New Developments in International Crimes and Transitional Justice

Session Submission Type: Complete Thematic Panel

Abstract

Debates about justice for the serious human rights violations and international crimes committed in the past usually take a start during times of political transitions away from non-democratic regimes. Given the seriousness of these crimes and the many offenders and victims implicated it is extremely surprising that they have hardly constituted the object of criminological research. This panel focuses on three major issues in the context of transitional justice for international crimes:
- How do individuals accused of international crimes by national or international criminal tribunals (ICTR and ICTY) perceive these judicial institutions and their functioning, both in terms of legal procedures and outcomes?
- How can non-legal measures of acknowledgment of accountability and truth seeking, both related to out-group victimhood, promote reconciliation processes in Bosnia-Herzegovina?
- Why do conventional businesses become complicit in systematic human rights atrocities like during the Holocaust and the Apartheid regime, and how can corporations be held accountable in periods of transitional justice?
A focus on these issues is likely to contribute to a better understanding of international crimes and transitional justice approaches from a criminological angle.
This session is organised under the auspices and with the support of the Global Criminology Network (GCN).

Sub Unit

• Area VI. Comparative and Historical Perspectives / 52. Global/Transnational Crime and Justice

Individual Presentations

• Criminal justice for international crimes: Perspectives of the accused at the ICTR and selected national jurisdictions - Marie-Sophie Devresse, UC Louvain; Damien Scalia, UC Louvain

• Attitudes towards non-legal factors promoting reconciliation in Bosnia: The role of transitional justice measures of acknowledgment, outgroup blame and collective victimhood - Mina Rauschenbach, University of Leuven

• Criminology at the intersections of oppression: Corporate involvement in international crimes and other GHRV by authoritarian regimes - Wim Huisman, VU University Amsterdam; Annika van Baar, VU University Amsterdam

Chair

• Stephan Parmentier, University of Leuven

Discussant

• Jack Greene, Northeastern University