Centre for International Criminal Justice and Humanitarian Law

Interested in a three week summer school in international criminal justice in beautiful Melbourne, Australia? I am hosting and teaching, with a number of other international criminal law practitioners, a summer school providing a thorough grounding in international crimes and their prosecution between 3-22 January 2017. The summer school is hosted by the University of Melbourne's Asian Law Centre. Personal message the Centre for more information!

A landmark decision from Cambodia yesterday: the first verdict against the surviving leadership of the Khmer Rouge regime. This case, which focussed principally on the forced evacuations of towns and cities between 17 April 1975 and December 1997 and associated massacres, resulted in multiple convictions for crimes against humanity. Later phases of this extraordinarily large indictment will commence later in the year and will adjudicate, amongst other things, genocide allegations (against the Vietnamese and Cham muslim minority) and killings at many work sites: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-28670568

Top Khmer Rouge leaders guilty Cambodia's UN-backed tribunal convicts two top Khmer Rouge leaders of crimes against humanity and jails them for life.

India, the world's most populous democracy and home to extraordinary religious and ethnic diversity, is in many respects a model of successful co-existence. Its emergence as an independent nation was, however, marred by the communal violence of partition and since then, numerous other instances of inter-communal violence has resulted in numerous deaths and massive displacements of civilian populations. Despite this, India and its immediate neighbourhood has not attracted significant scholarly attention from researchers and practitioners of transitional justice.

The CICJIL seeks first to comprehensively map various atrocity crimes committed in India and the region since partition and independence. Later, it will select a number of incidents that appear to offer the most favourable conditions for redress and assist local policy-makers and human rights defenders in identifying tailored responses that may deliver a modicum of justice to its victims, assist to reconcile divided communities and contribute to the strengthening of the rule of law in India and the region.

"In its original formulation, the ECCC's ambitious scheme of victim participation granted individual party status to all victims admitted to participate in proceedings, enabling them to receive all documents in the trial, to summon witnesses, to be heard in court, and to seek reparations against the Accused. Experience of the ECCC’s first trial forced a radical retrenchment of this scheme in the interests of safeguarding the Trial Chamber’s ability to render any timely verdict in its second, core case. While these reforms successfully neutralized the trial management impact of victim participation over the course of Case 002, critical questions remain as to the overall impact of these measures on a tribunal already overburdened with insuperable trial management and financial challenges, and their efficacy in meeting the core objectives of the victims of Khmer Rouge era crimes themselves" (CICJHL, 25 October 2013).

Do you think victims should participate directly in trials of mass crimes? What are the arguments for and against? Join today's discussion on victim participation before the ECCC by Susan Lamb (T1 conference room, midday).

A minor change to the CIJHL term-card due to speaker availability: this week's presentation will take place on Friday 25 October 2013 (T1 conference room, midday) and is a discussion on victim participation before the ECCC by Susan Lamb.

Wayne Jordash and Scott Martin's presentation on the responsibility of business for human rights violations will now take place on Thursday 21 November 2013.

"An international justice response in Cambodia was necessary in light of the overwhelming victimization of the Khmer Rouge period. Without it, no official assessment of the culpability of the Khmer Rouge leadership for the deaths of almost 2 million people would likely have occurred. The unacceptability of impunity for crimes of this magnitude drove UN involvement in Cambodia from the beginning, and made withdrawal from the court psychologically and practically untenable once the ECCC had become operational and particularly as Case 002 - its core case against the surviving leadership - gained momentum and neared its conclusion. A case of this size and complexity would have sorely tested any legal system. It is therefore unsurprising that the Cambodian judiciary - severely weakened by the impact of KR-era atrocities and still afflicted by serious systemic weaknesses - struggled with its demands. The conduct of these proceedings confronted insuperable challenges, due mainly to the advanced age and increasing physical frailty of all 4 Accused and significant financial constraints. Despite this, the hearing of evidence before the Trial Chamber concluded after 18 months and the approximately 350 decisions rendered over the course of the trial contribute significantly to the jurisprudential output of the international criminal tribunals" (inaugural lecture of the CICJHL by Susan Lamb, entitled "An Overview of the course and conduct of Case 002 before the ECCC", held on 18 October 2013 to coincide with closing statements in this case (picture attached)).

Closing arguments in Case 002, the ECCC's core case against the surviving Khmer Rouge leadership, will commence on Wednesday 16 October 2013. Visit the Centre for International Criminal Justice and Humanitarian Law on Thursday 17 October 2013 (T1 conference room, 12 p.m.), where Susan Lamb, the former Senior Legal Officer to the ECCC Trial Chamber, will describe the course and conduct of these proceedings.

Video summary of the trial in Case 002/01 This video is a brief summary of the first trial against Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan before the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, more common...

The Centre for International Criminal Justice and Humanitarian Law will host a number of events over the coming months. Here are the first three. For more information, or to receive a full term-card of events, send a message to this page.

• Friday 17 October 2013: Susan Lamb, An overview of the course and conduct of Case 002 before the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC);
• Thursday 23 October 2013: Wayne Jordash and Scott Martin, The evolution of criminal responsibility in the international criminal tribunals and the recent shift towards the responsibility of business for human rights violations;
• Thursday 14 November 2013: Nikhil Narayanan, The Challenges of Addressing Transitional Justice in an Increasingly Sectarian and Brutal Post-Conflict Scenario in Syria.