End Impunity Research Articles

Why does the International Criminal Court Fail to End Impunity: An Analysis of ICC’s Operative and Structural Flaws

The International Criminal Court was established to end impunity while sentencing some of the worst criminals committing brutal mass murders. Facing doubts from critics regarding its effectiveness, it is only a matter of time before this court meets its end. Past research usually offers suggestions with a third party’s involvement, while this research focuses on empowering the court itself and its root causes: legal and operational flaws. Methods such as data analysis of the ICC’s financial report and past cases are utlized. These findings are later used to propose recommendations that ensure more effective communication between ASP and the ICC and amend the Rome Statute to grant the ICC more authority. The specific areas of flaws tested in this research can become valuable information for future research, while the ICC can consider the legal recommendations from this research as guidance for future actions.

“It's normal to be afraid”: attacks on healthcare in Ouaka, Haute-Kotto, and Vakaga prefectures of the Central African Republic, 2016–2020

IntroductionAttacks on healthcare have further weakened the already fragile health system in the Central African Republic. We investigated attacks on healthcare in three conflict-affected prefectures—Ouaka, Haute-Kotto, and Vakaga—from 2016 to 2020. The study aim was to gain an in-depth understanding of the immediate and long-term effects of attacks on healthcare workers, facilities, supply chain, quality of care, and other components of the health system. We provide a qualitative description of the incidents, assess their impacts, identify mitigation efforts, and discuss challenges to recovery.MethodsWe used purposive and snowball sampling to identify participants in the study. Semi-structured key informant interviews were conducted with administrative and health authorities, front-line personnel, and staff of non-governmental organizations. Interviews were done in Sango, French, or English. Recorded interviews were transcribed and notes taken for non-recorded interviews. Transcripts and notes were analyzed using inductive coding, allowing participant responses to guide findings.ResultsOf 126 attacks identified over the study period, 36 key informants discussed 39 attacks. Attacks included killings, physical and sexual assault, abductions, arson, shelling with grenades, pillage, occupations, and verbal threats. The violence led to extended closures and debilitating shortages in healthcare services, disproportionately affecting vulnerable populations, such as children under five, or people who are elderly, chronically ill, or displaced. Healthcare workers faced psychological trauma and moral injury from repeated attacks and the inability to provide adequate care. Personnel and communities made enormous efforts to mitigate impacts, and advocate for assistance. They were limited by failed reporting mechanisms, ongoing insecurity, persistent lack of resources and external support.ConclusionEffective strategies to safeguard healthcare from violence exist but better support for communities and health workers is essential, including measures to assess needs, enhance security, and facilitate recovery by quickly rebuilding, resupplying, and re-staffing facilities. CAR’s government, international organizations, and donors should make concerted efforts to improve reporting mechanisms and end impunity for perpetrators. Their investment in community organizations and long-term health system support, especially for health worker training, salaries, and psychosocial care, are vital steps towards building resilience against and mitigating the impacts of attacks on healthcare.

INFLUENCE OF CORRUPT ACTIVITIES ON COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT IN A SOUTHERN MUNICIPALITY IN GHANA (2019-2021)

The issue of corruption is an increasingly social problem that affects many sectors of the economy of nations. Ghana, over the years, has continued, to battle the menace of corruption. Meanwhile, reducing corruption levels can substantively improve the quality of human capital and bring about improvement in human development. This article highlights the situation of corrupt activities at the grassroots level from the year 2019 to 2021 in a southern municipality in Ghana. It also identifies factors that facilitate corrupt activities and the effects of corrupt activities on community development. Using convergent parallel design based on the mixed-methods approach, primary data were gathered through face-to-face interviews and questionnaires. The study concludes that corruption has become rampant and institutionalized at the district level, to the extent that it disproportionately affects the governance systems of institutions of local communities, whose primary existence is to improve the quality of life of its citizens. Based on this, the study recommends that to eradicate corruption, the state must end impunity and promote transparency and access to information.
 Keywords: Effects, Corruption, Corrupt Activities, Community Development.

