Victims of Crimes and their Concerns under International Criminal Court.

Best Citation – Tavleen Kaur & Vinayak Sonkar, Victims of Crimes and their Concerns under International Criminal Court, 1 IJLR 28, (2022)

Abstract

In international criminal law, victims have been ignored for far too long. Most international criminal courts and tribunals established since Nuremberg to bring justice to victims of international crimes, including the ad hoc International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda (ICTR) and International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), have failed to give victims’ concerns due consideration. The International Criminal Court’s Rome Statute affirms that “during this century (20th century), millions of children, women, and men have been victims of unimaginable crimes that deeply shock the consciousness of living beings,” and grants victims a set of legal safeguards, participation, and protective measures by adopting the International Criminal Court (ICC) Statute. The International Criminal Court (ICC) is a pioneering and complex system of justice that protects victims’ rights. Although these rights are not absolute, the Court regards victims as valid participants in its proceedings since they are entitled to the guarantees of a fair and impartial trial. Nonetheless, this approach poses a significant challenge to the Court, which it has already confronted during its preliminary investigations and at the commencement of its first case. Furthermore, victim participation in criminal processes is a relatively recent phenomena. While victim involvement as a “partie civile” in criminal procedures is common in some national jurisdictions, it is uncommon in international criminal trials. The International Criminal Court (ICC) Statute’s drafters opted to include a rather extensive victim involvement structure. Although it has been welcomed as a crucial and useful tool for allowing victims of egregious human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian law a voice, the procedural and substantive aspects are still being worked out. This paper begins with the analysis of the evolution and development of victims’ rights in international law, followed by an examination of the extent to which victims’ interests are addressed before the ICC. Attempts have been made to define and comprehend the fundamental ideas crucial to the subject, such as victim, compensation, restitution, and victim and witness protection.

Keywords: International Criminal Court, Victims , Rights of Victims ,Right to Participation , Right to Protection ,Right to Reparations.