9Justice, Peace and Development
3. Development Supports Justice
There is no doubt that, in any society, the prospects of justice grow with socio-economic development. Quite simply, delivering justice always re-quires adequate resources and capabilities, such as courtroom and prison facilities, or well-trained legal and other professionals. A well-developed society is more likely to be able to secure these important features.
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This is particularly relevant for the system of the Rome Statute giv-en its reliance on national judicial systems. Under the principle of com-plementarity enshrined in the Rome Statute, the national judiciary of each State retains the primary duty to investigate and prosecute grave viola-tions of international humanitarian law. The ICC is a safety net that en-sures accountability when the national jurisdictions fail in their task.
Therefore, the domestic justice systems of States should be so well equipped to deal with ICC crimes that they can serve as the main deterrent worldwide and likewise provide justice for past atrocities, enabling a so-ciety to move on after large-scale violence. The Review Conference of the Rome Statute held in Kampala, Uganda, in 2010, recognised this as one of the most burning challenges for the further development of the system of international justice.
In a national setting, this requires a good legal framework and the necessary capacity in terms of skills and resources for investigations, prosecutions, and trials. This is no simple task to achieve, particularly in a post-conflict situation. In his 2011 Rule of Law report, the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General pointed out that there is currently no systematic way to foster the political will necessary for States to domesticate the Rome Statute and to bring those requiring assistance together with inter-national actors willing to fund or provide such assistance.
To address this gap, a new movement has emerged under the shared leadership of States, civil society, the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute, and the UN – bringing justice, development, and rule of law actors together to seek more synergies. A landmark event was held in October 2010 at the Greentree Estate in New York, which initiated dis-cussion amongst relevant stakeholders. One of the outcomes of the second conference held at Greentree in November 2011 was the decision to form a group of actors aimed at developing strategies and country specific plans on the practical implementation of the principle of complementarity.
The group will examine experiences of countries that have undertaken in-vestigations and prosecutions of atrocity crimes. In order to know what kind of assistance States require from the international community to re-build national infrastructure, it is also necessary to assess what expertise, capacity, and resources exist locally. The discussions are thus shifting to more tangible actions, aimed at strengthening national capacity to tackle atrocious crimes.
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Another promising initiative is the Global Forum on Law, Justice and Development, established recently at the initiative of the Legal Vice-Presidency of the World Bank. The goal of the Global Forum is to pro-vide solutions to global, regional, and national development challenges and to facilitate discussion and identification of issues related to law and development. It aims to promote a better understanding of the role of law and justice, and to strengthen legal and judicial institutions in the devel-opment process.
It still remains to be seen what precise roles various UN agencies, international organisations, NGOs, States and international donors can and should take. This will, of course, depend not only on the progress of the emerging development–justice alliance but also on the capabilities and broader strategies of each of the actors individually. The ICC itself, how-ever, will have to, at least for the time being, confine its role to being a catalyst of different forms and sources of assistance. The ICC is, after all, merely a court and it has neither resources nor mandate of a development organisation or an implementing agency.
The role of the development agencies, however, is particularly cru-cial in this respect. Addressing the legacy of mass violence is currently not topping the agenda of development programmes. The World Devel-opment Report states, for instance, that it is much easier for countries to get international assistance to support development of their militaries than their police forces and judiciaries.
Development aid typically involves multiple actors – national, bi-lateral and multibi-lateral – whose activities are closely related and frequent-ly overlap. Securing justice for international crimes is politicalfrequent-ly a par-ticularly sensitive area, and it is crucial that capacity building occurs in a coordinated and sustainable manner.
The world’s legal systems and cultures are varied, and capacity building should always be adjusted to the circumstances and needs of each particular situation in a way that supports national ownership and empowerment from the very beginning. At the same time, there should be no deviation from universally accepted norms: such as the prohibition of torture or the prosecution of grave breaches of Geneva Conventions. We must persist in our efforts to incorporate these norms into a truly universal system of international criminal justice – one that resides locally but moves globally.
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4. Conclusion
The development community and the international justice community share concerns about the impact of violence on human populations, and a desire to see nations affected by conflict move into a future where their citizens can thrive in safety. Forging new partnerships between these two spheres will take them both closer to their shared objectives. Lasting peace and prosperity in post-conflict societies can only be achieved if de-velopment challenges and justice enforcement are addressed in a coordi-nated manner.
The potential for synergy is significant. Those responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity are often part of wider networks in-volved in corruption and organised crime. Helping societies dismantle these criminal structures represents a major step forward in the entrench-ment of a culture of the rule of law. In this way, capacity building for ad-dressing Rome Statute crimes supports the more general justice reforms and vice versa. These considerations are primarily relevant for policy-makers at national, regional and international levels. Specifically, justice for mass atrocities should become an integral part of development and rule of law programmes aimed at ensuring sustainable development as well as security in post-conflict societies.
For the individual lawyer engaged in a particular case before a na-tional tribunal or an internana-tional court, the considerations discussed in this article bear little immediate significance. Criminal proceedings must always be conducted impartially and in strict compliance with fair trial norms, and decisions must be based on the applicable law and the availa-ble evidence – not on secondary considerations of the potential impact on development or otherwise.
However, law is not a stagnant matter restricted to courtrooms; ra-ther it follows the needs of society, and lawyers participate in the process through law-making, diplomacy and treaty negotiations, civil society ad-vocacy, and international cooperation. In this sense, the engagement of legal professionals in the strengthening of the system of international jus-tice in its broadest meaning is a contribution to the peace and well-being of people everywhere.
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5. Sources and Further Reading
De Greiff, Pablo, “Articulating the Links between Transitional Justice and Development: Justice and Social Integration”, in Transitional Justice and Development: Making Connections, Advancing Transitional Justice Se-ries, vol. 3, Social Science Research Council, New York, 2009 (particu-larly relevant for the effect of large-scale violence on victims, non-victims and the affected communities in Section 2.2.).
Sikkink, Kathryn, The Justice Cascade: How Human Rights Prosecutions Are Changing World Politics, The Norton Series in World Politics, W. W.
Norton & Company, New York, 2011.
Sikkink, Kathryn, “Time, Making Tyrants Do”, New York Times, 15 Sep-tember 2011, available at http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/16/opinion/
making-tyrants-do-time.html, last accessed on 7 August 2012 (particular-ly relevant for the benefits of holding leaders accountable in Section 2.2.).
Strengthening and Coordinating United Nations Rule of Law Activities, Report of the Secretary-General, A/66/133, available at http://www.unrol.
org/files/Third%20Annual%20Report%20of%20the%20Secretary-Genera l.pdf, last accessed on 6 August 2012.
World Development Report 2011, Conflict, Security and Development:
Overview, The World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011, available at http://w dr2011.worldbank.org/sites/default/files/WDR2011_Overview.pdf, last accessed on 6 August 2012.
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