Gender-based violence (GBV) has been used as a tool of instilling fear, hatred and persecution during conflict situations. It is a fact that GBV takes place pre-conflict situations. Moreover, conflicts and wars only accelerate the rate at which GBV is committed. In the 1990s and early 2000s, there was conflict in the Former Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Sierra Leone. These conflicts went down in history as conflicts where horrendous crimes were committed. As a result of the atrocities committed and the magnitude of victims, the international community with the assistance of the United Nations formed the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and the Special Court for Sierra Leone. These international tribunals were given the task of prosecuting the perpetrators of these crimes. Prior to the formation of these tribunals, the international community had experienced other wars whereby international tribunals were also formed to deal with the atrocities committed. However, this research only aims at comparatively analysing the ICTY, TCTR and the SCSL because these new tribunals were the first in experiencing the development of the prosecution of GBV. The former international tribunals did not effectively deal with gendered crimes therefore there was no precedent set in international law regarding the prosecutions of these crimes. The conflicts that occurred in the Former Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Sierra Leone also saw the introduction of more brutal forms of GBV. These forms of GBV that developed forced the tribunals to change the way they prosecuted gender-based crimes because the nature and the magnitude at which the crimes were committed was massive. Forms of GBV that were earlier recognised such as rape and sexual violence were now being used as a means through which the perpetrators committed war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. The comparative analysis between the ICTR, the ICTY and the SCSL also aims at showing how the different challenges and hurdles that these courts faced when prosecuting these crimes. The pitfalls that the tribunals experienced at the pre-trial phase are also investigated and critically analysed with the aim of drawing lessons about mistakes that should not be repeated in newer international tribunals. A comparative analysis will also be done on the different precedents that were set by the cases that were heard in these tribunals with the aim of showing how these tribunals have indeed contributed to the development of the prosecution of these types of crimes. Finally, recommendations will be made regarding how future international tribunals better deal with these crimes. The research paper also aims at creating awareness that these types of crimes must be treated differently and with caution because the effects that the victims suffer from last way after the conflicts and trials are over. Lessons must be carried from past prosecutions in order to correct and better improve the way in which the prosecutions are carried out and also the way in which the different victims are treated even after the prosecutions have been completed. / Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Public Law / unrestricted

"This paper deals with the prosecution of a crime of crimes, genocide, at international and national levels. The international community has shown interest in penalizing perpetrators of gross human rights violations since the Nuremberg trial, and then the adoption of the 1948 UN Genocide Convention. After these times, significant numbers of international tribunals, although at an ad hoc level, have been established to punish gross violations of human rights including the crime of genocide. Along with these tribunals, quite a number of national courts have engaged in the prosecution of genocide. Nevertheless, due to legal and practical problems, the two legal systems are adopting different approaches to handle the matter, although the crime is one and the same. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to assess critically where the difference lies, the cause and impact of the disparity on the rights of the accused to fair trial. Moreover, the study will posit some recommendations that might assist to ameliorate this intermittent situation." -- Synopsis. "This work consists of five chapters. Chapter one is addressing the general introduction of the work, and it has already been discussed. Chapter two deals with the crime of genocide and its criminal responsibility as indicated under different national and international laws. The third chapter is devoted to focus on the right to fair trial and the prosecution of genocide, and specifically addresses the issues of the right to legal assistance, speedy trial, obtain and examine evidence, and sentencing. In chapter four the role of the Rome Statue in protecting the rights of the accused, its impact on on national laws, the complementarities of the International Criminal Court and national courts will be discussed. Finally, the work will come to an end by giving concluding remarks and recommendations under the fifth chapter." -- Introduction. / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2003. / Prepared under the supervision of Dr. Henry Onoria at the Faculty of Law, Makerere University, Kampala / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/academic_pro/llm1/dissertations.html / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

Yes / During the first trial before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), that of Jean-Paul Akayesu, it became evident that many Tutsi and moderate Hutu women had been raped, that “rape was the rule and its absence was the exception”.1 Although, initially, not a single charge of sexual violence was proffered against Akayesu, presiding judge Navanethem Pillay interrupted the proceedings, allowing ICTR prosecutors to amend the indictment and include counts of rape and sexual violence. Akayesu subsequently became the first case to recognise the concept of genocidal rape. However, post-Akayesu, comparatively few defendants appearing before the ICTR have been convicted of sexual violence. An analysis of the recent case of Ndindiliyimana et al2 reveals that major shortcomings beset the investigation and prosecution procedures, so that crimes of sexual violence go unpunished, although research suggests that adequate legislation is in place at the ICTR to prosecute rape and sexual violence successfully.

<p>This paper is about the reparations regime of the International Criminal Court and reparations possibilities for victims of sexual violence. It will contain a legal analysis of the reparations system of&nbsp / the Court, including the Trust Fund for Victims of the International Criminal Court. In a second step, the needs of women who experienced conflict related violence will be examined. The central&nbsp / &nbsp / question, which this paper will try to answer, is whether the ICC reparations regime has the ability to provide gender-sensitive reparations and thus make a contribution to the improvement of&nbsp / women&rsquo / s lives in post-conflict societies.</p>

<p>This paper is about the reparations regime of the International Criminal Court and reparations possibilities for victims of sexual violence. It will contain a legal analysis of the reparations system of&nbsp / the Court, including the Trust Fund for Victims of the International Criminal Court. In a second step, the needs of women who experienced conflict related violence will be examined. The central&nbsp / &nbsp / question, which this paper will try to answer, is whether the ICC reparations regime has the ability to provide gender-sensitive reparations and thus make a contribution to the improvement of&nbsp / women&rsquo / s lives in post-conflict societies.</p>

