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The
International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia
(ICTY) and Rwanda (ICTR) have not only indicted, arrested,
tried, and convicted numerous perpetrators of atrocities,
they have also laid down landmark decisions, establishing
multiple precedents for the worldwide pursuit of justice.
The decisions include novel prosecutions in international
tribunals of crimes such as genocide, rape, and enslavement.
Groundbreaking rules were made to protect victims and
witnesses who faced risks by coming forward to give testimony,
and technology was employed to obscure their faces and
to distort their voices. The Tribunals enacted extensive
measures to balance the rights of the victims against
the rights of the accused.
The
ICTY
Established
in 1993 by the United Nations Security Council acting
under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, the ICTY is granted
the right under its Statute to prosecute "grave breaches"
of the 1949 Geneva Conventions (art. 2), violations of
the laws or customs of war (art. 3), genocide (art. 4),
and crimes against humanity (art. 5). The Tribunal has
the authority to hold the accused accountable for individual
criminal responsibility if they "planned, instigated,
ordered, committed or otherwise aided and abetted in the
planning, preparation or execution of a crime [within
the court’s jurisdiction] (art. 7(1))." The
Tribunal may also prosecute a commander or superior if
a subordinate has committed a Statutory crime and that
superior "knew or had reason to know that the subordinate
was about to commit such acts or had done so and…failed
to…prevent such acts or to punish the perpetrators
thereof" (art. 7(3)).
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