International Courts and Tribunals Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

International Courts and Tribunals - Essay Example Despite the measures left behind by British military tribunal, all international and especially Americans did not practice separate hearings for matters in which guilt has been established. Most tribunals seldom affix an obligatory final clause to their judgments appraising extenuating factors in rare cases. Therefore there is little or no standard to help courts and tribunals now that that international justice has been rejuvenated almost 50 years later with the setting up of international tribunals for the previous Yugoslavia and Rwanda. Firstly what are international tribunals, international criminal tribunals are specialized courts set up to convict individuals accused of violations standardized under international humanitarian law as committed in a particular place and time. (Albert Schweitzer, np, 1960) It is imperative to understand what the international criminal tribunal for Rwanda is. The ICTR has prominent jurisdiction to arraign people accused of genocide, human right violations and war crimes. In Rwanda particularly between January 1st and December 31st, the trial courts situated in Arusha, Tanzania, the appeals court situated inn the Hague, and the Second-in-command Prosecutor was located in Kigali, Rwanda. Till today the tribunal has handed down 22 judgments in which 28 were accused. Eleven trials are in progress, involving a grand total of 27 accused. Surprisingly these include up to eight ministers, one parliamentarian, three prefects, about eight military officers and tree burgomasters. The tribunal holds about fifteen detainees awaiting trial and about fourteen remain at large. All trials are presumed to end by 2008 and closing date set at 2010.as of 2006 about 102 countries were a part of the international criminal court, all NATO members except turkey and two members from the UN Security Council France and the United Kingdom. Although the United States has long been involved in international justice, currently USA is opposed to the ICC, although US has been kind enough not to bar UN security council vote to refer to crimes committed in Dafur to the ICC Prosecutor, officials say that US will assist if asked by the court. An important considerations is the ethical aspects of these trials, the Rome Statute incorporates the very best evolved, most ample understanding of what comprises a fair trial. In addition the Rome Statue contains every chapter process protection in the constitution of the United States of America, the death sentence is excluded. The world is greatly concerned if ICC will conduct any investigations in Iraq; this is highly unlike because of the fact that all potential crimes were committed on Iraqi territory, on which ICC does not have any jurisdiction as Iraq does not belong to the parties to the Rome Statue. All prosecutors ag reed that all allegations concerning killings and maltreatment of civilians were substantial and failed to be admissible under the Rome Statue, which require crime to be of a certain level. Prosecutors believe that such allegations need to be addressed on a national level. (McMorran