The Tribulations of the International Criminal Court

This research focuses on substantial responses that international criminal law can provide to address the limits and ineffectiveness of the International Criminal Court. It sheds light on the reasons behind its failures. The Court is a victim of an intrinsic dualism: a political organ (the States Parties) and a legal organ (the Court itself) ensure its functioning. The problem is that the aims of these two organs are not necessarily the same. While the goal of the ICC is to end impunity, it is powerless as the States parties don't equip it with enough means of pressure. By exploring some controversial cases, the study highlights the threats faced by its mandate. The study concludes that the Court should clarify the legal standards it applies to its criminal proceedings, work based on clear prosecution strategies and policies, put an end to its endless impunity.

Human Rights Pragmatism: Problems of Structure and Agency

Abstract Mainstream human rights activists typically attribute the signature successes of their movement (e.g., antislavery, Gandhi, Martin Luther King) to their uncompromisingly principled stance on behalf of the weak and the exploited. Naming and shaming and ending impunity loom large in their lore. This attitude works well to recruit idealistic activists, but their moralism, legalism, and secular universalism miss the central role of the self-interest of the majority in powering the progress of human rights. A core of idealists has defined aspirational goals, but progress has depended on support from majority mass movements and reform parties that gained power through expedient compromise. The human rights enterprise is now facing fierce pushback from illiberal strongmen and populists who counter-shame the liberal order as decadent, degenerate, and threatening to deeply rooted values. Too often, contemporary rights rhetoric plays into the hands of these illiberal critics. Human Rights for Pragmatists explains how rights-based societies can recover a more accurate narrative of their past pragmatic successes, repair their tactical flaws, and withstand illiberal challenges.

International Criminal Law And Victor's Justice:acase Study Of The Tribunal For Rwanda

The background of the study focuses on Rwanda in the situation of selective justice by the victors after the civil war between the Rwanda Patriotic Front and the Rwandan government in 1994 and subsequent atrocities the victors committed. The purpose of the study is to critically examine the credibility and the way the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda selectively discharged its mandate by only prosecuting the defeated individual perpetrators whilst protecting victors’ perpetrators who also committed the same atrocities. The selectivity done by the ICTR was contrary to the Tribunal’s competence enshrined in the Statute that the Tribunal shall prosecute individual perpetrators regardless of their affiliations. Ignoring the selective prosecution discharged by the Tribunal would promote the continued violation of International Humanitarian Law and genocide in Rwanda and in other countries worldwide. The methodology applied under this study is based on analytical review of the literature relating to the topic, because it deeply explains the application of the selective prosecution of the perpetrators. The research also analyzed international instruments like ICTR’s Statute and Geneva Conventions. The analytical method is also complemented by the methodology of case study of the Tribunal for Rwanda. The data collected was subsequently analyzed qualitatively through narrative data analysis approach showing individual prosecution of perpetrators. The findings of the study show that the ICTR discharged its obligations selectively due to the lack of cooperation from the Rwandan State and support from the United Nations Security Council. Had the RPF led government cooperated with the United Nations Security Council, could lead the ICTR to prosecute both individual perpetrators of armed conflict, end impunity, redress successfully, and contributed to the process of national reconciliation and maintenance of peace. The study recommends to the United Nations Security Council to re- evaluate its mandate and call upon the RPF led government to comply with its obligation.

The Russia-Ukraine Conflict: Obstacles to Accountability


 
 
 
 The Russia-Ukraine conflict has left much of the international community increasingly concerned about violations of international law and the strength of the international legal system's ability to end impunity. With such a young international legal system, having yet to reach its 100th birthday, precedents are still fresh and being set with each new case. Each investigation opened by the International Criminal Court (ICC) encounters new uncharted territory. Using legislation foundational to the modern international system, this article seeks to analyze and understand the unique impact of Russian aggression against Ukraine on the present-day system of international law. This evaluation provides a quasi-directive on how the international system can move forward in the fight against international impunity.
 
 
 

The New Zimbabwean Government’s War on Corruption: A Lesson for Anti-Corruption and Transitional Justice Scholars and Practitioners?

