Research and Discussion Paper on a TJ Framework for Zimbabwe
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Persecution against any identifiable group or collectively on political, racial, national, ethnic,
cultural, religious, gender as defined in paragraph 3, or other grounds that are universally
recognized as impermissible under international law, in connection with any act referred to
in this paragraph or any crime within the jurisdiction of the Court;
Enforced disappearance of persons;
The crime of apartheid;
Other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious
injury to body or to mental or physical health”.
Genocide is also classified as a crime against humanity.24
According to the swisspeace framework, “[for] each society undergoing a Dealing with the Past
process decisions need to be made regarding the type of trial best suited to achieving a meaningful
and legitimate form of accountability in a given context”.25 National prosecution is the straightforward way of delivering justice. However it is impossible, because of prevailing impunity and the
lack of willingness of states to prosecute its own citizens because of crimes against humanity and
genocide. Therefore other forms of trials are justified.
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International tribunals: The ICC is a permanent tribunal where the jurisdiction of the Court
is limited to the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole.
The Court has jurisdiction in accordance with this statute with respect to the following
crimes: (a) The crime of genocide; (b) Crimes against humanity; (c) War crimes; (d) The crime
of aggression.26 Before this permanent court was established, the UN Security Council
applying Chapter VII of the UN Charter27 has establishes several ad hoc tribunals. The
Nuremberg military tribunal was the first ad hoc tribunal. Later, after the ending of the cold
war, several ad hoc tribunals had been established to deal with perpetrators who committed
crimes against humanity and genocide, e.g. the International Criminal Tribunal for the
former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) were
both created by the UN Security Council.28
Hybrid tribunals: have mixed international and local experts and are usually located in the
state to be investigated. In Africa, this was the case in Sierra Leone. It is important to note
that this court was established by the UN after the Government of Sierra Leone requested
the UN to create a special court to address serious crimes against civilians and UN
peacekeepers committed during the country's decade-long (1991-2002) civil war. The court
had its seat in Sierra Leone and was funded by voluntary funds.29
24
Art 6, Rome Statute, see also Art 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of
Genocide, adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 9 December 1948;
https://treaties.un.org/doc/publication/unts/volume%2078/volume-78-i-1021-english.pdf
25
DwP framework supra note…., 2.2.-the right to justice
26
Art 5, Rome Statute
27
Chapter VII of the UN Charter: action with respect to threats to the peace, breaches of the peace , and acts
of aggression; http://www.un.org/en/sections/un-charter/chapter-vii
28
https://www.icrc.org/en/document/ad-hoc-tribunals
29
http://www.rscsl.org/
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DRAFT
Select target paragraph3
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