The Ideals of International Justice - Assignment Example

International Law Is International Justice Effective? An Assessment of International Justice Today: The ICC Introduction The ideals of international justice is to ensure a fair and just system that promotes full perpetration of individuals, states or organizations that commit extrajudicial offences and serious cases of human rights violation. Cases of war crimes and genocides are among those addressed by international justice system. That informed the idea of creating international court systems to regulate states, individuals, and organizations. Based on recent developments in most case handled under international justice systems, critics argue that international justice is ineffective and serves less than what were ideally its founding principles. A case in point is the International Criminal Court (ICC) that, as Jones argue, has in most instances failed to deliver justice to victims of genocide, atrocities, war crimes, and serious cases of human rights violations (Jones 1). The ICC, formed in 2002, is a watchdog against the violation of human rights, because the United Nations (UN) founded it to punish crimes against humanity (Balasco 48). Because it is an international body, the court should serve the whole world without fear or biased approaches to delivering verdicts. The paper presents an argument suggesting the flaws in the judicial system at ICC that seems to derail justice to victims. Through the argument, the paper justifies whether victims get justice in the process or not. It presents recommendations on the most appropriate strategies that are viable to promote effectiveness of the ICC. In justification, the paper reflects on some of the events in the history of the court to establish whether victims of genocide, atrocities, war crimes, and serious cases of human rights violations had justice. Ineffectiveness in International Justice Case of Rwanda Genocide During spring in 1994, there was genocide in Rwanda that led to the killing of nearly 10 percent of its population. The outbreak of the genocide relates to the ethnic clashes with established roots in the existence of a tension-filled political arena. At the time, there was tension following the disappearance of the Rwandese president of the Hutu community. The events that followed led to the mass killings that lasted about six months. The killings did not happen incidentally but were results of well draw plans to eliminate one community in the country. The six months led to other crimes against humanity similar to the events of 1993 in Europe in the reign of the former Yugoslavian rule (Barnett 1). The events in Rwanda prompted the UN to form a tribunal that would seek justice for the people affected by the Rwandese genocide. Such an event was not the first one to happen in the history of the United Nations. The events in Europe relating to crimes committed against humanity. The United Nations only felt obliged to be a part of the sympathizers of the Rwandese case, though the previous tribunal for the European victims was still in progress. There was a need that the world had a system in place that would ensure the crimes against humanity would not happen, which is why improvements on the tribunals arose the idea of forming the international criminal court. It is not to mean that the case of Rwanda led directly to the establishment of the ICC, but rather, gave the need for a permanent solution to the problem of crimes against humanity. Based on mentality, it is evident that the court is a tool for justice to the victims whose home governments cannot give the truth. Justice may be gradual, but the way the court handles the cases leaves a few questions unanswered (CICC 9). According to Phooko, delayed justice for the victims is among the greatest downfalls of the ICC. The victims of the mass killings will not feel that justice exists if justice is yet to be delivered 20 years down the line. The Rwandese case, as mentioned earlier, resulted in the loss of nearly 10 percent of the population of the country, which called for an almost immediate reaction from the international body. It is debated that there existed initial efforts to ensure fairness to the affected persons of the genocide by establishment of the tribunal at the time of the genocide for the Rwandese citizens (Heller and Gerry 43). However, there was no immediate outcome for trials; instead, the tribunal channeled much effort into investigations. Such a happening may look reasonable for legal procedures especially if we all acknowledge the fact that trials do not mean direct conviction. The validity of verdicts delivered by the judges bases proof on the quality of investigation, which is why investigators need more time to time to investigate. Kersten argues that there have been attempts to bring justice especially by quoting the most recent of the rulings by the court (Kersten 1). The court has convicted former Liberian head of state, Charles Taylor and another African, Thomas Lubanga from Uganda. These are valid examples for those who argue in the favor of the court, but not before because the court is developing a biased approach (Hoven et al. 21). The most recent proceedings have focused on bringing to book African perpetrators, which may expose another weakness in the corridors of justice. The G5 meetings to deliberate and direct the actions of the court on African cases are an expression of the dividedness of the world in relation to justice by the tribunal. While the court has foundations on the Rome statute, there is an outcry from the African continent of the insensitivity of the G5 to racial discrimination. China and the US are not a part of the Rome Statute but have positions in determining the membership