Thursday 27 November 2008: LUNCH HOUR TALK |
Forensic Anthropology and Human Rights: Investigation, exhumation and analysis of evidence in the context of political/ethnic violence
Speaker: Silvana Turner, Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team
Venue: Keeton Room, UCL Laws
Time: 1pm, bring your own lunch
RSVP: kate.barber@ucl.ac.uk
ALL WELCOME |
The Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team, (Equipo Argentino de Anthropologia Forense, EAAF), established in 1984, is a nongovernmental, nonprofit scientific organization that applies forensic sciences, mainly forensic anthropology, archaeology, and genetics, to the investigation of human rights violations in Argentina and around the world. The team was founded in response to the need to investigate the disappearances of at least 9,000 people by the military regime that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983. Applying forensic anthropology and related sciences, and working closely with victims and their relatives, the team seek to shed light on human rights violations, contributing to the search for truth, justice, reparation, and prevention of future abuses.
Silvana Turner has been a forensic anthropologist, investigator and researcher for EAAF since 1989. In addition to participating in investigations in Argentina, she has worked at the request of national and international NGOs, governmental and intergovernmental organisations, national and international commissions in Brazil, Uruguay, Bolivia, Colombia, Panama, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, Ethiopia, South Africa, Zimbabwe and the Philippines. |
Selecting International Judges: Principle, Process and Politics
Greenberg Lounge at the New York University (NYU) School of Law
Tuesday 9 September 2008, 9 – 5pm
The number of international courts is increasing and international courts are exerting ever greater influence on political, social, economic and environmental issues. These developments raise an important question: how are the international judges that sit on these courts selected?
For the past two years, the Centre for International Courts and Tribunals (CICT) at University College London has been conducting a project entitled Process and Legitimacy in the Nomination, Election and Appointment of International Judges funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (United Kingdom). The project has focussed on nominations and elections to the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, with broader comparative reference to other international courts, and has asked:
(a) How do states nominate candidates for the ICJ and ICC?
(b) How do the election procedures for those courts operate in practice?
(c) What changes, if any, are needed to the nomination and election procedures?
The research team has interviewed over 100 individuals involved in the nomination and election of international judges. Interviewees have included diplomats, government legal advisors, members of the Permanent Court of Arbitration national groups, international and domestic judges, lawyers and academics. The project website is available at:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/laws/cict/index.shtml?judicial-selection.
This seminar, which has been jointly organised by the Centre for International Courts and Tribunals (CICT) and the Institute for International Law and Justice (IILJ), NYU Law School, will present the preliminary findings of the project for discussion and comment. Those taking part will include diplomats dealing with these issues, personnel of international organizations, academics, and judges.
A limited number of additional places are available. If you would like attend this seminar, please contact Ms. Kate Barber on email kate.barber@ucl.ac.uk. If you are based at NYU, please contact iilj@juris.law.nyu.edu.
 Centre for International Courts and Triubnals wins EU funding for project on the Impact of International Courts on Domestic Criminal Procedures in Mass Atrocity Cases (DOMAC project)
The Centre for International Courts and Tribunals is a partner in a new collaborative research project under the European Commission's Seventh Framework Programme for EU Research (FP7). The other project partners are the University of Reykjavik (coordinator), the University of Amsterdam, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
The context for the project is the establishment since 1993 of a number of new international or mixed criminal tribunals, including the ad hoc tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, the International Criminal Court and the Special Court for Sierra Leone. The DOMAC project focuses on the actual interaction between national and international courts involved in prosecuting individuals in mass atrocity situations. It explores what impact such international courts have on, inter alia, prosecution policies and rates before national courts, applicable substantive and procedural legal standards, sentencing policies, the award of reparations, and the capacity of domestic criminal justice systems. It will offer methods to improve coordination of national and international criminal proceedings and better utilisation of national courts through, for example, greater formal and informal avenues of cooperation, interaction and resource sharing between national and international courts. The project also considers the role of other international courts, such as the International Court of Justice and regional human rights courts, in the response to mass atrocity situations.
Further information about the project is available on the DOMAC project website at http://www.domac.is , or from Alejandro Chehtman at a.chehtman@ucl.ac.uk.
Conference: International Courts and Tribunals in the 21st Century: the future of international justice
On 30 November and 1 December 2007, the Centre for International Courts and Tribunals (CICT) organised a conference at the Peace Palace in The Hague entitled International Courts and Tribunals in the 21st Century: the future of international justice. The event marked the tenth anniversary of the establishment of the Project on International Courts and Tribunals, and was organised in cooperation with Loyola Law School Los Angeles, the Center on International Cooperation of New York University, the Grotius Centre of Leiden University and the Permanent Court of Arbitration.
The conference addressed a number of key themes in the light of practice and research over the last ten years, including: the proper relationship between the various international and regional courts that now exist; factors that influence choices among international dispute settlement procedures; the relationship between international and national courts; the achievements, limitations and prospects of international criminal tribunals; and the function of ‘the international judge’. In a keynote session of the conference, the President of the International Court of Justice, Judge Rosalyn Higgins, responded to questions on various aspects of the conference themes. In the closing session, participants proposed priority issues for inclusion in a future research agenda on international courts and tribunals.
The participants included academics and practitioners, as well as representatives of twelve international courts and tribunals, including the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court, the World Trade Organization Appellate Body, the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights and the Court of Justice of the Andean Community. Philippe Sands QC, Ruth Mackenzie and Kate Barber of CICT participated in the meeting, and 22 UCL LL.M students and one PhD student also attended. The conference saw the launch of three new titles in the Oxford University Press International Courts and Tribunals series. |
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