Redressing Partial Justice a Possible Role for Civil Society

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the reality of the narrowness and limitations of criminal trials and encourages a debate about what further steps we can take. It explores the concept of justice as it applies to mass atrocities and gives a brief description of the process that culminated in the Tokyo Tribunal. For the victims and survivors of acts of mass atrocities justice has all of these connotations. In contrast calls for justice by the international community are most often a reference to justice in its legal sense. The possibility of holding a tribunal was first mooted at a seminar on violence against women held in Tokyo during November 1997. Civil society cannot offer strict 'legal' justice. But it can, through its willingness to be involved and to work with those affected by heinous crimes, assist in the restoration of dignity and the empowerment of families of victims and survivors. Keywords: civil society; international community; legal justice; Tokyo Tribunal