feuds. It is an injustice in itself to victimize the Africans alone while there are other places in the world marred by warring activities, with the recent European and Asian clashes. The wars in Syria, Russia, and the historic Israeli and Palestinian conflicts have not attracted any prosecution claims from the G5 or the ICC prosecutors. Such happenings point directly at the undermining of supremacy of the African nations. The last five of the proceedings at The Hague have either tried Africans or planned to arrest Africans, which is the reason for their lack of cooperation for testifying before the jury. At this point, it is worthwhile mentioning that the court indirectly hinders justice to victims by its seemingly biased stand on delivering verdicts. Based on the insights from the case studies, the ICC does not render justice to the victims. It has a bureaucratic system of prosecution. Justice is not one-sided, which is the reason for the need that the ICC considers trying the globe for committing criminal acts against humanity. How to Improve the ICC and Enhance Justice Even though according to the structure of the ICC court tribunals, there is revelation that no any impunity would be tolerated, but still these courts is suffer from the syndrome of criticism and ineffective. The tribunal must be re- structured to stop the fallacy of created after the tragedies like the genocide or the violation of law, rather than being during the violation to avoid more complaints. There should be reforms in the victimization of many that mostly the court concentrates in African continent and mostly the head of rebels in different African nations. The court should be suggestively equal in handling the cases of all nations within the Rome statue. Much support for the politically powerful countries in the United Nations to legitimize the effectiveness of the International criminal court ICC (Berger and Michael 7). This consideration would perform the analysis and effectiveness of ICC in its statutes to stop and prevent future violations of international law. Laucci proposes mutual understanding between the west and other parts of the world on how the Rome Statutes be implemented and prevent impunity (Laucci 27). The ideologies are mainly emanating from the western economic giants like the US, which makes it very tough for non-allies to comply with creating a vacuum. The investigative system used by the ICC needs to be reviewed in order to improve the work force so that the delays in investigations can be avoided for efficient verdicts. When ICC was established, there was a notion that it would be independent and separate from the UN but it was letter discovered that this would create tyranny between countries with significant political powerful nations and the less powerful. Therefore, there should be massive back up by the UN so that the political powerful countries do not dictate and manipulate all the ICC judicial proceedings of the courts. The mission statement by the ICC is not satisfied because of the influence it faces from the international law. Therefore, the law should be not mandatory to give court the free will of judgment. There should be cohesion between the signatories and non-signatories arching power of sovereignty. The basic roles of a criminal justice system are to pursue justice for the offender to prevent them from escalating more atrocities. The consistency of the leadership within the ICC judicial circle can corrected to monitor the dereliction of duty because of job monotony. There should be a good track of witnesses to different cases, which means that strong investigations is done before the cases are registered before the court to strengthen the proceedings. Works Cited Balasco, Lauren Marie. "The International Criminal Court as a Human Security Agent." PRAXIS The Fletcher Journal of Human Security, (2013): 46-67. Barnett, Laura. Legal and Legislative Affairs Division: The International Criminal Court: History and Role. Parliament of Canada: Library of Parliament Research Publications. November 4, 2008. Web. December 15, 2014. Accessed from, http://www.parl.gc.ca/content/lop/researchpublications/prb0211-e.htm Berger, Bernhard and Michael, Schneider. Inside the Black Box: How Arbitral Tribunals Operate and Reach Their Decisions. Huntington, NY: Juris, 2013. Print. Heller, Kevin and Gerry, Simpson. The Hidden Histories of War Crimes Trials. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014. Print. Hoven, Elisa., Mareike, Feiler., Saskia, Scheibel and Claus Kreß. Victims in Trials of Mass Crimes: A Multi-Perspective Study of Civil Party Participation at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. Norderstedt: Books on Demand, 2013. Print. Independent Oversight Mechanism Team Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC), Comments and Recommendations to the Eight Session of the Assembly of States Parties, The Hague (Nov. 18–26, 2009). Web. December 15, 2014. Accessed from, http://www.iccnow.org/documents/asp12_report.pdf Jones, Kyle. The Many Troubles of the ICC. The National Interest. December 6, 2012. Web. December 15, 2014. Accessed from, http://nationalinterest.org/commentary/the-many-troubles-the-icc-7822 Kersten, Mark. The ICC: What Counts as a Success? Justice in Conflict. September 13, 2013. Web. December 15, 2014. Accessed from, http://justiceinconflict.org/2013/09/13/the-icc-what-counts-as-a-success/ Laucci, Cyril. The Annotated Digest of the International Criminal Court: 2009. Leiden: BRILL, 2014. Print. Phooko, Retselisitsoe. "How Effective the International Criminal Court Has Been: Evaluating the Work and Progress of the International Criminal Court." Notre Dame Journal of International Comparative & Human Rights Law 1 (2011): 182-209. Read More