Summary
International Law in a Time of Change - Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law - Discussion
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Extract
Getting to closure: winding up the international and hybrid criminal tribunals.
This panel was convened at 9:00 a.m., Thursday, March 25 by its moderator, Valerie Oosterveld, of the University of Western Ontario, who introduced the panelists: Huw Llewellyn, of the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs; Anne Joyce, of the U.S. Department of State; Giorgia Tortora, of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon; and Kelly Askin, of the Open Society Justice Initiative. *
* Kelly Askin did not submit remarks for the Proceedings. INTERNATIONAL LAW AND THE CLOSURE OF THE INTERNATIONAL AND HYBRID CRIMINAL TRIBUNALS The Special Court for Sierra Leone is the first time-limited international or hybrid criminal tribunal slated to close. It will do so soon after the conclusion of any appeal in its final ongoing case, that of the former President of Liberia, Charles Taylor. (1) The International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda (ICTY and ICTR respectively) will also close not long after that--the latest estimates point to the closure of the ICTY and ICTR in 2014. (2) It was originally estimated that the proceedings at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon would take approximately three years, putting their potential closure dates at 2012, but these dates are likely to be extended. (3) The closure of these international and hybrid criminal tribunals raises a number of legal and practical issues, such as who or what mechanism will conduct trials of outstanding fugitives who may be arrested; provide oversight with respect to proceedings that have been referred to national authorities; monitor and review the sentences of convicted persons; enforce and revise judicially ordered protective measures for victims and witnesses; and secure, maintain, and provide controlled access to court records and archives. The legacy and judicial integrity of the time-limited international and hybrid criminal tribunals depend on these residual functions being addressed effectively. Failure to do so could have drastic consequences; for example, witnesses might be killed if adequate protection regimes are not in place following the closure of t...See the full content of this document
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