Many prosecutors and commentators have praised the victim provisions at the International Criminal Court (ICC) as 'justice for victims', which for the first time include participation, protection and reparations. This book critically examines the role of victims in international criminal justice, drawing from human rights, victimology, and best practices in transitional justice. Drawing on field research in Northern Uganda, Luke Moffet explores the nature of international crimes and assesses the role of victims in the proceedings of the ICC, paying particular attention to their recognition, participation, reparations and protection. The book argues that because of the criminal nature and structural limitations of the ICC, justice for victims is symbolic, requiring State Parties to complement the work of the Court to address victims' needs. In advancing an innovative theory of justice for victims, and in offering solutions to current challenges, the book will be of great interest and use to academics, practitioners and students engaged in victimology, the ICC, transitional justice, or reparations.

The book analyses the difficulties the International Criminal Court faces with the definition of those persons who are eligible for participating in the proceedings. Establishing justice for victims is one of the most important aims of the court. It therefore created a unique system of victim participation. Since its first trial the court struggles to live up to the expectancies its statute has generated. The book offers a new approach of how to define victimhood by looking at the different international crimes. It seeks to offer guidance for the right to participate in the different stages of the proceedings by looking at the practice in national jurisdictions. Lastly the book offers insights into the functioning of the reparation regime at the ICC by virtue of the Trust Fund for Victim and its different mandates. The critical analysis of the ICC-practice with regard to definition, participation and reparation aims at promoting a realistic approach, which will avoid the disappointing of expectations and thus help to enhance the acceptance of the ICC.

This book is a guide to the law and practice of victims’ roles before the International Criminal Court, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. The various chapters focus on the provisions relevant to victim participation at these courts and the case law interpreting and applying those provisions. The book thus informs the reader on the principal ways in which the relevant practice is developing, the distinct avenues taken in the application of similar provisions as well as the ensuing advantages and challenges. Unlike other volumes focusing on relevant academic literature, this volume is written mainly by practitioners and is addressed to those lawyers, legal advisers and victimologists who work or wish to work in the field of victim participation in international criminal justice. Kinga Tibori-Szabó is legal officer for the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague and has previously worked for the Legal Representative of Victims at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. Megan Hirst is a barrister at Doughty Street Chambers in London and has worked on victims' participation issues in the Registries of the International Criminal Court and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, as well as in an LRV team in Prosecutor v. Dominic Ongwen.

Since World War II, there have been some 250 conflicts throughout the world, leaving between 70-170 million atrocity crime victims. Unlike diseases or natural disasters, the injuries and tragedies of war are largely self-inflicted. Created in response to such outrages, the International Criminal Court (ICC) stands as the first and only permanent juridical body prosecuting genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Victims' Rights and Advocacy at the International Criminal Court introduces readers to the most significant restorative feature of the ICC's procedure: direct victim participation in war crime trials. Under this new model, the ICC has given victims a voice to speak out against their abusers. T. Markus Funk presents the first comprehensive guidance on this innovative dynamic, analyzing not just the procedural rules that apply, but also the practical problems in advocating for victims before the ICC. In the process, Funk provides an overview of ICC trial procedure, a candid assessment of the performance of the ICC and its predecessor tribunals, and a guide to the development of victims' rights under international law. Not only does he identify areas needing reform and reconsideration, but he also provides readers with concrete solutions. Funk, an experienced federal prosecutor and law professor who has advised prosecutors and judges at criminal tribunals as the U.S. Justice Department's Resident Legal Advisor for Kosovo, draws on that experience to suggest ways in which the ICC can improve the lot of victims of the world's worst crimes. This second edition provides a detailed analysis of the newly recognized right of victims to participate in the trials of their accused abusers. The author guides the reader through this unique, controversial body of procedural and substantive rights for victims of atrocity crimes, and discusses how to qualify as Legal Counsel for Victims, and how to seek Reparations. In addition, the author provides updated caselaw and other information to reflect the ICC's current position on victim involvement and related procedure as well as text to show how these changes in the law affect ICC procedure and advocacy.

Most discourses on victims in international criminal justice take the subject of victims for granted, as an identity and category existing exogenously to the judicial process. This book takes a different approach. Through a close reading of the institutional practices of one particular court, it demonstrates how court practices produce the subjectivity of the victim, a subjectivity that is profoundly of law and endogenous to the enterprise of international criminal justice. Furthermore, by situating these figurations within the larger aspirations of the court, the book shows how victims have come to constitute and represent the link between international criminal law and the enterprise of transitional justice. The book takes as its primary example the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), or the Khmer Rouge Tribunal as it is also called. Focusing on the representation of victims in crimes against humanity, victim participation and photographic images, the book engages with a range of debates and scholarship in law, feminist theory and cultural legal theory. Furthermore, by paying attention to a broader range of institutional practices, Figuring Victims makes an innovative scholarly contribution to the debates on the roles and purposes of international criminal justice.

In international law victims' issues have gained more and more attention over the last decades. In particular in transitional justice processes the victim is being given high priority. It is to be seen in this context that the Rome Statute for the International Criminal Court foresees a rather excessive victim participation concept in criminal prosecution. In this volume issue is taken at first with the definition of victims, and secondly with the role of the victim as a witness and as a participant. Several chapters address this matter with a view to the International Criminal Court (ICC), the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) and the Trial against Demjanjuk in Germany. In a third part the interests of the victims outside the criminal trial are being discussed. In the final part the role of civil society actors are being tackled. This volume thus gives an overview of the role of victims in transitional justice processes from an interdisciplinary angle, combining academic research and practical experience.