Massive Human Rights Research Articles

The Impact of Holistic Justice on the Long‐Term Experiences and Wellbeing of Mass Human Rights Violation Survivors: Ethnographic and Interview Evidence From Kosova, Northern Ireland and Albania

ABSTRACTResearch highlights the long‐term collective effects of mass human rights violations (MHRVs) on survivors’ wellbeing. This multi‐method, multi‐context paper combines the social identity approach (SIA), transitional and social justice theories and human rights‐conceptualised wellbeing to propose a human rights understanding of trauma responses and experiences in the context of MHRVs. In Study 1, ethnographic research in four locations in Kosova, 5 years post war indicates that lack of perceived conflict‐related and social justice is experienced as a key contributor to survivors’ individual and collective wellbeing. In Study 2, 61 semi‐structured interviews with MHRVs survivors from post‐war Kosova, post‐conflict Northern Ireland and post‐dictatorship Albania two to three decades post conflict also show that such justice experiences inform wellbeing. These studies illustrate the importance of expanding the SIA to health and trauma theories by taking account of a human rights‐conceptualised wellbeing as well as adopting a holistic analysis of justice perception.

What We Owe to Ukrainians: A Moral Perspective on Nuclear Coercion and Military Intervention

AbstractUkraine's war of self-defense against Russia is one of the clearest examples of a nation fighting a just war in recent history. Ukraine is clearly entitled to defend itself, and Russia is clearly obligated to cease hostilities, withdraw troops, and make repair. In light of this, some of the most salient moral questions related to Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine involve the international community; namely, what moral duties it has toward Ukraine, especially in light of Russia's extreme and pervasive human rights abuses. The first section of the essay argues that there is a pro tanto moral duty to intervene militarily in Ukraine to stop Russian human rights abuses and ensure that Ukraine achieves a military victory. This duty is grounded in duties of rescue, promissory obligations, and reliance obligations, as well as duties to nations’ own citizens and to the international community. The second section of the essay argues that the most relevant consideration in determining whether there is an all-things-considered duty for the international community to intervene militarily in Ukraine is Russia's nuclear coercion and the associated risk of nuclear war. This section highlights the nuclear risks involved in compliance with Russian nuclear coercion, which I argue have been neglected in prominent discussions. The moral stakes involved in this determination are very high, and succumbing to Russian nuclear coercion in the face of massive human rights violations would set a dangerous precedent. Any course of action should be guided by a thorough analysis of all the risks involved, both nuclear and moral.

Participation of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation in Enhancing African Police Personnel Peacekeeping Capacity

The peacekeeping became actual agenda of international relations due to increased number of internal conflicts with mass human rights violations in different regions of the world including Africa. The problems of ensuring peace and security have become priority for United Nations (UN) and regional organizations involved in constant search of conflict resolution best practices. Peacekeeping actors admitted the key role of law-enforcement agencies, and first of all the police, in ensuring security in conflict or post-conflict reconstruction. Therefore, the UN actively developing the strategy of police methods usage in peacekeeping operations. Because of this process, the number of member states contributing police contingents to the UN including formed police units increased. Joint activity of police officers from different countries with different education, professional experience and specialization requires high-quality training of candidates for peacekeeping operations. The purpose of this article is to analyze the needs of African police officers in professional development and the capabilities of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation in training of African police officers for the UN peacekeeping operations. The study is based on insights from non-participant observation, interviews and analyses of the UN official documents, policies and training materials. Actual Russian and foreign scientific publications were used. Results confirmed that Russian Federation has many years of experience in African policemen training for the UN peacekeeping operations. The promising areas of Russian Federation participation in the development of the peacekeeping potential of African police, along with the provision of standardized pre-deployment training based on the UN certified programs, can be training in the crime investigation methodology and the training of special police units of the UN member states.

