Identifying and Locating Potential Witnesses of International Crimes through Third Parties ‘On the Ground’
A Trauma-Informed Process?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35295/osls.iisl.2352Keywords:
victims, witnesses, trauma, criminal investigations, international crimesAbstract
Victims and witnesses of international crimes, such as genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity can suffer from psychological trauma or related sequalae as a direct consequence of the crimes. Recounting such experiences carries a substantial risk of secondary victimisation or retraumatisation. This risk must be carefully considered not only during international criminal investigations and prosecutions, but also at the preliminary stage of identifying and locating potential witnesses. This article critically examines the involvement of third parties in the identification of potential witnesses, distinguishing between organisations with varying mandates and so-called intermediaries. The analysis draws upon relevant scholarly literature, case law, and transcripts of proceedings. The findings suggest that, although there have been efforts to (increasingly) regulate the involvement of third parties to locate potential witnesses, the implementation of a trauma-informed process requires more precisely formulated procedures. This is essential to safeguard the psychological well-being of victims and witnesses from the earliest stages of investigations.
Downloads
Metrics
Global Statistics ℹ️
|
60
Views
|
0
Downloads
|
|
60
Total
|
|
References
Adeniran, A., 2018. Preparing for an Investigative Mission to Interview a Witness or Suspect. In: A. Babington-Ashaye, A. Comrie and A. Adeniran, eds., International Criminal Investigations: Law and Practice. The Hague: Eleven International, 67-79.
Aksenova, M., and Bergsmo M., 2015. Defining the Purposes, Mandates and Outcomes of Fact-Finding Commissions Beyond International Criminal Justice. FICHL Policy Brief Series, 38, 1-4.
Ayazi, T., et al., 2014. Association between exposure to traumatic events and anxiety disorders in a post-conflict setting: a cross-sectional community study in South Sudan. BMC Psychiatry [online], 14(6). Available at: https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-244x-14-6 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-244X-14-6
Baylis, E.A., 2009. Outsourcing Investigations. UCLA Journal of International Law and Foreign Affairs, 14, 121-147.
Buisman, C., 2013. Delegating Investigations: Lessons to be Learned from the Lubanga Judgment. Northwestern Journal of International Human Rights, 11(3), 30-82.
Ciorciari, J.D., and Heindel, A., 2016. Victim Testimony in International and Hybrid Criminal Courts: Narrative Opportunities, Challenges, and Fair Trial Demands. Virginia Journal of International Law [online], 56(2), 265-338. Available at: https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2588577 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2588577
de Jong, J.T., et al., 2001. Lifetime events and posttraumatic stress disorder in 4 postconflict settings. The Journal of the American Medical Association [online], 286(5), 555-562. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.286.5.555 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.286.5.555
De Vos, C.M., 2011. Case Note Prosecutor vs. Lubanga. Someone who comes between one person and another: Lubanga, Local Cooperation and the Right to a Fair Trial. Melbourne Journal of International Law, 12(1), 217-232.
Findlay, M., and Ngane, S., 2012. Sham of the Moral Court? Testimony Sold as the Spoils of War. Global Journal of Comparative Law [online], 1, 73-101. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1163/2211906X-00101003 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/2211906X-00101003
Fink, G., 2016. Stress, Definitions, Mechanisms, and Effects Outlined: Lessons from Anxiety. In: G. Fink, ed., Stress: Concepts, Cognition, Emotion, and Behavior [online]. San Diego: Elsevier Inc, 3-11. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-800951-2.00001-7 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-800951-2.00001-7
Fujiwara, H., and Parmentier, S., 2012. Investigations. In: L. Reydams, J. Wouters and C. Ryngaert, eds., International Prosecutors [online]. New York: Oxford University Press, 572-603. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199554294.003.0010 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199554294.003.0010
Goldstone, R., 2004. A View from the Prosecution. Journal of International Criminal Justice [online], 2(2), 380-384. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/jicj2.2.380 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/jicj2.2.380
Good, B.J., and Hinton, D.E., 2016. Introduction: Culture, Trauma, and PTSD. In: D.E. Hinton and B.J. Good, eds., Culture and PTSD: Trauma in Global and Historical Perspective [online]. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 3-49. Available at: https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812291469-001 DOI: https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812291469-001
Grace, R., and Coster Van Voorhout, J., 2014. From Isolation to Interoperability: The Interaction of Monitoring, Reporting, and Fact-finding Missions and International Criminal Courts and Tribunals. Working Paper 4. The Hague Institute for Global Justice, 1-27.
