tribunals

These skulls, from victims of the Khmer Rouge, are on display in a Buddhist stupa at Choeung Ek, a mass burial site commonly known as one of “the killing fields.”Lessons learned from research into the societal effects of post-Apartheid “truth and reconciliation” hearings in South Africa are now being applied to a U.S. National Institute of Peace-sponsored study of the long-term mental health impact on Cambodians from human rights tribunals targeting the killing of millions by the nation’s former Khmer Rouge regime, says James L. Gibson, a professor of political science at Washington University in St. Louis and co-author of a study published Aug. 6 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

HusseinFor the past 18 months, the Iraqi Special Tribunal (IST) for Crimes Against Humanity has emitted conflicting signals regarding the means and process by which it will ultimately bring Saddam Hussein to trial. “While it is not possible to predict the ultimate outcome of the current proceedings against Hussein, there is no doubt that skepticism remains as to the Iraqi Special Tribunal’s credibility and legitimacy,” says Leila N. Sadat, expert on international law and international war crimes tribunals and the Henry H. Oberschelp Professor of Law at Washington University in St. Louis. “The IST’s decision to take up the Dujail case first, and the establishment of the IST itself, raise very interesting questions of international criminal law and procedure.”