The Special Criminal Court and the challenge of criminal accountability in the Central African Republic

States which encounter massive human rights violations usually implement various mechanisms of achieving accountability. There exists documented evidence of conflict-related international crimes in the Central African Republic (CAR). Still, the perpetrators enjoy impunity as no appropriate measures were adopted to guarantee criminal accountability. The Special Criminal Court (SCC) was established in the CAR in 2015 as a hybrid criminal accountability mechanism. This article with the aid of a qualitative method and a narrative approach aims at investigating the activities of the SCC in the fight against the culture of impunity in a country experiencing persistent human rights violations. As conflict and impunity persist in the socially and politically unstable CAR, a comprehensive synopsis of the SCC and a preliminary assessment of the court and its challenges seven years after creation constitute a domain of investigation that urgently requires a deeper investigation to halt impunity, recurrent hostilities and human rights violations. Why has impunity and violations persisted in the CAR despite the creation of the SCC? The paper identifies critical factors to the success of the SCC, based on previous experiments with hybrid courts. The outcome of this research reveal that the fragile security situation in the country and other factors significantly hinder the court’s objective of serving justice and contributing to durable peace in the CAR.

Rethinking Childhood and War in the Twentieth Century

On 7 March 2022, Catherine Russell, UNICEF executive director, and Filippo Grandi, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, demanded that ‘unaccompanied and separated children fleeing escalating conflict in Ukraine must be protected’.1 They insisted that children should, once they crossed Ukraine's borders, be immediately registered, offered safe spaces, reunified with their families, and receive emergency care.2 Under no circumstances should children who came with their families be separated, and everything should be done to protect children from exploitation, trafficking and gender-based violence.3 However, since then, countless children from Ukraine who have crossed the borders unaccompanied have become victims of human trafficking and exploitation. Tens of thousands of children in Ukrainian state institutions or who had been orphaned prior to the war could not be protected. They were deported to Russia, many were interned in reeducation camps, and many were forcefully adopted by Russian families or moved into foster care.4 Since the war started, children have again become a means of warfare. The current war against Ukraine once more demonstrates how vulnerable children can become when they are separated from their families. Children have, once again, become targets of massive human rights violations and of crimes against humanity.

INTERNATIONAL LEGAL STANDARDS FOR THE EQUITABLE PROVISION OF TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE

In a situation of transition from conflict or authoritarian rule, which has led to gross human rights violations or serious violations of international humanitarian law, the United Nations pays special attention to the measures taken by the relevant authorities to ensure truth, justice and reparation. International instruments define transitional justice as follows: «a set of processes and mechanisms related to society’s attempts to overcome the grave consequences of large-scale violations of the law in the past in order to ensure accountability, justice and reconciliation». The international community has a duty to take immediate steps to protect human rights and security in a situation where the internal system of law enforcement is destroyed or ceases to function as a result of the conflict. In the long run, no special, temporary or external measures can replace justice. Therefore, for decades, a number of United Nations agencies have been helping countries strengthen their national justice systems in line with international standards. Transitional justice is a set of measures related to systematic or mass human rights violations that compensates victims of violations, as well as enabling or facilitating the transformation of political systems, conflicts and other conditions that may be at the root of abuse. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights is increasingly recognizing the need to intensify its support for the United Nations system’s efforts to take swift and effective action in post-conflict settlement missions to restore the rule of law and restore justice. Countries emerging from conflicts and crises are often characterized by insufficient or no rule of law, inadequate capacity to administer and administer justice, and an increase in human rights violations. This situation is often exacerbated by a lack of public confidence in public authorities and a lack of resources. Key words: human rights, rule of law, transitional justice, international standards, conflict and post-conflict periods.

Criminology and Massive Violation of Human Rights: The Case of Terrorism and Genocide

AbstractThe criminological dimension of crime generally does not arouse great enthusiasm from researchers in Arab countries, unlike Anglo-Saxon- or French-speaking countries. Admittedly, Western criminology is more advanced, but it is more interested in common crimes than in mass crimes such as crimes against humanity, genocide, human trafficking or terrorism. However, the rare existing studies reveal the emergence of a criminology of massive human rights violations and expose some particularities of this criminal phenomenon. These include the often transnational nature of the crimes, the geographical, socio-economic and political disparity of criminals, the high number of victims, and more. The relationship between criminal law, criminology and human rights should be examined to determine the complementarity of the law and the empirical criminal sciences in crime prevention.

