The Impact of International Law on International Criminal Proceedings – Human Rights Perspective

Abstract

A long time ago, the international community has taken some steps to prosecute war criminals and to establish a permanent criminal tribunal. However, a new era in the development of international criminal law and procedure, as well as international human rights and humanitarian law, began in the aftermath of World War II. Unfortunately, the Nuremberg and Tokyo Tribunals focused mainly on the accused and their punishment. They ignored the role of the victim in the criminal proceedings. Thus, it was necessary to create a new international criminal tribunal that would not suffer from the shortcomings and would be in line with the emerging standards for the protection of human rights. Indeed, the Statutes and Rules of Procedure and Evidence of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and for Rwanda (ICTR) was an attempt to be more fair and reflect international human rights standards. The milestone, however, was the establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC), whose Statute mirror not only fundamental human rights standards and jurisprudence of human rights tribunals and organs but also elevates the status of victims. Furthermore, the ICC applies treaties and other sources of international law and it “must be consistent with internationally recognized human rights”. The article is a contribution to the discussion of the impact of international law on the development of international criminal proceedings through the lens of human rights standards. It also attempts to show whether the special features of international law have influenced international criminal proceedings and demonstrate the close but complex relationship between sub-branches of international law, such as international criminal law, international criminal procedure, international human rights and humanitarian law, as well as the ways of interferences of international human rights law in international criminal proceedings.