Stretching the Reach of the Law

The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com

By RICHARD GOLDSTONE
Published: May 31, 2009

When Peru’s Supreme Court found former president Alberto Fujimori guilty in April of the kidnapping, injury and murder of civilians in the 1990s and sentenced him to 25 years in prison, the historic verdict resonated around the world: the first conviction of an elected Latin American leader for human rights abuses by his own country.

Fujimori joins a growing list of former leaders facing charges of human rights abuses in domestic and international courts. They include Charles Taylor of Liberia; Hissène Habré of Chad; Jean-Pierre Bemba of the Democratic Republic of Congo; and Kaing Guek Eav of Cambodia.

This year, the International Criminal Court, the world’s first permanent court to investigate and try individuals accused of committing genocide war crimes, and crimes against humanity, issued the first arrest warrant for a sitting head of state — President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan.

These cases demonstrate the growing power and reach of a developing system of international justice that includes the International Criminal Court, special tribunals and regional courts and commissions. This system is working toward a new era of accountability for atrocities and is having a profound influence on national courts.

Two factors have brought about this important trend. The first is a mature global network of human rights organizations.

In the Fujimori case, Human Rights Watch gathered evidence that connected the former president with the military intelligence officers who massacred civilians in 1991 and 1992. The International Center for Transitional Justice helped Peruvian officials establish rules for a fair trial, supplying the Supreme Court with resources about theories of criminal responsibility. Other organizations, such Access to Justice in Nigeria, the Blacksoil Center for the Protection of Media Rights in Russia, and Pro Juarez in Mexico, do similar work in other cases.

The second factor is the credibility of the new institutions of international justice.

As chief prosecutor for the international criminal tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, I helped investigate and prosecute some of the worst crimes of the last decades of the 20th century. In 1994, when we began our work, the horrors and trauma were still fresh. Our work was urgent, and there was every temptation to rush to judgment.

Instead, we insisted on establishing and observing due process. If the courts were to be instruments of real justice and have credibility in the eyes of the world, our proceedings had to be as transparent, fair and thorough as we could make them. Firsthand testimony from witnesses and surviving victims was important — but so was a strong defense for the accused.

I believe these principles have helped make the case for international justice and prompted national courts, from Peru to Cambodia, to take action. The prosecution of crimes against humanity is not an exercise in partisan score-settling. It is an assertion of the core values of civilized society.

The international community affirmed its commitment to these values in the Responsibility to Protect, adopted by the United Nations in 2005, which asserts the duty to intervene when nations fail to protect, or persecute, their citizens.

Fujimori’s conviction demonstrates the progress we have achieved toward making these values normative. With a coalition of local and worldwide human rights defenders, an international system of justice that commands growing respect, and a global commitment to defend the innocent in every nation, the elements are in place for a more just and peaceful future.

Justice Richard Goldstone is the former chief prosecutor of the international criminal tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.