There is ample academic writing and practical examples extending the principles of transitional justice to corruption. However, very little has been written on how a society’s existing anti-corruption mechanisms may be utilised in a manner compatible with the wider transitional justice processes. In Zimbabwe, the new government is taking a more rigorous approach towards anti-corruption than towards the protection of human rights, which is apparent in its pursuing corruption crimes but not crimes which violate physical integrity, such as torture, disappearances and killings. Using Zimbabwe as an example, this paper proposes ways in which transitional authorities could rely on anti-corruption mechanisms, yet go beyond them by addressing endemic corruption under the broader transitional justice mechanisms. This synchronisation will ensure that corruption is not addressed in a silo but as part of a wider redress of gross human rights violations. Such an articulation is all the more important given that societies perceived to be highly corrupt also tend to be those with poor human rights records. Moreover, the new government has acknowledged the endemic nature of corruption and has relied on the need to address it to justify the military intervention — a ground that resonated across society and appeared to legitimise the intervention. If, therefore, the new government’s anti-corruption campaign is to be trusted to end impunity with respect to physical abuses, it has to be consistent with, and grounded in, relevant domestic and international law.

Meandering along the ICL Path: Where are we headed? .

International criminal law (ICL) is still a fresh adventure. In an attempt to respond to atrocities that ‘shock the conscience of humanity’ (United Nations 1998), there were starts and stops and stumbles. The project of holding individuals accountable developed slowly, then came to a halt before regaining momentum; it faced charges of partiality and injustice, but is seen by many as a bright path in a fight to end impunity for perpetrators of pervasive and purposeful mass political violence. The current main debates concern the right institutions by which to administer ICL, including whether any judicial mechanismis necessary, or even reasonable, for transitional justice (see Tutu 1999). A major challenge is in developing an institution that can balance the ownership needs of a community with the need for a certain level of external evaluation of cultural practices and values, and the cessation of impunity for local powers.

Co nfronting past atrocities: A critical analysis of the defunct Ethiopian Reconciliation Commission

This article examines the rationale for the establishment of the defunct Ethiopian Reconciliation Commission (the Commission) and the challenges it faced in its efforts to help end impunity, restore the ruptured social fabric, and ensure democratic transition. To this end, the article relies on analysis of relevant literature, comparative case studies, and interviews with experts. Ethiopia is a deeply divided society, one characterised by ethnic division, cycles of violence, a pervasive culture of impunity for heinous crimes, competing historical narratives, and polarised political discourse. The Commission was bestowed with ambitious mandates and functions. Among its formidable challenges were a legitimacy deficit; the prevalence of competing narratives; vaguely defined mandates; and the complexity of the reconciliation process. Ultimately, the Commission failed to deliver on any of its promises.

Relational legal consciousness and anticorruption: Lava Jato, social media interactions, and the co-production of law's detraction in Brazil (2017–2019)

AbstractStarting in 2014, Brazilian politics was shaken up by the lava jato (LJ) operation, a law-centered anticorruption initiative. LJ unveiled a large corruption scheme in Brazil's national oil company Petrobras, which involved Petrobras directors, political party officials, and large construction companies. LJ was both disruptive and contentious. To some, it started a new chapter in Brazilian history, marked by greater respect for the “rule of law” and a collective “state of mind” concerned with “ending impunity” and building integrity in politics and businesses. To others, it contributed to undermining democracy and the rule of law, paving the way for an autocratic leader—the current Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro. This article sheds further light on those discussions by looking at LJ as a site of “legal consciousness” production. Empirically, the article focuses on conversations generated by lead LJ prosecutors on a major social media platform (Facebook) from 2017 to 2019. Considering this body of data, the article addresses the question: “When prosecutors and ‘the people’ talked about LJ, what did they talk about?” My findings support the more skeptical views of the operation. The exchanges between LJ prosecutors and their Facebook followers supported the co-production of a cultural schema averse to the “rule of law.” These findings have implications for both legal consciousness and anticorruption research.