피해자 중심적 이행기 정의와 전환적 사법의 실현

With the revision of the "Basic Act on the Settlement of Past History for Truth and Reconciliation" in 2020, the legal basis for the activities of the 2nd Truth and Reconciliation Committee was established. And based on this, the committee began investigating 328 cases, including the Brotherhood Welfare Support Case, on May 27, 2021, and began activities to investigate the past truth. Apart from the historical causality after liberation, it cannot be denied that Korea has also undergone a transitional history of state violence and infringement of basic rights due to military dictatorship and anti-communist ideology. In addition, in this regard, There have already been tried to shed light on our history, such as the May 18 Democratic Movement, forced mobilization of Japanese colonial era, and the liquidation of Korea-Japan history in Japanese colonial era, from the perspective of the transitional justice. Even before the introduction of the international standard of liquidation of the implementation period in Korea, such historical events had been mentioned under the name of past liquidation or fact-finding for the purpose of truth finding, restoring honor, or compensation. The definition of transitional justice is not completely unified and although the concept is not consistent, it can be understood as the process of securing responsibility by the state or society in the process of transition to a free democratic society after massive human rights violations by state power or state violence. In other words, it would be appropriate to understand the transitional justice as a means of realizing the transition in the process of pursuing the social ideal of freedom and democracy, not as a society that realizes complete purpose like the term 'transitional'. In other words, past liquidation through compensation and honor recovery is not the direction in which society should ultimately proceed, but is itself a transitional definition. The international community also sees the direction that society should pursue after liquidation in the past as a transformative justice, which means realizing or pursuing justice through systematic transformation not only in law but also in all fields of society. Regarding the activities of the 2nd Truth Reconciliation Committee and the direction of the committee, there would be first looked at the concept and background of the transitional justice in the international community, and then examine the relationship between transitional justice and transformative justice to realize social transformation after past liquidation.

War on Terror and the United States Human Rights Violations in Afghanistan and Pakistan: An International Law Perspective

The 9/11 attacks triggereda paradigm shift in the United States security policy, prioritizing to ensure homeland security and to fight against the terrorism in the new American strategy.The United States invasion of Afghanistan further ravaged the existing fragile state damaging the already crumbling socio-economic and human infrastructure. In addition, the spillover of war into Pakistan started a new era of instability and misery further complicating the socio-economic fabric of the country making it the most vulnerable to terrorism related incidents. The two decades prolonged conflict not only destroyed the economic, social, and political infrastructure in both states, meanwhile mass human rights violations have been committed by the coalition forces under the leadership ofthe United States. In this context, the present paper investigates human rights abuses through the prism of international human rights law. The study addresses the following questions. (a) To what extent the United States war against terror violates the international law of human rights, and how it helpsWashington to reconsolidate the regional hegemony. (b) Whetherthe war on terror improve the situation of human rights or further aggravate the conditions of civilians in targeted states. The studyunderlinesthat the war on terror failed to meet the merit of the right to intervene for self-defense, yet the coalition forces deliberately assimilatethe innocent civilians underthe vagueanti-terror war rhetoric. In addition, the war serves the United States hegemonic interests in South Asia, as the American presence in Afghanistan and the Indo-United States strategic partnership brought serious geopolitical implications for China and Pakistan.

Legal Aspects Related to the Termination of the Kumanovo Agreement (1999) and Possibilities for Serbian Armed Forces to return to Kosovo in Case of Termination of that Agreemen

