Victim Participation in International Criminal Justice: Real Power or Empty Rhetoric?

Victim participation is an innovation in the realm of international criminal justice. The interpretation of victims’ participatory rights in international criminal proceedings has been diffuse and at times divergent, betraying a far from cohesive and consistent approach. Whilst the apparent benefits of participation seem self-evident, and may lead, at least in theory, to the realisation of the aspiration of restorative justice for victims, the manner in which victim participation has been crafted and interpreted in the trials before the International Criminal Court and the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia has raised some important issues and questions regarding its role and impact with respect to the functionality of court proceedings, the rights of the accused, and the rights of victims themselves. This seminar offers a platform for discussion through a range of theoretical and practical perspectives on the role, content and implications of victim participation.

Moderator

Rudina Jasini, Economic and Social Research Council GCRF Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Oxford, Faculty of Law

Panelists

Ruti Teitel, Ernst C. Stiefel Professor of Comparative Law at New York Law School, Director of New York Law School’s Institute for Global Law, Justice & Policy, Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics

Jens Dieckmann, Common Legal Representative of Victims, Associate Counsel in the ICC Banda Case, Associate Member at 9 Bedford Row International

Saranda Bogujvci, Member of the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo, the first child victim to have testified in a war crime trial

Sara Kendall, Senior Lecturer in International Law, Co-Director of Centre for Critical International Law and Deputy Director of Research at Kent Law School

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A light sandwich lunch will be served.

RSVP: admin@crim.ox.ac.uk