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.


International Law of Victims

International Law of Victims

Author: Carlos Fernández de Casadevante Romani

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-07-11

Total Pages: 279

ISBN-13: 3642281400

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After having ignored victims, only recently both domestic and international law have begun to pay attention to them. As a consequence, different international norms related to victims have progressively been introduced. These are norms generally characterized by a certain concept from the perspective of victims, as well as by the enumeration of a list of rights to which they are entitle to; rights upon which the international statute of victims is built. In reverse, these catalogues of rights are the states’ obligations. Most of these rights are already existent in the international law of human rights. Consequently, they are not new but consolidated rights. Others are strictly linked to victims, concerning the following categories: victims of crime, victims of abuse of power, victims of gross violations of international human rights law, victims of serious violations of international humanitarian law, victims of enforced disappearance, victims of violations of international criminal law and victims of terrorism.


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.


Justice for Victims before the International Criminal Court

Justice for Victims before the International Criminal Court

Author: Luke Moffett

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-06-27

Total Pages: 367

ISBN-13: 1317910818

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Many prosecutors and commentators have praised the victim provisions at the International Criminal Court (ICC) as 'justice for victims', which for the first time include participation, protection and reparations. This book critically examines the role of victims in international criminal justice, drawing from human rights, victimology, and best practices in transitional justice. Drawing on field research in Northern Uganda, Luke Moffet explores the nature of international crimes and assesses the role of victims in the proceedings of the ICC, paying particular attention to their recognition, participation, reparations and protection. The book argues that because of the criminal nature and structural limitations of the ICC, justice for victims is symbolic, requiring State Parties to complement the work of the Court to address victims' needs. In advancing an innovative theory of justice for victims, and in offering solutions to current challenges, the book will be of great interest and use to academics, practitioners and students engaged in victimology, the ICC, transitional justice, or reparations.


International Law of Victims

International Law of Victims

Author: Prof. Dr. Fernández de Casadevante

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2012-07-12

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 9783642281419

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After having ignored victims, only recently both domestic and international law have begun to pay attention to them. As a consequence, different international norms related to victims have progressively been introduced. These are norms generally characterized by a certain concept from the perspective of victims, as well as by the enumeration of a list of rights to which they are entitle to; rights upon which the international statute of victims is built. In reverse, these catalogues of rights are the states’ obligations. Most of these rights are already existent in the international law of human rights. Consequently, they are not new but consolidated rights. Others are strictly linked to victims, concerning the following categories: victims of crime, victims of abuse of power, victims of gross violations of international human rights law, victims of serious violations of international humanitarian law, victims of enforced disappearance, victims of violations of international criminal law and victims of terrorism.


Redress for Victims of Crimes Under International Law

Redress for Victims of Crimes Under International Law

Author: Ilaria Bottigliero

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2013-11-11

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 9401760276

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Paradoxically, victims of ordinary crimes such as fraud, theft or assault, can obtain redress through regular domestic channels, whereas victims of such major atrocities as genocide, war crimes or crimes against humanity, have been left mostly uncompensated. Until recently, a pervasive climate of impunity for international crimes relegated victims to the political and legal periphery. Over the last few years however, the international community has begun to recognize that, just as crimes under international law cannot be considered ordinary crimes, victims of these crimes cannot be considered ordinary victims. In this book, Dr. Bottigliero explores the origins, evolution and practice relating to victims' redress in domestic law, regional and universal human rights regimes, humanitarian law, the law of State responsibility, United Nations practice, and international criminal law including the International Criminal Court. She argues that the international community must now move beyond incomplete and fragmented approaches towards a much more comprehensive redress regime for victims of crimes under international law, and she recommends means by which to enhance the coherence, effectiveness and fairness of victims' redress.


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.


Figuring Victims in International Criminal Justice

Figuring Victims in International Criminal Justice

Author: Maria Elander

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-06-12

Total Pages: 196

ISBN-13: 0429492057

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Most discourses on victims in international criminal justice take the subject of victims for granted, as an identity and category existing exogenously to the judicial process. This book takes a different approach. Through a close reading of the institutional practices of one particular court, it demonstrates how court practices produce the subjectivity of the victim, a subjectivity that is profoundly of law and endogenous to the enterprise of international criminal justice. Furthermore, by situating these figurations within the larger aspirations of the court, the book shows how victims have come to constitute and represent the link between international criminal law and the enterprise of transitional justice. The book takes as its primary example the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), or the Khmer Rouge Tribunal as it is also called. Focusing on the representation of victims in crimes against humanity, victim participation and photographic images, the book engages with a range of debates and scholarship in law, feminist theory and cultural legal theory. Furthermore, by paying attention to a broader range of institutional practices, Figuring Victims makes an innovative scholarly contribution to the debates on the roles and purposes of international criminal justice.


Indigenous Peoples' Land Rights under International Law

Indigenous Peoples' Land Rights under International Law

Author: Jérémie Gilbert

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2007-03-23

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 9047431308

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This book addresses the right of indigenous peoples to live, own and use their traditional territories. A profound relationship with land and territories characterizes indigenous groups, but indigenous peoples have been and are repeatedly deprived of their lands. This book analyzes whether the international legal regime provides indigenous peoples with the collective right to live on their traditional territories. Through its meticulous and wide-ranging examination of the interaction between international law and indigenous peoples’ land rights, the work explores several burning issues such as collective rights, self-determination, autonomy, property rights, and restitution of land. In assessing the human rights approach to land rights the book delves into the notion of past violations and the role of human rights law in providing for remedies, reparation and restitution. It also argues that there is a new phase in the relationship between States and indigenous peoples in the making of territorial agreements. Based on its analysis of indigenous peoples’ land rights under international law, this book proposes an original theory as regards the legal status of indigenous peoples. It explores how indigenous peoples have been the victims of the rules governing title to territory since the inception of international law, and how under the current human rights regime, indigenous peoples have now gained the status of actors of international law. Published under the Transnational Publishers imprint.