This article examines the Kumanovo Agreement as an obstacle to possible Serbian military intervention in Kosovo and Metohija (hereinafter shortly: Kosovo) in case of uncontrolled Albanian invasion against the Serb population in Kosovo. The Military Technical Agreement between the International Security Force (“KFOR”) and the Governments of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Republic of Serbia, known as the Kumanovo Agreement, represents a legal limitation to any involvement of the Serbian military force(s). With respect to the Kumanovo Agreement the consent element required for such peacekeeping agreements appears to be missing. The absence of consent element of the agreement undermines the legal basis and thus the legal validity of the Kumanovo treaty reached under apparent coercion in 1999. It appears that Kumanovo Agreement in the absence of proper consent requirement may be interpreted as a dubious act under the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (hereinafter VCLT), particularly Article 52 (related to the Coercion of a State by the threat or use of force). Therefore, the Kumanovo Agreement, as an Annex to the Security resolution 1244 (1999), can be considered as an invalid act according to the VLCT. As a consequence of its invalidity, the Serbian government in warlike situations, in case of massive human rights violations by Kosovo authorities against Serbian population, may resort to termination of the Kumanovo Agreement (under Article 52 and even under Article 53 (jus cogens) of the VLCT) for aim to protect the Serbian population against ethnic cleansing, oppression and other human rights violations of International (humanitarian) public Law.

“Political reality of rural west bengal in Covid-19 lockdown: Challenging human rights”

The effect of sudden lockdown has been remarkable in people's lives and livelihoods. The present article is based on three cases, which perhaps are the magnificent examples of victimization due to the government's imposing of the lockdown for the o ngoing pandemic of COVID-19 without proper planning and measures. Every human being has the right to satisfactory housing, health, and work for a decent living. Denying social assistance to people is challenging the right to social security. Each story is portraying an ongoing massive human rights violation that is not only restricted to that locality, rather it is the picture of Indian rural areas in this pandemic situation. It is expected that the accumulated narratives of these three women will reveal the fact and will help to contextualize the contemporary Indian villages within its political realities.

Knowledge for Peace: Transitional Justice and the Politics of Knowledge in Theory and Practice ed. by Briony Jones and Ulrike Lühe

Reviewed by: Knowledge for Peace: Transitional Justice and the Politics of Knowledge in Theory and Practice ed. by Briony Jones and Ulrike Lühe Claire Wright (bio) Knowledge for Peace: Transitional Justice and the Politics of Knowledge in Theory and Practice (Edward Elgar Press, Briony Jones & Ulrike Lühe eds., 2021). ISBN 978 1 78990 534 2 (ebook, Open Access), 288 pages. As a social scientist working within a broadly qualitative paradigm, I acknowledge that the politics of knowledge and my own positionality have shaped my work and experience. I have carried out in-country and on-line fieldwork in Latin America for the past fifteen years and, during this time, I have been faced with very real dilemmas of my relationship with the “field,” (or, in more human terms, the individuals and societies that I am studying). Such dilemmas include issues of negotiating consent, ownership of voice, and—crucially—the possible impacts of my research, not just on other scholars, but on real-life political processes and relationships. On top of this, I struggle with how to meaningfully overcome my own situation of privilege as a white, female scholar from the Global North and the exigencies of English-speaking academia, which are often incompatible with the dynamics and interests of the Global South. Indeed, knowledge production frequently reproduces colonial relationships and even the most well-intentioned ethics committees and concerns over “due diligence” may actually reproduce power dynamics between the North and the South. In this context, the edited volume Knowledge for Peace. Transitional Justice and the Politics of Knowledge in Theory and Practice1 offers an engaging and timely read for all scholars, who, like me, continue to grapple with these issues. Focusing on the field of Transitional Justice (TJ), and with broad reference to cases from the African continent, Briony Jones (University of Warwick, UK) and Ulrike Lühe (Swisspeace/University of Basel) bring together a truly diverse group of authors (from scholars to practitioners) to discuss the impact of how knowledge is produced—particularly power dynamics and insider/outsider status—on peace-building processes. The interface between theory and practice is the backbone of the book, which opens up a discussion on the high-stakes contexts of mass human rights violations. In recent years, there has been an emerging academic discussion on the (neo)colonial nature of TJ2 and a couple of noteworthy reflections on how scholars from the Global North might usefully carry out fieldwork in such contexts.3 However, few go as far in content or are as original in perspective [End Page 210] as Knowledge for Peace, for reasons I shall outline below. The volume opens with a very helpful introduction in which the two editors (Jones and Lühe) explain the rationale behind the book, namely that “[t]he field of transitional justice is characterized by substantial and difficult debates over what ‘better’ looks like, and we offer our contribution to these debates with this book on the politics of knowledge.”4 Having situated the volume in several debates within TJ scholarship and practice—including “knowledge imperialism”—they turn to discuss the two key themes that run through the chapters, namely: the interlinkages between the processes and politics of knowledge production; and the research-policy-practice nexus. The opening chapter also summarises the contributions of the different authors and explains the way in which the volume is organised: a first part, which offers a series of discussions on the politics of knowledge from a theoretical perspective; a second part, which explores the linkages between knowledge production and agenda-setting; and a third part which focuses on the profiles and expertise of knowledge producers. Rather than summarising the contents of the different chapters that together make up the three sections of the edited volume, here I would like to point to four particularly original and thought-provoking chapters and tease out their contributions for our understanding of the politics of knowledge and its implications for the field of Transitional Justice. The first is Chapter 4 “Producing knowledge on and for transitional justice: reflections on a collaborative research project,” co-authored by Briony Jones, Ulrike Lühe, Gilbert Fokou, Kuyang Harriet Logo, Leben...

