diseases or natural disasters, the injuries and tragedies of war are largely self-inflicted. Created in response to such outrages, the International Criminal Court (ICC) stands as the first and only permanent juridical body prosecuting genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Victims' Rights and Advocacy at the International Criminal Court introduces readers to the most significant restorative feature of the ICC's procedure: direct victim participation in war crime trials. Under this new model, the ICC has given victims a voice to speak out against their abusers. T. Markus Funk presents the first comprehensive guidance on this innovative dynamic, analyzing not just the procedural rules that apply, but also the practical problems in advocating for victims before the ICC. In the process, Funk provides an overview of ICC trial procedure, a candid assessment of the performance of the ICC and its predecessor tribunals, and a guide to the development of victims' rights under international law. Not only does he identify areas needing reform and reconsideration, but he also provides readers with concrete solutions. Funk, an experienced federal prosecutor and law professor who has advised prosecutors and judges at criminal tribunals as the U.S. Justice Department's Resident Legal Advisor for Kosovo, draws on that experience to suggest ways in which the ICC can improve the lot of victims of the world's worst crimes. This second edition provides a detailed analysis of the newly recognized right of victims to participate in the trials of their accused abusers. The author guides the reader through this unique, controversial body of procedural and substantive rights for victims of atrocity crimes, and discusses how to qualify as Legal Counsel for Victims, and how to seek Reparations. In addition, the author provides updated caselaw and other information to reflect the ICC's current position on victim involvement and related procedure as well as text to show how these changes in the law affect ICC procedure and advocacy.


Defendants and Victims in International Criminal Justice

Defendants and Victims in International Criminal Justice

Author: Juan Pablo Perez-Leon-Acevedo

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-04-29

Total Pages: 255

ISBN-13: 100003724X

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This volume considers a variety of key issues pertaining to the rights of defendants and victims at International Criminal Courts (ICTs) and explores how best to balance and enhance the rights of both in order to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of international criminal proceedings. The rights of victims are becoming an increasingly important issue at ICTs. Yet, at the same time, this has to be achieved without having a detrimental impact upon on the rights of the defence and the efficiency of the courts. This book provides analyses of issues on the rights of both the accused and the victims. By discussing matters concerning these two pivotal actors in international criminal justice within the same volume, the work highlights that there are intrinsic and intense conflicting and converging relationships between victims and the accused, particularly in terms of their rights. While most of the chapters focus mainly on either the accused or the victims, others discuss both at the same time. The work strikes a fine balance between, on the one hand, classic topics on the rights of the accused and the rights of the victims and, on the other, topics which have been largely unexplored and/or which require new angles or perspectives. Additionally, there are some chapters which approach both the rights of the accused and the rights of the victims in new contexts and/or under novel perspectives. The book as a whole provides a discussion of the two sides of this important coin of international criminal justice. The work will be an essential resource for academics, practitioners and students with an interest in the field of international criminal law. It will also be of interest to human rights scholars who are working with the rights of victims and the accused.


The Rights of Victims in Criminal Justice Proceedings for Serious Human Rights Violations

The Rights of Victims in Criminal Justice Proceedings for Serious Human Rights Violations

Author: Juan Carlos Ochoa S.

Publisher: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers

Published: 2013-02-05

Total Pages: 333

ISBN-13: 9004212167

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The Rights of Victims in Criminal Justice Proceedings for Serious Human Rights Violations addresses a question of critical importance to policy-makers, international lawyers, academics, and affected societies throughout the world: Should victims of serious human rights violations be granted under international law the rights of access to and participation in criminal proceedings before international, hybrid and domestic tribunals? Juan Carlos Ochoa applies a thorough analysis of international and comparative domestic law and practice to this question, taking into account a host of international human rights instruments and case law, the theory, law and practice of international and hybrid criminal tribunals, the law and practice in several domestic jurisdictions, and many theoretical and empirical studies. After first determining the current state of, and emerging trends in, international law in this area, he argues that the lack of recognition of these rights under customary international law is inadequate, because access to and participation in criminal proceedings for victims of these infringements are based on several internationally recognised human rights and principles, contribute to the expressivist objectives of these procedures, and are consistent with the principles that inform the enforcement of criminal law in democratic States. On this basis, Ochoa convincingly suggests concrete reforms.


Fair Labelling and the Dilemma of Prosecuting Gender-Based Crimes at the International Criminal Tribunals

Fair Labelling and the Dilemma of Prosecuting Gender-Based Crimes at the International Criminal Tribunals

Author: Hilmi M. Zawati

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2015-11

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 0199357110

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This scholarly legal work focuses on the dilemma of prosecuting gender-based crimes under the statutes of the international criminal tribunals with reference to the principle of fair labelling. In this book Hilmi M. Zawati explains how the abstractness and lack of accurate description of gender-based crimes in the statutory laws of the international criminal tribunals and courts infringe the principle of fair labelling, lead to inconsistent verdicts and punishments, and cause inadequate prosecution of these crimes. This inquiry deals with gender-based crimes as a case study, and with fair labelling as a legal principle and a theoretical framework. Critical and timely, this study contributes to existing scholarship in many different ways. It is the first legal analysis to focus on the dilemma of prosecuting and punishing wartime gender-based crimes in the statutory laws of the international criminal tribunals and the ICC in the context of fair labelling. Moreover, it emphasizes that applying fair labelling to wartime gender-based crimes would enable the tribunals and the ICC to deliver fair judgments, eliminate inconsistent prosecution, overcome shortcomings in addressing gender-based crimes within their jurisprudence, while breaking the cycle of impunity for these crimes. Consisting of two parts, this work begins by outlining the central focus and theoretical legal framework of the study. It concentrates on fair labelling as an imperative legal principle and a legal framework, examines its intellectual development, scope and justification, and illustrates its applicability to gender-based crimes. The second part addresses the dilemma of prosecuting gender-based crimes in the international criminal tribunals.


Victims of International Crimes: An Interdisciplinary Discourse

Victims of International Crimes: An Interdisciplinary Discourse

Author: Thorsten Bonacker

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-07-09

Total Pages: 405

ISBN-13: 9067049123

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In international law victims' issues have gained more and more attention over the last decades. In particular in transitional justice processes the victim is being given high priority. It is to be seen in this context that the Rome Statute for the International Criminal Court foresees a rather excessive victim participation concept in criminal prosecution. In this volume issue is taken at first with the definition of victims, and secondly with the role of the victim as a witness and as a participant. Several chapters address this matter with a view to the International Criminal Court (ICC), the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) and the Trial against Demjanjuk in Germany. In a third part the interests of the victims outside the criminal trial are being discussed. In the final part the role of civil society actors are being tackled. This volume thus gives an overview of the role of victims in transitional justice processes from an interdisciplinary angle, combining academic research and practical experience.