Additional Material
PILPG DOCUMENTING ATROCITY CRIMES COMMITTED AGAINST THE ROHINGYA IN MYANMAR'S RAKHINE STATE
In March and April 2018, the Public International Law & Policy Group (PILPG), undertook an as yet unprecedented large-scale and comprehensive human rights documentation investigation mission in the refugee camps and settlement areas in Eastern Bangladesh.
PILPG drafted The Factual Findings and Legal Analysis Report to analyze whether, based on the documentation collected during the investigation mission, there are reasonable grounds to believe that crimes against humanity, genocide, and war crimes have been committed against the Rohingya in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine State.
Click here to read the Report, Factual Findings & Legal Analysis Report.
BURMA: TALKING FOREIGN POLICY: RESPONDING TO THE GENOCIDE OF THE ROHINGYA PEOPLE IN BURMA
On the Oct.1, 2019 broadcast of "Talking Foreign Policy," Dean Scharf discusses the international response to the Rohingya genocide in Burma with five panelists, who are experts on peace negotiations, national security, human rights and war crimes. The experts include Ambassador Todd Buchwald, former Ambassador at Large for War Crimes, Dr. Paul Williams, President of the Public International Law & Policy Group Professor, Milena Sterio, Cleveland Marshall Law School; Fellow, Woodrow Wilson Center Professor Rebecca Hamilton, American University Washington College of Law Jennifer Domino, Satter Human Rights Fellow, Harvard Law School
THE CHAUTAUQUA BLUEPRINT FOR A STATUTE FOR A SYRIAN EXTRAORDINARY TRIBUNAL TO PROSECUTE ATROCITY CRIMES
This blueprint was prepared by a group of international experts as a starting point to help inform continuing discussions on an accountability mechanism that is fair and effective under the distinct circumstances of Syria. It reflects insights gained from a series of meetings and workshops over the past two years led by the Public International Law & Policy Group, including several meetings organized by the Syrian Justice and Accountability Centre, which brought together Syrian lawyers, jurists, and civil society leaders with international experts to discuss transitional justice in Syria. It also reflects comments received from a drafting committee whose members include several former international tribunal chief prosecutors, international tribunal judges, and leading practitioners and academic experts in the field of international criminal law.
CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW 2019 KLATSKY LECTURE: “LAWYERING PEACE: INFUSING HUMAN RIGHTS INTO THE PEACE PROCESS”
Dr. Paul R. Williams gave the Bruce J. Klatsky Endowed Lecture on Human Rights and received the 2019 Cox International Law Center's Humanitarian Award for Advancing Global Justice at Case Western Reserve University School of Law. Dr. Williams spoke about the arc of accountability in peace processes, starting from the era of impunity, to the time of tribunals, and up to the potential denouement we are now experiencing.
SEQUENCING PEACE AND JUSTICE IN SYRIA
In this article, PILPG Board Member and Cleveland-Marshall College of Law Professor of Law, Milena Sterio examines the tension between the dual goals of peace and justice in both a theoretical manner, as well as in the Syrian context. The article analyzes existing accountability models in the international community and how these may be applicable in the Syrian situation, with specific focus on the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism to Assist in the Investigation and Prosecution of Persons Responsible for the Most Serious Crimes Under International Law Committed in the Syrian Arab Republic since March 2011.
“JUSTICE AND ANTI-JUSTICE” AND “PEACE VERSUS JUSTICE”
These two chapters are excerpted from the book Peace with Justice?: War Crimes and Accountability in the Former Yugoslavia by Paul Williams and Michael Scharf. In this excerpt, the authors provide a definition of justice and discusses the role of justice in the peace process. The authors also describe the debate over peace versus justice in the context of the Yugoslav conflict.
THE PEACE VS. JUSTICE PUZZLE AND THE SYRIAN CRISIS
Peace negotiators often face the difficult decision of whether to pursue peace at the potential cost of achieving justice, or to pursue justice at the potential cost of achieving near term peace. There are abiding ethical and moral debates surrounding this tension between peace and justice. In Syria—where the death toll has exceeded 470,000, 11 million have been displaced, and there are over 14,000 documented cases of torture to the point of death—the peace versus justice debate is a living dilemma with which negotiators are currently grappling. This article strives to examine a timely facet of this multidimensional puzzle: how to successfully accommodate the desire for justice by artfully weaving tenets of accountability into a peace process, without undermining a peace process.
Click here to read the article, The Peace vs. Justice Puzzle and the Syrian Crisis.
Committing to Justice for Serious human rights violations: lessons from hybrid tribunals
This report, prepared by Elena Naughton, a program expert for the International Center for Transitional Justice, aims to help practitioners in the transitional justice field to understand the experience of establishing and operating hybrid courts and to address some common assumptions about these entities. To do so, it looks at hybrid or mixed courts in practice, drawing on experiences in five different contexts.
This comprehensive report engages in a systematic analysis of: (1) the set-up phase of hybrid tribunals, in terms of the initial tasks to be accomplished and time-periods required; (2) the importance of a well-defined prosecutorial strategy for case selection, and the criteria that have been utilized for case prioritization; (3) the organizational structure of the various hybrid tribunals and challenges for ensuring rigor in selecting staff; (4) the resources and commitment required for designing and implementing effective victim and witness protection and support, and (5) the importance of ensuring that hybrid tribunals have sufficient financial resources to complete their mandates.
Click here to read the report, Committing to Justice for Serious Human Rights Violations; Lessons from Hybrid Tribunals.