Weighing the Evidence
Team: Julie Wilkinson, Sri Peddu, Nina Arron
Semester: Fall 2006
Human Rights Watch -International Justice Program
Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic died in prison last March without receiving a verdict on crimes allegedly committed in the 1991-98 Yugoslavia wars. His death also spurred criticism of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) that the tribunals are too costly in money, time and resources, without ultimately producing substantial results.
Human Rights Watch disagrees with that view, and seeks to produce a document that not only shows why such exercises are necessary and valuable, but alsodraws some "lessons learned" about trials of this scale for current war crimes prosecutions (including Saddam Hussein, Charles Taylor) and future ones.
Under HRW's International Justice Program Senior Counsel Sara Darehshori, New School student-consultants will be asked to research and analyzeinformation surrounding these issues. For now, the document is foreseen as twosections:
A) Human Rights Watch believes that even the act of indicting a head of statecan have important consequences for the politics of that country by marginalizing the leader internationally. The question here how Milosevic's indictment and subsequent arrest and prosecution impacted the politics and power structure of the region and what influence it had, if any, on popular opinion.
B) The Milosevic trial was the first case at the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia that brought forth evidence covering the conflicts in all threeterritories: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Kosovo. One of the important benefits of the trial is that evidence was introduced showing common patterns of attack in all three territories. Students would examine evidence from the trial looking for participation by the same Serb militia in different areas and common attack patterns.
Consultants will do background research, primary interviews and ICTY trial transcript analysis.
This project is appropriate for those interested in working on international human rights and advancing the cause of international justice.
Core Documents
Terms of Reference
Timeline
Final Presentation
Additional Documents
2006 Fall - Human Rights Watch - Weighing the Evidence.pdf
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