International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda

“ The justice system should be the primary avenue for providing individual accountability for violations of international humanitarian and human rights law and providing an effective remedy to victims. Regardless of the outcomes of the LLRC, Sri Lanka’s legal system should play a leading role in adjudicating accountability of individuals. ”

“ A person who for the purposes of membership of the Chambers of the International Tribunal for Rwanda could be regarded as a national of more than one State shall be deemed to be a national of the State in which that person ordinarily exercises civil and political rights. ”

“ It is not possible to maintain that crimes against international law must escape repressive action because, on the one hand, the state is an entity to which one cannot impute criminal intention and upon which one cannot inflict punishment and, on the other, no individual can be held responsible for the acts of the state. ”

“ In addition, the Constitutional Court required that the law be strengthened on guarantees of truth and reparations for victims.
287. Further, the suggestion that there is a choice between “restorative” and “retributive” justice is based upon a false dichotomy, since international standards require that States both ensure justice, by investigating violations and prosecuting crimes, and implement other measures for victims, including truth and reparations. Equating criminal justice with retributive justice is simply not accurate, as criminal justice has many goals beyond retribution ”

“ Several human rights treaties, to which Sri Lanka is a party, contain obligations regarding investigation. Article 2 (3) of the ICCPR requires the State to provide an effective remedy to victims of human rights violations. That treaty provision has been interpreted by the United Nations Human Rights Committee to require States to investigate all violations of the Covenant and, in the case of gross violations or those constituting international crimes, to bring the alleged perpetrator to justice. ”

“ Consequently, the question of the problem of the trial and the punishment of individual members of criminal organizations lies exclusively within the scope of the national tribunals.
The legal sovereignty of every country that has adopted the Charter of the Tribunal is thus limited in one respect only: The national courts cannot deny the criminal character of an organization, once it has been declared to be criminal. The Tribunal can impose no further limitation on the legal sovereignty of the contracting parties. ”

“ In the first place, the idea of the state, which according to the conception of traditional international law is the only bearer of rights and duties, is systematically destroyed so that the persons standing behind it and acting on its behalf may separately be made liable to criminal prosecution. Since as a rule only a few persons acted directly as participants in the acts charged, the multitude of these people is then again compressed into an artificial whole, in order to hold them responsible also for those acts which were not committed by them. ”

“ The question of individual guilt and of individual responsibility of the separate members of the criminal organizations is wholly, and without exception, within the jurisdiction of the national tribunal.
As has already been pointed out, in Article 10 of the Charter, the Tribunal limits the jurisdiction of the national tribunal in just one way. The national tribunal cannot deny or cannot argue the criminality of any organizations which have already been declared criminal. ”

“ In addition to these fundamental objections to such a separation of the proceedings there is also an important technical objection. If the Tribunal passes a declaratory judgment against the organizations, as requested, all these millions of members of the organizations will automatically become outlaws pending the definite legal decision in the subsequent trials. Until that date every individual is under serious suspicion of being a criminal, since it is questionable whether he will succeed in exonerating himself in the subsequent trial. ”

“ Rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity; (h) Persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender as defined in paragraph 3, or other grounds that are universally recognized as impermissible under international law, in connection with any act referred to in this paragraph or any crime within the jurisdiction of the Court; (i) Enforced disappearance of persons; (j) The crime of apartheid ”

“ So the United States took the only responsible course: We withdrew from the Human Rights Council, and we will not return until real reform is enacted. For similar reasons, the United States will provide no support in recognition to the International Criminal Court. As far as America is concerned, the ICC has no jurisdiction, no legitimacy, and no authority. The ICC claims near-universal jurisdiction over the citizens of every country, violating all principles of justice, fairness, and due process. We will never surrender America’s sovereignty to an unelected, unaccountable, global bureaucracy. ”

