Special Court for Sierra Leone

The global approach to serious crimes is shifting to domestic trials – here’s what I found in three African countries

Retrieved on:

星期一, 九月 25, 2023

But prioritising domestic accountability for the most serious crimes has both advantages and disadvantages.

Key Points:

But prioritising domestic accountability for the most serious crimes has both advantages and disadvantages.
In a recently published book, International Criminal Tribunals and Domestic Accountability: In The Court’s Shadow, I analyse the complex relationship between international and domestic accountability initiatives.
I also look at how an ongoing shift from international to domestic trials has impacted the global fight against impunity.

Read more:
Putin and the ICC: history shows just how hard it is to bring a head of state to justice
This is one of the reasons that domestic justice is now celebrated as quicker, cheaper and more victim-friendly.
Just two decades after the International Criminal Court was created, many stakeholders now argue that “the future of international criminal justice is domestic”.
To better understand the relationship between international and domestic trials, I studied three African cases.
But based on 30 years of international criminal justice interventions on the African continent, I identified four trends.

Today, the International Criminal Court handles between one and four international cases per country.
Second, with international criminal tribunals facing criticism in the 1990s and 2000s, the international community shifted attention to state-level accountability processes.
As the number of international trials decreased, domestic prosecutions increased in some countries.
What Kenyan choices tell us about international justice
Third, there’s still little evidence that domestic justice performs better than international criminal tribunals.
But the Congolese army has used international support to consolidate its power at the expense of the civilian justice sector.

First, international criminal tribunals sometimes unintentionally cast an “authoritarian shadow” over domestic justice efforts.
Second, too much emphasis on national trials may promote illiberal tendencies in some contexts.
I encourage a more critical look at how international and domestic justice relate to one another.

Retrieved on:

星期四, 六月 22, 2023

They also mark a decade since the closure of the Special Court for Sierra Leone.

Key Points:

They also mark a decade since the closure of the Special Court for Sierra Leone.
The court prosecuted high level commanders deemed responsible for the suffering experienced during the war.
Almost all the people of Sierra Leone were affected by the war, leaving an enduring scar on the country and the collective psyche.

Transitional justice is justice adapted to societies undergoing transformation away from “normalised” human rights abuse.
Sierra Leone became the first in which two transitional justice mechanisms were used.
My research focused on the official transitional justice mechanisms and whether the underlying causes of the war continued to affect the people of Sierra Leone.

While in Sierra Leone, I had candid discussions on the implementation, limitations and legacy of the official transitional justice mechanisms.
I found there were operational tensions between the Truth Commission and the Special Court, but having both gave Sierra Leoneans restorative and retributive justice.
Restorative justice refers to “an approach to justice that seeks to repair harm by providing an opportunity for those harmed and those who take responsibility for the harm to communicate about and address their needs in the aftermath of a crime.” Retributive justice is a system of criminal justice based on the punishment of offenders rather than on rehabilitation.
Considering the impact of the war, incorporating both mechanisms was essential in helping the society to reconcile and rebuild.
This acknowledges collective trauma but works towards peace in the long term.

This is because its mechanisms are put to work over a short period but aim at long-term and lasting peace.
My research also explored the current situation in a more holistic way.
These are the legacy of transitional justice and its relationship to long-term peace, and the resilience of the Sierra Leonean people.