Courts are preferable to truth commissions in dealing with past human rights abuses. Discuss.

Courts are preferable to truth commissions in dealing with past human rights abuses. Discuss.

Essential Reading

1. Accountability I: amnesty, impunity, and truth commissions

How should we address systematic gross violations of human rights? One answer is to help a society find the “truth” of what happened during a particular period in its history so that it can move beyond it. In some cases there may be worries that forces from a previous regime may destabilize a post-conflict/democratic transition if they are threatened with punishment for their previous actions. Does the greater good of society outweigh letting human rights abusers go free? Are truth and justice irreconcilable?

• Video: Long Night’s Journey Into Day (in class)

• Tristan Anne Borer, ed., Telling Truths: Truth Telling and Peace Building in Post-Conflict Societies (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2006): Tristan Anne Borer, “Truth-Telling As a Peace-Building Activity: A Theoretical Overview,” pp. 1-58 and Juan E. Méndez, “The Human Right to Truth: Lessons Learned from Latin American Experiences with Truth Telling, pp. 115-150
• Audrey R. Chapman and Patrick Ball, “The Truth of Truth Commissions: Comparative Lessons from Haiti, South Africa, and Guatemala,” Human Rights Quarterly 23 (February 2001): 1-43
• Max Rettig, “Gacaca: Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation in Postconflict Rwanda?” African Studies Review 51, 3 (2008): 25–50.

• Roy Gutman, David Rieff, and Anthony Dworkin, eds., Crimes of War: What the Public Should Know, 2^nd ed., p. 39

• Additional readings and resources:

• Report of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, http://www.info.gov.za/otherdocs/2003/trc/index.html
• Transcripts and Policy Documents from the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, http://www.doj.gov.za/trc/trccom.htm
• Truth Commission Project, http://www.truthcommission.org/
• Coverage of the Gacaca process in Rwanda by the Fondation Hirondelle, http://www.hirondelle.org/hirondelle.nsf/caefd9edd48f5826c12564cf004f793d/e50bea4b77a0482bc1256763005ac92a?OpenDocument
• Tristan Anne Borer, “A Taxonomy of Victims and Perpetrators: Human Rights and Reconciliation in South Africa,” Human Rights Quarterly 25 (2003): 1088-1116
• Joanna R. Quinn and Mark Freeman, “Lessons Learned: Practical Lessons from Inside the Truth Commissions of Guatemala and South Africa,” Human Rights Quarterly 25 (2003): 1117-1149
• Peter Uvin and Charles Mironko, “Western and Local Approaches to Justice in Rwanda,” Global Governance 9 (Apr.-June 2003): 219-31
• Book review: Juan E. Méndez and Javier Mariezcurrena, “Unspeakable Truths,” Human Rights Quarterly 25 (2003): 237-256

2. Accountability II: war crimes tribunals, and universal jurisdiction

How does the international community address gross violations of human rights? Have the international courts that the UN has set up been successful? Do they provide justice?

• Debate: The International Criminal Court will not make the world a safer place

• David Forsythe, Human Rights in International Relations,, 3^rd e.d., Chapter 4: “Transitional Justice: Criminal Courts and Alternatives” E book also available
• Menno T. Kamminga, “Lessons Learned from the exercise of Universal Jurisdiction in Respect of Human Rights Offenses,” Human Rights Quarterly 23 (2001): 940-974
• Christopher Rudolph, “Constructing an Atrocities Regime: The Politics of War Crimes Tribunals,” International Organization 55 (Summer 2001): 655-91
• Kurt Mills and Anthony Lott, “From Rome to Darfur: Norms and Interests in US Policy Toward the International Criminal Court,” Journal of Human Rights 6 (4 2007): 497-521
• Helena Cobban, “International Courts,” Foreign Policy 153 (March-April 2006): 22-26
• Roy Gutman, David Rieff, and Anthony Dworkin, eds., Crimes of War: What the Public Should Know, 2^nd ed., p. 66-75, 132-136, 274, 36-364

• Additional readings and resources:

• Crimes of War Project, http://www.crimesofwar.org
• International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, http://www.ictr.org/
• International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, http://www.un.org/icty/
• International Criminal Court, http://www.icc-cpi.int/
• Coalition for an International Criminal Court, http://www.iccnow.org/
• International Center for Transitional Justice, http://www.ictj.org/
• ”Rape and Genocide in Rwanda: The ICTR’s Akayesu Verdict,” Teaching Human Rights Online, http://homepages.uc.edu/thro/rw/
• “International Justice,” in Human Rights Watch World Report 2002, http://www.hrw.org/wr2k2/internationaljustice.html
• William A. Schabas, “The Relationship Between Truth Commissions and International Courts: The Case of Sierra Leone,” Human Rights Quarterly 25 (2003): 1035-1066
• William A. Schabas, An Introduction to the International Criminal Court, 4th ed., (Cambridge University Press, 2011).
• Cronin-Furman, Kate. “Managing Expectations: International Criminal Trials and the Prospects for Deterrence of Mass Atrocity” International Journal of Transitional Justice 7, 3 (2013): 434–54
• Eric K. Leonard, The Onset of Global Governance: International Relations Theory and the International Criminal Court. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005. On order Library

Steven C. Roach, ed. Governance, Order and the International Criminal Court: Between Realpolitik and a Cosmopolitan Court. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. Ebook

• Adeno Addis, “Imagining the International Community: The Constitutive Dimension of Universal Jurisdiction,” Human Rights Quarterly 31 (209): 129-162
• Jane Stromseth, “Justice on the Ground: Can International Criminal Courts Strengthen Domestic Rule of Law in Post-Conflict Societies?” Hague Journal on the Rule of Law 1 (1 2009): 87-97, http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayFulltext?type=1&pdftype=1&fid=4614176&jid=ROL&volumeId=1&issueId=01&aid=4614172
• Kenneth A. Rodman, “Darfur and the Limits of Legal Deterrence,” Human Rights Quarterly 30 (2008): 529-560
• Janine Natalya Clark, ‘Peace, Justice and the International Criminal Court’’ Journal of International Criminal Justice 9: (2011): 521–45.

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Criminal Prosecution or Truth Commission?

Intro 350

Body 2000

Conclusion 300

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