The Need for a New Paradigm in International Law to Provide International Protection

Abstract Too little is provided, not only in international law, but also by the United Nations, for victims around the world. This article therefore argues that a new paradigm is needed. It uses the conflict in Syria since 2011, specifically focusing on how enforced disappearances and arbitrary detentions have been used, to examine these questions. It has been reported that at least 150,000 people have been affected by these practices, but the number may be as high as a million. Because the state has used these practices methodically, they amount to a widespread and systemic attack on the civilian population and, therefore, to crimes against humanity. While the Syrian regime is primarily responsible, non-state actors have also been committing these types of crimes. The article discusses the general processes that have been set up to deal with the conflict in international law and by the United Nations in places like Syria. It finds that very little has been done to end the conflict in Syria, other than mediation. The article then reviews the international processes dealing with disappearances and detentions in Syria that families can report to, and the role these institutions have played so far. It again finds that very little has been achieved. The article also examines other countries where processes have been set up to deal with missing and disappeared persons, such as Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cyprus, and Georgia, to learn the lessons from these past processes for the Syrian situation. It is argued that, generally when mass atrocities occur, the UN on rare occasions will create an accountability process, but never creates a process that focuses on the needs of victims: finding their loved ones, getting them released from custody if they are alive, or finding the truth about what happened to them and where their remains are. The article therefore argues that a new mechanism is needed for Syria (but also for other places) to get people released, and to find information on others whose whereabouts are unknown due to the conflict and/or the mass human rights abuses. It contends that the mechanism could be set up by the UN, and if not, by a regional actor such as the European Union, or by several states. It is reasoned that the mechanism ought to have a Board made up of a representative each from the International Committee of the Red Cross (icrc), the International Commission on Missing Persons (icmp), the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (wgeid), the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions (wgad) and a Syrian organisation, elected each year.

Analyzing long-term impacts of counterinsurgency tools in civil wars: A case study of enforced disappearances in Algeria

Background: The decade long civil war that struck Algeria in the 90s still has strong impacts on the Algerian society today. This article aims at describing how mass human rights violations committed by state actors have repercussions on far more than just the direct victims, which complicates post-war recovery and should be considered during the elaboration of any transitional justice process. Method: Interviews conducted among mothers, brothers and wives of individuals that were taken by state actors and have disappeared since then were analyzed to understand the impact enforced disappearances can have on more than the direct victims. Results: The study of the Algerian experience with enforced disappearances shows that the victimizations that result from enforced disappearances are multi-level and long-term. Discussion: Any post-conflict rehabilitation process that comes after such mass inhuman treatments that aspires to be complete and truly contribute to social well-being needs to also take into consideration secondary level victims, which represent family members of the direct victims, as well as third level victims, which represent the societal and collective memory impacts that result from the use of human rights violation mechanisms by state actors.