Hinton, D.E., and Good, B.J., 2016. The Culturally Sensitive Assessment of Trauma: Eleven Analytic Perspectives, a Typology of Errors, and the Multiplex Models of Distress Generation. In: D.E. Hinton and B.J. Good, eds., Culture and PTSD: Trauma in Global and Historical Perspective [online]. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 50-112. Available at: https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812291469-002 DOI: https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812291469-002
Jarvis, M., and Nabti, N., 2016. Policies and Institutional Strategies for Successful Sexual Violence Prosecutions. In: S. Brammertz and M. Jarvis, eds., Prosecuting Conflict-Related Sexual Violence at the ICTY [online]. Oxford University Press, 73-110. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/law/9780198768562.003.0004 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/law/9780198768562.003.0004
Jarvis, M., and Vigneswaran, K., 2016. Challenges to Successful Outcomes in Sexual Violence Cases. In: S. Brammertz and M. Jarvis, eds., Prosecuting Conflict-Related Sexual Violence at the ICTY [online]. Oxford University Press, 33-72. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/law/9780198768562.003.0003 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/law/9780198768562.003.0003
Kahana, E., et al., 1988. Coping with Extreme Trauma. In: J.P. Wilson, A. Harel and B. Kahana, eds., Human Adaptation to Extreme Stress: From the Holocaust to Vietnam [online]. New York: Plenum Press, 55-79. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0786-8_3 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0786-8_3
King, K., and Meernik, J., 2019. The Burden of Bearing Witness: The Impact of Testifying at War Crimes Tribunals. Journal of Conflict Resolution [online], 63(2), 348-372. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/0022002717736567 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0022002717736567
McNally, R.J., 2003. Progress and controversy in the study of posttraumatic stress disorder. Annual Review of Psychology [online], 54, 229-252. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.54.101601.145112 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.54.101601.145112
Montada, L., 1994. Injustice in harm and loss. Social Justice Research [online], 7, 5-28. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02333820 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02333820
Nuzban, Y., 2018. Investigative Practices of Specialized War Crimes Units’. In: A. Babington-Ashaye, A. Comrie and A. Adeniran, eds., International Criminal Investigations: Law and Practice. The Hague: Eleven International, 271-296.
Orth, U., 2002. Secondary Victimization of Crime Victims by Criminal Proceedings. Social Justice Research [online], 15(4), 313-325. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021210323461 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021210323461
Putt, A., 2018. Legal Constraints on the Use of Intermediaries in International Criminal Investigations. In: A. Babington-Ashaye, A. Comrie and A. Adeniran, eds., International Criminal Investigations: Law and Practice. The Hague: Eleven International, 171-191.
Reicherter, D., and Aylward, A., 2011. The Impact of War and Genocide on Psychiatry and Social Psychology. In: B. van Schaack, D. Reicherter and Y. Chhang, eds., Cambodia’s Hidden Scars: Trauma Psychology in the Wake of the Khmer Rouge: An Edited Volume on Cambodia’s Mental Health. Phnom Penh: Documentation Center of Cambodia, 14-32.
Robertson, G., 2010. Human Rights Fact-Finding: Some Legal and Ethical Dilemmas. UCL Human Rights Review, 3, 15-43.
Sandick, P.A., 2012. Speechlessness and Trauma: Why the International Criminal Court Needs a Public Interviewing Guide. Northwestern University Journal of International Human Rights, 11(1), 105-125.
Schock, K., and Knaevelsrud, C., 2013. Retraumatization: The Vicious Circle of Intrusive Memory. In: M. Linden and K. Rutkowski, eds., Hurting Memories and Beneficial Forgetting: Posttraumatic Stress Disorders, Biographical Developments and Social Conflicts [online]. San Diego: Elsevier Inc., 59-70. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-398393-0.00005-5 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-398393-0.00005-5
Schot, S., 2024. Traumatised Witnesses in International Criminal Trials: Testimony, Fair Proceedings, and Accurate Fact-Finding [online]. London: Routledge. Available at: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003370963 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003370963
Stover, E., 2005. The Witnesses: War Crimes and the Promise of Justice in The Hague [online]. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Available at: https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812203783 DOI: https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812203783
Sunga, L.S., 2011. How can UN human rights special procedures sharpen ICC fact-finding?. The International Journal of Human Rights [online], 15(2), 187-205. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/13642987.2011.537466 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13642987.2011.537466
Wald, P.M., 2002. Dealing with Witnesses in War Crime Trials: Lessons from the Yugoslav Tribunal. Yale Human Rights & Development Law Journal [online], 5, 217-239. Available at: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13051/5827
Whiting, A., 2013. Dynamic Investigative Practice at the International Criminal Court. Law and Contemporary Problems, 76, 163-189.
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Suzanne Schot
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
OSLS strictly respects intellectual property rights and it is our policy that the author retains copyright, and articles are made available under a Creative Commons licence. The Creative Commons Non-Commercial Attribution No-Derivatives licence is our default licence and it regulates how others can use your work. Further details available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 If this is not acceptable to you, please contact us.
The non-exclusive permission you grant to us includes the rights to disseminate the bibliographic details of the article, including the abstract supplied by you, and to authorise others, including bibliographic databases, indexing and contents alerting services, to copy and communicate these details.
For information on how to share and store your own article at each stage of production from submission to final publication, please read our Self-Archiving and Sharing policy.
The Copyright Notice showing the author and co-authors, and the Creative Commons license will be displayed on the article, and you must agree to this as part of the submission process. Please ensure that all co-authors are properly attributed and that they understand and accept these terms.
