PART II: The European Court of Human Rights’ Reluctance to Classify European Convention Violations as International Crimes Even When Those Violations Likely Constitute ‘Genocide’ or ‘Crimes Against Humanity’ in Times of Peace or in Immediate Post-conflict Periods

Abstract

Part 2 considers the adverse implications for (a) the protection and advancement of international human rights, and for (b) accountability for international crimes; of the European Court of Human Rights’ reticence to acknowledge that certain peacetime violations of the European Convention on Human Rights may constitute ‘genocide’ or ‘crimes against humanity’. Cases are considered which include: (a) forced sterilization of Roma women in Czechoslovakia and Slovakia in the 1990s and in the early years of the millennium; (b) deaths and injuries of civilians in post-conflict Kosovo under the civil administration of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo due to the failure of KFOR and/or UNMIK to remove unexploded cluster bombs from the area that they were charged with keeping safe and secure; and (c) lead poisoning of Roma and other minorities (labelled as “gypsies”) in Kosovo due to their placement by the United Nations Mission in Kosovo in U.N. highly lead contaminated refugee (IDP) camps.