Automated Facial Recognition in Law Enforcement: The Queen (On Application of Edward Bridges) v The Chief Constable of South Wales Police

The use of automated facial recognition in law enforcement is still a novel practice and as a result the legislative framework for this technology is ill-defined. The judgement of The Queen (on application of Edward Bridges) v The Chief Constable of South Wales Police [2020] EWCA Civ 1058 is the first case in the world that examines pertinent legal questions pertaining to this new technology. Automatic facial recognition may be used in law enforcement, but to prevent massive human rights violations, operators should perform their duties within a well-defined legal framework where discretion is kept to the minimum, and strict data-retention policies are followed. Furthermore, human oversight should always be part of an automated facial recognition system to ensure accuracy, fairness, and compliance with the law.

The Rights of Indigenous People in Oil Producing Communities: A Case Study of the Niger-Delta People of Nigeria

The notion that human rights are to be enjoyed on individual basis no longer holds sway in both international, regional and domestic laws. Human rights jurisprudence has evolved to recognize the existence of rights to be enjoyed by a group of people. This recognition is indeed necessary noting the massive human rights violation of ethnic and national groups in various climes and neglect of these groups in the scheme of development. A result of the aforementioned is the growing advocacy for what is termed Rights of Indigenous People. Globally, human rights advocates, observers and even groups identifying as indigenous people have embraced the task of carving out these rights within an existent human rights framework and seeking the special recognition of these rights in novel legal instruments. However, this growing advocacy has not successfully resolved the agitations of the indigenous Niger Delta people in Nigeria, who are plagued by abject poverty and environmental hazards despite being the Nigerian resource hub. The re-echoing question has been whether the Niger Delta people can be considered as indigenous people, thus entitling them to benefit from the rights enjoyable by such a group. This paper advocate for the recognition of the Niger Delta people as indigenous people, drawing inspiration from international law and Canadian jurisprudence.

Title: Comparative Study of Ethiopian Election 2020 Postponement due to COVID-19 with Wisconsin Election in USA

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the socio-economic, health, and political process across the globe. Millions of dead, life disrupted, economic crises, and the democratic system were affected. The World Health Organization (WHO) report shows about 140 million new cases, 3 million death reports, and 80 million recovered. COVID-19 pandemic has also caused challenges to political activity in many countries. The conflict between the right to vote and public health, the globalization process, uncertainties in the people’s democratic rights such as the right to movement, right to vote, the election process, and the whole democratic processes have been disrupted in many countries. Its vaccine was only developed recently. The undemocratic practices have been exposed during the pandemic. The authoritarian regimes caused a severe violation of human rights, marginalization of minority rights, suspending of various social activities. The study shows about half of the elections scheduled for 2020 were suspended. States with fewer resources, technologically less equipped, and with no alternative voting systems were affected most during the pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic has also created a favorable condition for authoritarian regimes where they extend their term in offices by using the health and safety of the public as a pretext. The challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic have affected both democratic, undemocratic, and underdeveloped countries similarly, but with different ranges. It has also been a challenge to the democratization process in many countries. This is tough especially for countries that took them decades to change their political landscape. The negative impacts of COVID-19 and why the ruling party was interested primarily and has pushed for election postponement, why it was unanimously opposed by the ruling parties, human rights activists, and human rights institutions will be analyzed. The statutory provisions regarding the election and how the ruling party had interpreted them on the pretext of public health and the human rights crisis followed and the take by both federal and regional state are also detailed. The paper also analyzes the Wisconsin vote extension process, legal challenges encountered are spelled out. The paper mainly focuses to reflect on how the democratic election process has been tested in Wisconsin and the efforts made to overcome those challenges. I also explored how the election was illegitimately postponed and the legal and political challenges that followed it, in Ethiopia. The current massive human rights violation and the civil war as the outcome of election-related disputes in Ethiopia. The leadership failures and the mistake made was exposed. The paper also contains a comparison of how the state agencies managed to restore the democratic election process in the USA and the hurdles caused by the political party. Some of the recommendations and critical arguments are also forwarded. Thus, legislators should be aware of an unprecedented incident like COVID-19 and provide remedies to easily overcome the challenge. I will discuss the major pitfalls focusing on whether the election 2020 was postponed based on constitutional term limit or not, whether the COVID-19 was a real threat or used as political means, what would have been a better option when the constitution is silent, and the procedure followed by parliament in postponing the election and why other opposition political parties criticized the election postponement. Finally, I would compare the problems related to COVID-19 in extending legally provided mandates and decisions thereafter. Lastly, I will forward the best alternative recommendation regarding the Ethiopian election 2020.

