What is the role of international justice in genocide prevention?
Over 60 years ago with the Nuremberg Trials, for the first time, those who committed crimes against humanity were held accountable before the international community. It took almost half a decade, with the establishment of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), before genocide came to be prosecuted again at the international level. The International Criminal Court (ICC) was created in 1994 as a permanent court with jurisdiction over genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
One of history’s lessons that has yet to sink in is that unpunished crimes can provide a precedent for later crimes. In 1939, addressing a group of Nazi leaders and Wehrmacht generals, Hitler is reported to have said:
Who, after all, speaks today about the annihilation of the Armenians?
Speaking of the Armenian genocide at the start of the Holocaust, Hitler seems to confirm the adage that ‘those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it’. If the international community is silent in the face of genocide, then this silence conveys indifference to both the crime and its perpetrators. The enforcement of international justice is a strong means of voicing a reaction. Its role is vital to the prevention of genocide as well as the punishment of its perpetrators.
Prevention and punishment are tied together by the notion deterrence. When mass atrocities have been or are being committed, one of the most important tools the international community has to try and stop them is the threat that the individuals responsible will be prosecuted and punished for what they have done.
Through bringing the perpetrators to justice, their crimes are delegitimised and they are rendered unable to commit such crimes again. This is a mark of respect for the victims as well as respect for international law. An important part of remembrance is ongoing justice for the victims of past crimes.
The enforcement of international justice also helps to direct global attention to international horrors. Prosecutions can help raise awareness and focus the attention of the international community, which in turn provides an important base of regional and international support for peace processes.
Aegis Students works towards justice for the victims of genocide and mass atrocities, including, but not limited to, supporting the role of the ICC. We are dedicated to supporting ongoing efforts to raise awareness about the importance of international justice and to supporting the Darfur Union UK and the Aegis Trust’s campaigning efforts on this issue. In particular, Aegis Students supports the Aegis Trust’s Wanted for War Crimes campaign (link). Aegis Students sees ongoing justice as a vital feature of genocide prevention.
We need to eliminate from this earth the impunity with which the genocidaires were able to act, and re-emphasise the principle of justice for all, so that no one for even a moment will make the ethical and moral mistake of ranking some humans as more human than others, a mistake that the international community endorsed by its indifference in 1994.
Senator Romeo Daillaire, Force Commander UNAMIR, Rwanda 1993-4
Further resources:
• Justice and Accountability (Aegis Trust Campaign): http://www.aegistrust.org/Darfur/justice-and-accountability.html
• The Enforcement of International Criminal Law (Aegis Trust): http://www.aegistrust.org/images/reports_briefings_2009/Enforcement_of_International_Criminal_Law.pdf