Magister Legum - LLM / This paper is about the reparations regime of the International Criminal Court and reparations possibilities for victims of sexual violence. It will contain a legal analysis of the reparations system of the Court, including the Trust Fund for Victims of the International Criminal Court. In a second step, the needs of women who experienced conflict related violence will be examined. The central question, which this paper will try to answer, is whether the ICC reparations regime has the ability to provide gender-sensitive reparations and thus make a contribution to the improvement of women’s lives in post-conflict societies. / South Africa

Doctor Legum - LLD / It is rare in law and in other disciplines for a word or a phrase to appear to mean what it does not. This is, however, true when it comes to life imprisonment or life sentence. I Unlike sentences like the death penalty, there have been instances where even those who are expected to know the meaning of the sentence of life imprisonment have misunderstood it.2 This misunderstanding is compounded by the fact that even dictionaries that have always helped us to understand the meaning of the words are of little help when it comes to the definition of life imprisonment. The Oxford Advanced Leamer's Dictionary, for example, defines life sentence to mean 'the punishment by which [some body] spends the rest of their life in prison." It goes ahead to define a 'lifer' as 'a person who has been sent to The ambiguity of life imprisonment could partly explain why the campaign prison for their whole life. The ambiguity of life imprisonment could partly explain why the campaign to abolish the death penalty and substitute it with life imprisonment has option to choose between the death penalty and life-imprisonment, many been successful in many parts of the world. When people are given the option to choose between the death penalty and life-imprisonment, many would oppose the former and favour the latter for various reasons. This is because, inter alia, many people think that an offender sentenced to life imprisonment will be detained for the rest of his natural life. This is of course not true in some cases, and, as Lord Mustil held, The two tribunals that were established after the World War III, the Nuremberg Tribunal and the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, the Tokyo Tribunal, were empowered to impose the death penalty and indeed, as will be discussed later in detail, some offenders were sentenced to death." Although these tribunals were not expressly empowered to 2 sentence offenders to life imprisonment, they did sentence some of the offenders to life imprisonment. However, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and the International Criminal Court (ICC) all have jurisdiction to sentence offenders to life imprisonment. At the time of writing, the ICC had not completed any case and therefore had no jurisprudence on life imprisonment." The ICTR has sentenced more offenders to life imprisonment and imprisonment for the remainder of their lives than the ICTY. This thesis reviews cases on life imprisonment in international criminal tribunals in order to examine the theories of punishment that these tribunals considered in sentencing offenders to life imprisonment. There are cases where the ICTR has sentenced offenders to imprisonment for the rest of their natural lives. From a human rights perspective the thesis argues that imprisonment for the remainder of the offender's natural life is inhuman punishment. The statutes of the ICTY, ICTR and ICC provide for circumstances where an offender sentenced by any of those tribunals could be released before the completion of his or her sentence. It is on that basis that it is argued that even offenders sentenced to 3 imprisonment for the remainder of their lives by the ICTR could be released.

In here, the criminalization of sexual violence is a manifestation of increased recognition of feminism, and proof of international law reaching at liberal criteria for legitimization. Though, in making conclusions other necessary criteria for fully recognized legitimacy are acknowledged (such as other types of rights, types of security and other levels for analysis). Though, from a strict feminist critical approach the criminalization of sexual violence, and the extent of such criminalization can by itself prove legitimacy or illegitimacy.The criminalizing of sexual violence took place over 100 years ago, yet the systematic use of it in warfare was not publicly condemned until the ICTR (International Criminal Tribunal of Rwanda) and the ICTY (International Criminal Tribunal of former Yugoslavia) (Buss, 2009, p. 356) took on the duty to prosecute and convict. Still today women’s security and sexual violence are research fields that awake a lot of hostile emotions.Findings show that there is few, if any, affects for those tribunals that fail to bring justice to rape victims; calling for an analysis of Walzer’s political fit. The international praxis of impunity supports feminism in an existing ‘male truth’ risking the security of women. The legitimacy of the institution of international law is, however, not dependent on one legal procedure.Liberalist and feminist different interpretations of adequate necessity to create peace frame after 15 224 words a utilitarian illusion which slows down the pace of the implementation of a feminist security agenda. However, the progress is still evidence of strife towards the Kantian society of states. An inconsistent moral consensus finally results in the conclusion that this thesis cannot confirm the institution of international law illegitimate, arguably validating legitimacy.

Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited / Initially, many Rwandans placed their hopes in the well-funded International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) but it has been plagued by inefficiencies and delays. Although the Rwandan national courts have tried a significantly larger number of cases than the ICTR, they are also criticized as being too slow. Therefore, the government of Rwanda has proposed using the "Gacaca" traditional courts to accelerate post-genocide justice. The purpose of this thesis is to determine whether, and under what conditions, the Gacaca courts can be an effective mechanism of justice and national reconciliation. / Captain, Rwanda Army

The master's thesis represents an analysis of the sources of law, case law and literature concerning the doctrine of command responsibility. Analysis itself is preceded by the description of historical development of command responsibility. Aim of the analysis is to identify requirements of command responsibility set out by the ad hoc tribunals and requirements of command responsibility according to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, to compare those requirements and to find out most significant differences between the two approaches. Analysis provides that according to the Rome Statute there are two more requirements than according to the ad hoc tribunals' case law. Firstly there is the requirement of causal relationship and secondly there are two categories of superiors introduced - the military or military-like commanders and other superiors. Newly, there are slightly stricter requirements of responsibility for the former category than for the latter. Benefits of this thesis include the identification of requirements of command responsibility in Czech language.