NEW POLS 322 Concepts/ IDs

Amnesty

Legal agreements not to prosecute leaders for crimes committed while in power

Ad hoc Tribunals

Temporary trial venues set up for the purpose of prosecuting specific crimes related to a single conflict

• Ex: ICTR & ICTY

Arms embargo

Prohibition on sale of weapons to certain countries

Coercive Response Measures

• “Stick”, restriction or punitive pressure, outright force for change

• Ex: Political (withdrawal of diplomatic relations, naming & shaming) Economic (sanctions/ trade embargoes) Military (no-fly zones)

Clinton apology

The Clinton apology recognized not only that they did not do what they could have done in Rwanda but also that they did not do what they should have done, urging a different response by the US government when faced with similar situations in the future.

Cooperative response measure

• “Carrot”, positive incentives for change, enable change through facilitation 

• Ex: Political (assistance with mediation) Legal (offers of amnesty) Economic (withdrawal of sanctions/embargoes) military (provision of military aid or training)

Electoral participation provision

Clauses mandating that rebel groups compete alongside government parties in post-conflict elections

Forced disappearance

• Argentina’s military developed a well-organised system to disappear people

• “Disappeared” wasn’t in human rights vocabulary until Argentine activists started calling it that

Genocide Convention

Deliberate large-scale violence against national, ethical, racial, or religious groups with intent to destroy group.

International Criminal Court (ICC)

Founded under the Rome Statute (July 2002) in The Hague, Netherlands put in place to get justice for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and aggression

• jurisdiction requirements:

• Territorial - The state on the territory of which the conduct in question occurred or if the crime was committed on board a vessel or aircraft, the state of registration of that vessel or aircraft

• National - The state of which the person accused of the crime is a national

• UNSC-created - Security Council acting with Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations

International Criminal Court Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR)

Established in 1994 under the UNSC Resolution 955, located in Arusha, Tanzania (1994-2015)

• Scope of crimes - territory of Rwanda, territory of neighboring states if committed by Rwandans

• crimes covered: Genocide, crimes against humanity, and violations of Geneva Convention

International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY)

Established in 1993 by UNSC Resolution 827, Article 41 of the UN Charter, located in The Hague, Netherlands (1993-2017)

• Scope of crimes: in the territory of the former Yugoslavia

• Crimes covered: Grave breaches of the Geneva convention, violations of the laws and customs of war, genocide, and crimes against humanity

Just cause threshold

Large scale loss of life OR large scale ethnic cleansing

• Anything that looks like a genocide

• Situations of state collapse and/or civil war

Memorial museums

Commemorate the past and educate the public, generally in an experiential way.

• Functions:

  • Massive archive of historical knowledge - artifacts, documents, photographs, footage

  • Memorial space for the memory of the victims 

  • Emotional journey to experientially re-create the past and create “prosthetic memory”

  • Educational institutions to teach importance of “never again”

Prosthetic memory

Emotional journey to experientially re-create the past and create; is a “personal, deeply felt memory of a past event through which he or she did not live

Reparations

Redress victims of atrocities for harms suffered; Symbolic/ Material, individual/collective way for governments to remedy harm experienced by survivors

Responsibility to protect (ICISS)

Addresses the question when a state fails to protect its own people who should step in. If a state fails to protect itself it is the international communities responsibly to step in.

• Pillars:

• 1. responsibility to prevent

• 2. responsibility to react

• 3. responsibility to rebuild

Right to identity

Included in the "Convention on the Rights of the Child” - provides Grandmother with legal basis to argue that judges should order blood tests for an adopted child to establish the child is blood-relation of the disappeared

Right to truth

Argument that there is a human right to the truth; considered main success that Argentina has exported to the world; Managed to have trials to find out the truth of the disappeared, even though no one could be punished as a result

Targeted sanctions

Prohibition on specific activities with particular people (usually those in power)

Transitional Justice

• Full range of processes and mechanisms associated with a society’s attempts to come to terms with a legacy of large-scale past abuses 

• Think of it as how society moves on after past violence, encompassing the four processes discussed below 

Truth Commission

• Temporary investigative institution

• Focuses on understanding past violence and human rights abuse and its causes, including ongoing events

• Investigates patterns of violence that took place over a period of time, and reasons

• Issues a final report with recommendations

• Officially authorized, empowered, and/or sanctioned by the state

What are the objectives of truth commissions

• Support subsequent prosecutions

• reconciliation

• reforms

• reparations

• historical clarification

Carlos Menem

In charge of Argentina 1989-1999; he Pardoned convicted military officers, including Videla; inter-American Commission on Human Rights concludes Argentina Full Stop and Due Obedience laws and Menem’s pardons violate American Convention

CONADEP

A truth commission that produced the first published truth commission report; launched the global trend of truth commissions

what did Kearney observe at Ingando

They are organized programs where participants live together temporarily and receive structured instruction. The main goals are:

• teach that all Rwandans are ethically identical; no preference given to one ethnic group over another, and former ethnicities are not referred to

• promote unity and reconciliation; teach classes that cover the history of Rwanda (focus on shared history)

• Military training: 5-6 hours per day spent on training

Leopoldo Galtieri

In Charge of Argentina in 1982, replaces Viola as president

• the “year of the Malvinas” - will take islands back by diplomacy or force

• April: Argentina launches invasion, which was strongly supported domestically but criticized internationally 

• Britain responds with force 

• June: Argentina forced to surrender to Britain and Galtieri is forced to resign

Madres de la Plaza de Mayo

• Most effective of all the human rights organizations in focusing attention on the proceso’s abuses because of their ingenious talent for political theater

• Wanted to know the whereabouts of their disappeared children, they marched silently around the Plaza de Mayo carrying placards with enlarged photographs of their disappeared children

Muammar Qaddafi

leader of Libya; anti-gov protest in 2011 as part of Arab spring led to Qaddafi force led state terror campaign against civilians

Raul Alfonsin

• In charge of Argentina (1983-1989) - comes to power, sends legislation to Congress to repeal self-amnesty law, establishes CONADEP (truth commission)

• CONADEP report Nunca Mas was published (the first published truth commission report)