Conflict-Related Sexual Violence and the Perils of Impunity

“Ending impunity” is often heralded as the key mechanism for stopping rape in war. Yet, little systematic evidence or analyses exist of the relationship between impunity (or lack thereof) and sexual violence. We argue that amnesties signal impunity and permissiveness for sexual violence, which can perpetuate and instigate more sexual violence by rebels. Trials, on the other hand, signal a nonzero probability of punishment, which could have a deterrent effect. Studying all intrastate armed conflicts in the period 1989–2011, we find in line with the impunity signal that amnesties are associated with sexual violence by rebels, but we are not able to demonstrate a deterrent effect of trials. While the study prevents us from conclusively saying that ending impunity would be an effective policy tool to stop sexual violence in war, the association between amnesties and subsequent sexual violence is a testament to the perils of impunity.

Impunity thick and thin: The International Criminal Court in the search for equality

AbstractIn discussions of impunity, such as the one surrounding the International Criminal Court, the concept of impunity itself has remained relatively unattended. Examining the concept more closely reveals that we use it in both thin and thick senses, the thin relating to a concern about the values of punishment and the criminal law and the thick to a broader notion of equality, of which crimes being punished (equally) is one aspect, but not the totality of the issue. Only a thick version of impunity captures all that makes it a problem we care greatly about. According to this conception, what makes impunity a problem is primarily a failure to ensure equality before the law. This can show up in two ways. First, when a crime is not prosecuted or punished because the offender belongs to a group of people who are beyond the reach of the law. Second, when a crime is not prosecuted or punished because the victim belongs to a group of people deemed less important in the eyes the law. Institutions and courts of law end impunity, first and foremost, by restoring the experience of equality against privilege and brute power. This sets an important challenge to the International Criminal Court, because while the Court may serve many important values, its current institutional formation and its political context seem to undermine its capacity to contribute to end impunity in the thicker sense.

A Critical Review of the ICC’s Mandate To End Impunity: Analysing the Gravity Principle and the Limit of Positive Complementarity

A Critical Review of the ICC’s Mandate To End Impunity: Analysing the Gravity Principle and the Limit of Positive Complementarity

UN Peace Operations and the Role of the Local in (Re)Building the Rule of Law

UN peace operations undertake a broad array of rule of law activities aiming to rebuild the justice system and end impunity. Rule of law activities in UN peace operations have matured over the last 20 years since the UN experiments with statebuilding in Kosovo and East Timor. Today, rule of law activities can often clearly be seen to advance the broader goal of establishing the host state as the legitimate authority. This paper first discusses the UN’s understanding of the rule of law and why the UN has chosen to underpin its peacebuilding agenda with ending impunity. Second, transitional justice in MINUSCA is discussed including the establishment of the Special Criminal Court. Third, UNMISS is investigated where the UN had an unprecedented challenge of ensuring the rule of law on protection of civilian sites. Lastly, the promise of local justice is assessed. It is suggested that while ending impunity and strengthening formal institutions can be important to ensure human rights violations do not persist, there needs to be an overarching, bottom-up strategy in place to engage and empower local communities, and other civil actors, to be part of the rule of law process.

Is the Quality of the ICC’s Legal Reasoning an Obstacle to Its Ability to Deter International Crimes?

Abstract Given that the Rome Statute is only binding upon its member states, there is a certain element of judicial megalomania in the recurrent claim by the International Criminal Court (ICC) that it acts ‘on behalf of the international community as a whole’ in its endeavour to end impunity for international crimes. Focusing on recent ICC rulings concerning the nature and function of the Court, this article queries whether the quality of the Court’s legal reasoning may have an impact on its long-term deterrence potential. The article suggests that while making self-aggrandizing statements and stretching the boundaries of its legal mandate might, in principle, increase the short-term deterrent effect of the ICC, the Court risks sacrificing a greater good, i.e. its long-term status as a legitimate authority within the field international criminal law. Inconsistent rulings without a solid basis in sound legal analysis may indeed prove to be devastating for the ICC, which is still in the process of establishing itself as a credible institution that commands respect.

