The document discusses the role of international criminal justice in conflict prevention and peace promotion, highlighting how judicial mechanisms like international and hybrid courts address major crimes from armed conflicts. It emphasizes the significance of transitional justice, including criminal prosecutions and truth commissions, in fostering sustainable peace and accountability. While it outlines various international courts and the challenges they face, it also explores the potential positive impacts of international criminal justice on societal reform and reconciliation.

1. INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL JUSTICE IN THE CONTEXT
OF CONFLICT PREVENTION AND THE PROMOTION OF
PEACE
John Cubbon, Senior Legal Officer, International
Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
This presentation will give my views and does not
necessarily reflect the views of the International Tribunal
or the United Nations in general.

2. SUBJECT-MATTER
Judicial mechanisms established by the international
community to try those accused of major crimes arising
from an armed conflict
OVERVIEW
What has criminal justice got to do with conflict prevention?
Why can the international community contribute?
International criminal courts
Internationalised or hybrid criminal courts
Significance of international criminal justice for conflict
prevention and the promotion of peace

3. WHAT HAVE CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS GOT TO DO
WITH CONFLICT PREVENTION AND THE PROMOTION
OF PEACE?
• Peace-making as stopping the fighting
• Measures to make peace sustainable include:
Transitional justice: “A set of judicial and non-judicial
measures that have been implemented…..in order to
redress the legacies of massive human rights abuse”
(ICTJ)

4. TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE
• Criminal Prosecutions
• Truth Commissions
• Reparations programmes
• Institutional reforms of abusive state institutions, such as
the armed forces, police and courts

5. HOW DO CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS CONTRIBUTE TO
CONFLICT PREVENTION AND THE PROMOTION OF
PEACE?
Some slogans:
• Ending impunity
• Justice for victims
• Closure
• Addressing the enormity of the crimes

6.  Judicial mechanisms established by the international
community to try those accused of major crimes
arising from an armed conflict
 Two categories: international criminal courts and
internationalized or hybrid criminal courts
INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL JUSTICE

7. INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURTS
• International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
(ICTY)
• International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR)
• International Criminal Court (ICC)

8. INTERNATIONALISED OR HYBRID CRIMINAL COURTS
• Panels of International Judges in Kosovo (UNMIK AND
EULEX)
• Special Panels in East Timor (UNTAET)
• Special Court for Sierra Leone
• War Crimes Chamber of the Court of Bosnia and
Herzegovina
• Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia
(ECCC)

9. WHY CAN’T COURTS IN THE COUNTRIES AFFECTED
DEAL WITH CRIMES COMMITTED IN ARMED
CONFLICT?
• Hardly a functioning court system as a result of the
conflict
• Often the domestic judicial system had serious
shortcomings before the armed conflict
• Extreme difficulty that Judges have in being and being
seen to be independent and impartial on issues arising
from an armed conflict that has affected them
– Judges may be subject to pressures and even
intimidation in such cases

10. LIVERSIDGE V. ANDERSON (1941)
• Regulation 18D of the Defence (General) Regulations
1939 which permitted the Home Secretary to intern
people if he had “reasonable cause” to believe that they
had “hostile associations”.
• The effect of the Majority Decision was that the order for
Liversidge’s detention was lawful if the Home Secretary
honestly asserted that he had reasonable cause to
detain him under the law and that in such circumstances
no court could investigate whether in fact he had
reasonable grounds for his belief.

11. • Lord Atkin dissented and argued that the courts should
decide whether the Home Secretary really had
reasonable grounds for his belief and not just whether he
thought he had.
• Extreme conditions of wartime as the reason for the
Majority Decision
Analogous situation in the peace-process in Northern
Ireland

12. INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL TRIBUNAL FOR THE
FORMER YUGOSLAVIA (ICTY)
• UN Security Council Resolution 827 of 25 May 1993
• Acting under Chapter VII of he UN Charter
• Ad hoc temporary measure
• Jurisdiction over war crimes, crimes against humanity
and genocide committed in the territory of the former
Yugoslavia since 1992

13. INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL TRIBUNAL FOR RWANDA
(ICTR)
• UN Security Council Resolution 995 of 8 November 1994
• Acting under Chapter VII of the UN Charter
• Ad hoc temporary measure
• Jurisdiction over war crimes, crimes against humanity
and genocide committed during 1994

14. INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT (ICC)
• Rome Statute of 1998
• 120 States Parties
• Created as a permanent court
• At the present time jurisdiction over war crimes, crimes
against humanity and genocide
• Referrals
 Security Council under Chapter VII
 State Party
 Investigation initiated by the Prosecutor proprio motu

15. INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT (ICC)
• Referrals by States Parties
 Uganda in 2003
 DRC in 2004
 CAR in 2005
 Mali in 2012

16. • Proprio Motu investigations by the Prosecutor
 Events in Kenya between 1 June 2005 and 26
November 2009
 Alleged crimes since 28 November 2010 in Cote
d’Ivoire
• Referrals by the UN Security Council
 Situation in Darfur since July 2002
 Situation in Libya since 15 February 2011
• Impact and significance of the ICC

17. LIMITATIONS OF INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURTS
• Logistical difficulties
• Reduced opportunities for institution-building
• Perceptions of the courts as alien impositions

18. • International Judges and Prosecutors in Kosovo. UNMIK
Regulation No. 2000/64, 15 December 2000.
• Special Panels in East Timor. Jurisdiction over serious
crimes. Majority of internationals on the panels. Sat from
2000 to 2006.
• Special Court for Sierra Leone. Established by
agreement in 2002 between the UN and the Government
of Sierra Leone. Jurisdiction over serious crimes
committed in Sierra Leone since 30 November 1996.
Majority of internationals on the panels. Closed in 2013.
INTERNATIONALISED OR HYBRID CRIMINAL COURTS

19. • Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia.
Agreement between Cambodian Government and the
UN in 2003. Jurisdiction over crimes committed during
the period of Democratic Kampuchea from 1975 to 1979.
• War Crimes Chamber of the Court of Bosnia and
Herzegovina. Started work in 2005. Initially panels of two
international Judges and one Bosnian Judge.
Tendency for internationalised or hybrid criminal courts to
have broader material jurisdiction than international
criminal courts.

20. SIGNIFICANCE FOR CONFLICT PREVENTION AND THE
PROMOTION OF PEACE
• Apparently well-intentioned initiatives in the international
sphere
 Pessimistic and optimistic views
• Political factors
• Genuine courts

21. CONTRIBUTION OF INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL
JUSTICE
 Prevention of crime through reform, deterrence and
protection of society
 Reduction of impunity for particularly serious crimes
which are an obstacle to peace and reconciliation
 Individualisation of guilt
 Providing a more objective account of events
Optimistic and pessimistic views of international criminal
justice