La justice internationale face aux génocides : De Versailles et Sèvres au TPIR, en passant par Nuremberg et le TPIY

Résumé 0

Genocide and the International Criminal Justice In the aftermath of World War I, the Versailles and Sèvres Treaties provided for the creation of ad hoc international criminal tribunals to prosecute German and Turkish military personnel for violating laws and customs of war. Although trials took place in Leipzig and some before Turkish courts, the meaning was only symbolic. After the atrocities of World War II, the Allies established the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, by the application of the London Agreement dated August 8, 1945. The Nuremberg Charter provided in Article 6 for the prosecution of crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Although genocide was not mentioned, it was prosecuted as a crime against humanity. Unfortunately, the proper Holocaust was not prosecuted as a distinct crime. The main attention was given to war crimes committed against the Allies. In November 1994 the United Nations Security Council established the ICTR in order to judge those responsible for the Rwandan genocide and other serious violations committed in Rwanda, as well as for crimes committed by Rwandan citizens in nearby states, between January 1st and December 31st 1994. Compared to crimes committed during the Second World War and judged at Nuremberg, ICTR’s main issue is the genocide committed in Rwanda. Unfortunately, the mission of the ICTR has not always been a success, e.g. traumatized witnesses are required to tell their stories under rough cross-examination, and although the organ’s mission is to judge criminals, denial and revisionism are allowed in court. At Nuremberg, the death penalty was administered and ashes of convicted Nazis were dispersed in the Isar River, thus preventing the creation of cult sites on German soil for Nazi admirers. The death penalty is not applied by the ICTR, but unfortunately no solution has yet been found in order to avoid the transformation of places into gathering and cult sites for revisionists of the Tutsi genocide.