Ending Impunity for Forced Marriage in Conflict Zones

Abstract Countless women and girls have been abducted, raped, forcibly assigned as ‘wives’ to combatants and held captive within such forced marriages in conflict zones around the world. Forced marriage as an international crime remains controversial because it (i) is not codified in any international criminal statute, (ii) involves conduct overlapping with already-enumerated crimes against humanity and (iii) is inconsistently defined. Legal protections for girls in forced marriage reside in historical proscriptions against various forms of slavery — banned by jus cogens norms, international human rights and humanitarian law — including the crimes against humanity of sexual slavery and enslavement. Yet, despite similarities between forced marriage and numerous forms of slavery, international criminal courts have not yet prosecuted or convicted forced marriage as enslavement, and even its conviction as sexual slavery insufficiently captures the unique, multi-layered injuries its youngest victims suffer. International tribunals confronting evidence of very young girls captured as ‘wives’ and of female child soldiers serving as sex slaves have failed to adequately recognize or redress the egregious harms girl endure through forced marriage. Competing judicial and academic views on its proper classification have obscured courts’ oversight of forced marriage’s most vulnerable victims — female children. This article argues that, to advance justice for girls in conflict zones and end impunity for these atrocities, greater judicial emphasis is needed on the constellation of internationally recognized fundamental human rights of children violated by forced marriage, whether prosecuted as an ‘other inhumane act’ or slavery-related crime against humanity.

Near, Far, Wherever You Are: Distance and Proximity in International Criminal Law

Abstract As the International Criminal Court (ICC) nears its 20th year in operation, many international criminal law practitioners and scholars are asking: where is the ICC today in relation to its original promise to end impunity for the world’s worst crimes? Baked into that question are themes of the court’s distance and proximity, temporal and spatial, professional and existential. Where is the ICC located along the historic ‘arc of justice’ and how might we push it further along that path? How does the prosecutor’s refrain that the ICC is a ‘court of law’ that must keep away from political entanglements affect its interaction with domestic actors? What do practitioners and scholars mean when they encourage the ICC to ‘get closer’ to atrocity situations, whether through better communication, cooperation or in situ proceedings? These questions prompt reflection on the ICC’s distance from, and proximity to, the atrocity space through an analysis of three recent monographs on the ICC and Africa. Reviewing these contributions in law, political science and anthropology, this review essay gauges the multiple planes of distance and proximity on which international criminal law advocates operate. These planes turn out to play an important part in ordering global justice, particularly the spaces and subjects of atrocities as sites of anti-impunity work.

EFFECTIVENESS OF THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT’S JURISDICTION IN IMPUNITY PREVENTION

This research aims to describe and explain the International Criminal Court’s jurisdictions in an effort to prevent impunity. Additionally, this research provides answer to the question of ICC’s effectiveness in upholding justice over international crimes. This research is a normative law research. The research results shows, under Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court 1998, the purpose of a trial is to end impunity over serious crimes. To implement such a purpose, ICC exercise their jurisdictions conform to Rome Statute. However, the exercise of ICC’s jurisdictions are still ineffective, such phenonemon could arise by many factors.

Peran Perserikatan Bangsa-Bangsa dalam Kaitannya dengan Penegakan Hukum Oleh Mahkamah Pidana Internasional (Prospek dan Tantangan)

International law in its development moves dynamically according to international community interactions. In the development of international law has spawned an international organization, namely the United Nations (UN). International courts relating to the UN status. The UN has laid the framework of the kosnstitusionic on the underlying instrument of the Charter with the determination of all the members of the UN to avoid the recurrence of World War threats that have twice occurred and have caused A threat to all mankind. THE un-formed International Criminal Court is backed by many demands for justice for its extraordinary crimes (the most serious crime). The International Criminal Court aims to end impunity for perpetrators of gross human rights violations and to give a share of the prevention of the most serious crimes against human rights under international law, as well as Ensure international justice and support the achievement of objectivesof the United Nations Charter principles. Based on the description the problem that will be discussed in this article is the role and authority of THE International Organization (PBB) in maintaining international peace and security in resolving the problems that Conducted by the International Criminal Court (ICC).This Writing uses legal research methods is normative with the research of secondary data and described descriptively.