Liberal international criminal law and legal memory: deconstructing the production of witness memories at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda

International criminal tribunals and courts, such as the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), are commonly understood within legal transitional justice scholarship as the primary response to mass human rights violations, not only in addressing impunity, but also in uncovering the truth of what happened and why. This conceptually orientated article aims to deconstruct legal witnessing and memory production at the ICTR in order to critique claims in legal scholarship that international criminal institutions are able to produce a collective memory of mass rights violations. Specifically, the article proposes an original conceptual framework using insights from critical theory, Giorgio Agamben (witness) and Paul Ricoeur (memory), which it is argued extends our understanding of the scope, and limitations, of liberal Western criminal institutions� (in)ability to make sense of past atrocities.

LEGALIZAÇÃO DE DROGAS

Esse artigo propõe um debate sobre os direitos humanos ao compreender o processo de legalização e regulamentação das drogas como uma atitude socialmente responsável dentro de uma necessidade histórico-estrutural de remodelar os processos de entendimento sobre as relações com as drogas, vinculadas diretamente à pobreza, à negritude e à violência. Objetiva ampliar o crescente debate sobre questões antiproibicionistas e compreender o processo de descriminalização dos sujeitos via política antiproibicionista. Trata-se de um excerto de estudo descritivo e qualitativo, com abordagem analítica, à luz da Análise Crítica do Discurso (ACD) direcionada ao proibicionismo de drogas na América Latina. Urge, nessa perspectiva, além de legalizar e regulamentar as drogas consideradas ilegais, que se constitua uma campanha massiva de educação de direitos humanos em diversas esferas sobre as drogas, bem como mudanças na formação educacional dos agentes policiais, estimulando abordagens equalitárias de pessoas, independente do status social, etnia ou condição de moradia. Observou-se que a política antidrogas não tem a droga como seu principal interesse de combate, e sim as populações pobres e não-brancas. Deste modo, a luta contra o preconceito social e racial são essenciais no processo de reconstrução e recodificação da nossa história, nossas culturas e nossas cosmovisões.

EXPERIENCE OF BALKAN COUNTRIES ON TERRITORY INTEGRATION

The article analyzes the experience of the Balkan countries in de-occupation and reintegration of territories. Cases of conflicts in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Macedonia (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia in 1993–2019, North Macedonia since 2019) are being studied. The analysis is based on a study of all stages of conflict resolution.
 The article examines the sequence of key aspects of the settlement. Consideration of all stages of armed conflicts in the Balkan region has shown that international peace-keeping missions, with military and civilian components, play a significant role. The participation of various international organizations (UN, NATO, EU) and countries (USA) and in resolving those conflicts and further integration also had a decisive influence.
 The reintegration processes in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia were based on peace agreements, as well as the full restoration of border and territory controlling. The next stage was to ensure demilitarization and disarmament. The fully fledged process of integration also included law enforcement reform, election preparation and conduct. The issues of post-war justice, punishment for war crimes and mass human rights violations were among the top priorities. In the implementation of all these reintegration measures, international organizations were involved, which actively provided assistance and performed a monitoring function.
 Among the necessary conditions for de-occupation and peaceful reintegration are the following: consolidation and consistency of the positions of the political and military leadership, the presence of a powerful army, implementation of sanctions, economic and military-political pressure on the aggressor side, demilitarization and control of the territory, justice and amnesty with fixed frameworks.
 The prospect of further research is that valuable experience with conflict resolution settlement and reintegration contains effective mechanisms that can be adapted in the case of Ukraine.