Tag Archives: International Crimes

Event: Strengthening National Justice for Core International Crimes

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Date: 28 June 2016, from 10:00 to 18:00

Venue: Het Spaansche Hof, Westeinde 12, 2512 HD The Hague, Netherland

The Case Matrix Network is organising a conference on “Strengthening National Justice for Core International Crimes: Laws, Procedures and Practices in an Age of Legal Pluralism”. This conference will analyse some of the challenges faced by national and international criminal justice actors, who are working at different stages of accountability processes, as well as the measures being taken to address them.

For further information and to register, you can visit the conference webpage.

Event: Sentencing, Rehabilitation and Perpetrators of International Crimes

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CICJHosted by the Center for International Criminal Justice, VU University Amsterdam

Date: 30 November 2015

Venue: VU University Amsterdam, in Agora 2 (3rd floor Main Building).

Over the past decades, international criminal tribunals and courts have convicted over 150 perpetrators of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. International convicts serve their sentences in numerous countries all over the world, from Mali to Sweden, from Benin to Estonia.

Whereas international criminal tribunals aim to rehabilitate perpetrators of international crimes and cite rehabilitation in their case-law as one of the sentencing goals and a criterion for early release, recent publications indicate that this ulterior aspiration in reality seems to be devoid of a clear conceptualization, thought through objectives and consistent implementation. In the future the International Criminal Court as well as domestic jurisdictions prosecuting perpetrators of international crimes will continue to be confronted with the question of whether, how, and to what extent, to rehabilitate perpetrators of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

This interdisciplinary seminar brings together scholars and practitioners working on issues of relevance to this intricate and underexplored issue: (i) perpetrators of international crimes; (ii) sentencing and enforcement of sentences at the international criminal courts and tribunals and at domestic courts prosecuting war criminals and finally (iii) rehabilitation interventions for “conventional” offender. The first seminar of its kind, it explores the rationale to rehabilitate these individuals, evaluates past and present practices and searches avenues for improvement.

  • The programme of the seminar can be found here
  • Attendance is free
  • The number of participants is limited
  • Register before 20 November by filling out this registration form

Event: Hidden Genocides - Summer Course

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Date: 12 - 31 July 2015

Venue: Graduate School of Social Sciences, University of Amsterdam

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The Twentieth Century was considered, by many scholars who study political violence, “the century of genocide” with the Holocaust as the epitome of industrial and mechanical violence. Yet there were many genocides before and after that.

The question rises “what is genocide”? How does it differ from other forms of collective violence? What triggers genocide? Why are the acts during genocide so gruesome? What is the cultural of genocide? What are the consequences of its legal definition? Why do people perpetuate genocide?

These and more questions will be answered during this course. We will thereby not only look at familiar cases of genocide, like the Holocaust, Rwanda and Srebenica, but also “hidden” and unknown genocides and the mass atrocities happening right now in South Sudan, Central Africa and Syria/ North Iraq. This course will give you an analytical model to understand and study genocide and measure proper interventions. Continue reading →

Ex-President of Chad to Stand Trial for International Crimes

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Hissène Habré

Senegalese authorities have ruled on Friday 13 February that Hissène Habré, a former President of Chad, will stand trial to face charges of crimes against humanity, war crimes and torture.

The Extraordinary African Chambers, an internationally backed court, was set up by Senegal and the African Union in February 2013 to prosecute “the person or persons most responsible” for international crimes committed in Chad during Habré’s eight-year rule.

After a 19-month investigation, a four-judge panel revealed that there was sufficient evidence that serious breaches of international law were committed during Habré’s presidency, which lasted from 1982 to 1990.

According to a 1992 Chadian Truth Commission, Habré’s government was responsible for conducting 40,000 political murders and systematically torturing more than 20,000. The government periodically targeted various ethnic groups such as the Hadjerai and the Zaghawa, killing and arresting group members en masse when it was perceived that their leaders posed a threat to Habré’s rule. Continue reading →