The Impact of International Law on International Criminal Proceedings – Human Rights Perspective
The Impact of International Law on International Criminal Proceedings – Human Rights Perspective

Summary/Abstract: A long time ago, the international community has taken some steps to prosecute war criminals and toestablish a permanent criminal tribunal. However, a new era in the development of international criminallaw and procedure, as well as international human rights and humanitarian law, began in the aftermathof World War II. Unfortunately, the Nuremberg and Tokyo Tribunals focused mainly on the accused andtheir punishment. They ignored the role of the victim in the criminal proceedings. Thus, it was necessaryto create a new international criminal tribunal that would not suffer from the shortcomings and wouldbe in line with the emerging standards for the protection of human rights. Indeed, the Statutes and Rulesof Procedure and Evidence of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY)and for Rwanda (ICTR) was an attempt to be more fair and reflect international human rights standards.The milestone, however, was the establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC), whose Statutemirror not only fundamental human rights standards and jurisprudence of human rights tribunals andorgans but also elevates the status of victims. Furthermore, the ICC applies treaties and other sources ofinternational law and it “must be consistent with internationally recognized human rights”. The articleis a contribution to the discussion of the impact of international law on the development of internationalcriminal proceedings through the lens of human rights standards. It also attempts to show whether thespecial features of international law have influenced international criminal proceedings and demonstratethe close but complex relationship between sub-branches of international law, such as internationalcriminal law, international criminal procedure, international human rights and humanitarian law, as wellas the ways of interferences of international human rights law in international criminal proceedings.

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