“ Ensuring that people of African descent, like all other persons, enjoy all the guarantees of a fair trial and equality before the law as enshrined in relevant international human rights instruments, and specifically the right to the presumption of innocence, the right to assistance of counsel and to an interpreter, the right to an independent and impartial tribunal, guarantees of justice, and all the rights to which prisoners are entitled ”

“ Without this sentence and without this punishment the people would no longer have any faith in justice. When you have declared that crime is always a crime, whether committed by one national entity against another or by one individual against another, you will thereby have affirmed that there is only one standard of morality, which applies to international relations as well as to individual relations, and that on this morality are built prescriptions of law recognized by the international community; you will then have truly begun to establish an international justice. ”

“ Under the principles of the Moscow Declaration, those suspected war criminals who are not to be tried internationally must be turned over to individual governments for trial at the scene of their outrages. Many less responsible and less culpable American-held prisoners have been and will continue to be turned over to other United Nations for local trial. If these defendants should succeed, for any reason, in escaping the condemnation of this Tribunal, or if they obstruct or abort this trial, those who are American-held prisoners will be delivered up to our continental Allies. ”

“ Reaffirms the necessity of trial of persons indicted by the ICTR and reiterates its call on all States, especially Rwanda, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo to intensify cooperation with and render all necessary assistance to the ICTR, including on investigations of the Rwandan Patriotic Army and efforts to bring Felicien Kabuga and all other such indictees to the ICTR and calls on all at-large indictees of the ICTR to surrender to the ICTR ”

“ The Panel has no indication that the military justice system in Sri Lanka currently operates as an effective accountability mechanism in respect of either the credible allegations it has identified or of other violations arising in the final stages of the war.
4. Victims’ access to the courts 370. Victims in Sri Lanka can, in principle, contribute to accountability by filing actions in the courts against individuals allegedly responsible for conduct that amounts to breaches of international law. ”

“ A crime is what the law - state law, kinship law, religious law, or any other widely accepted law - says is a crime. Legal systems and texts often conflict.
Murderous blood feuds are legitimate according to the 15th century "Qanoon", still applicable in large parts of Albania. Killing one's infant daughters and old relatives is socially condoned - though illegal - in India, China, Alaska, and parts of Africa. Genocide may have been legally sanctioned in Germany and Rwanda - but is strictly forbidden under international law. ”

“ It would be unthinkable for a national court in a civilized democratic country to uphold illegal methods to combat crime. Attempts to apply a different standard to international law and to disregard its basic norms and principles create a dangerous precedent that could cause acute destabilization and chaos on the regional and global level. ”

“ The second option—applying customary international law—comes with its own puzzles. If the briefing before us proves anything, it is that customary international law supplies no easy answer to the question whether a foreign sovereign enjoys immunity from criminal prosecution. ”

“ Sweeping emergency provisions and reluctance on the part of the judiciary and the prosecutorial authorities to intervene in favour of victims have entrenched a culture of impunity. To date, the criminal justice system has not provided accountability for the final stages of the war. (c) Under the law, the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka has important investigative powers, including in respect of detainees. ”

“ They shall be natives of the territorial entity placed under their authority. They shall be civilians.
Article 18 - Combating impunity during the transition 1. In accordance with Protocol I to the Agreement, the transitional Government shall request the establishment of an International Judicial Commission of Inquiry which will investigate acts of genocide, war crimes and other crimes against humanity and report thereon to the Security Council of the United Nations. ”

“ Investigations and prosecutions have frequently been arbitrary and slow, and criminal inquiries have been used to harass and intimidate many critics and victims of the Government’s actions. At present, the criminal justice system is ineffective in combating a culture of impunity. ”

“ In the case of Sri Lanka, it is important to consider the mental element of this prohibition from the context of the law on individual responsibility. Most significantly, the law does not prohibit only attacks in which the attacking party’s sole intent is to kill civilians deliberately. Reasoning by analogy from the First Additional Protocol, which defines the war crime of making civilians the object of attack in international armed conflict, requires that such a prohibited attack on civilians must be undertaken “wilfully”. ”