Fair Labelling and the Dilemma of Prosecuting Gender-Based Crimes at the International Criminal Tribunals

Dr. Hilmi M. Zawati and Preface by Justice Teresa A. Doherty, CBE

The first legal analysis to focus on the dilemma of prosecuting and punishing wartime gender-based crimes in the statutory laws of the international criminal tribunals and the ICC in the context of fair labelling
Provides a clear legal argument, theoretical structure, and carefully articulated points about the principle of fair labelling and its significance
Discusses the concept of proportionality between crime and punishment to enable judicial bodies to deliver consistent verdicts and punishments
Contains an extensive selected bibliography to help the reader easily refer to the fundamental sources of arguments, and to foster further research

Fair Labelling and the Dilemma of Prosecuting Gender-Based Crimes at the International Criminal Tribunals

Dr. Hilmi M. Zawati and Preface by Justice Teresa A. Doherty, CBE

Description

This scholarly legal work focuses on the dilemma of prosecuting gender-based crimes under the statutes of the international criminal tribunals with reference to the principle of fair labelling. In this book Hilmi M. Zawati explains how the abstractness and lack of accurate description of gender-based crimes in the statutory laws of the international criminal tribunals and courts infringe the principle of fair labelling, lead to inconsistent verdicts and punishments, and cause inadequate prosecution of these crimes. This inquiry deals with gender-based crimes as a case study, and with fair labelling as a legal principle and a theoretical framework.

Critical and timely, this study contributes to existing scholarship in many different ways. It is the first legal analysis to focus on the dilemma of prosecuting and punishing wartime gender-based crimes in the statutory laws of the international criminal tribunals and the ICC in the context of fair labelling. Moreover, it emphasizes that applying fair labelling to wartime gender-based crimes would enable the tribunals and the ICC to deliver fair judgments, eliminate inconsistent prosecution, overcome shortcomings in addressing gender-based crimes within their jurisprudence, while breaking the cycle of impunity for these crimes.

Consisting of two parts, this work begins by outlining the central focus and theoretical legal framework of the study. It concentrates on fair labelling as an imperative legal principle and a legal framework, examines its intellectual development, scope and justification, and illustrates its applicability to gender-based crimes. The second part addresses the dilemma of prosecuting gender-based crimes in the international criminal tribunals.

Fair Labelling and the Dilemma of Prosecuting Gender-Based Crimes at the International Criminal Tribunals

Dr. Hilmi M. Zawati and Preface by Justice Teresa A. Doherty, CBE

Preface by Justice Teresa Doherty

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Table of International Cases
Table of National Cases
Table of International Documents and Treaties
Table of Governmental Legislative Provisions
Table of UN Security Council Resolutions

Abbreviations

Introduction: Design and Structure

Part One: Fair Labelling and the Codification of Gender-Based
Crimes in the Statutory Laws of the International Criminal Tribunals

Introduction

Chapter One: Fair Labelling as a Common Legal Principle in Criminal Law

Chapter Two: Fair Labelling and other Criminal Law Principles and Concepts

Chapter Three: Fair Labelling and the Codification of Gender-Based Crimes in the Statutory Laws of the International Criminal Tribunals

Part Two: Fair Labelling and the Dilemma of Prosecuting Gender-Based Crimes at the International Criminal Tribunals

Introduction

Chapter Four: Prosecution of Gender-Based Crimes and the Feminist Legal Literature

Chapter Five: The Dilemma of Prosecuting Gender-Based Crimes at the International Criminal Tribunals

Conclusion: Looking to the Future

Selected Bibliography

Index

Fair Labelling and the Dilemma of Prosecuting Gender-Based Crimes at the International Criminal Tribunals

Dr. Hilmi M. Zawati and Preface by Justice Teresa A. Doherty, CBE

Author Information

Hilmi M. Zawati is Chair of the International Centre for Legal Accountability and Justice (ICLAJ), an international criminal law jurist, and human rights advocate. He has been a committed human rights activist over the last three decades, and has actively advocated human rights of wartime rape victims throughout the world ever since the first reports of war crimes during the Yugoslav dissolution war of 1992-1995. A prominent speaker and author on a number of hotly debated legal issues, Dr. Zawati has addressed major academic and professional groups in the Middle East, Africa, Europe, the United States, and Canada. His present primary research and teaching areas are: public international law; international criminal law; international humanitarian and human rights law; international gender justice system; international environmental law of armed conflict; social diversity and the law; judicial mechanisms under universal jurisdiction; and Islamic law of nations (siyar).

Fair Labelling and the Dilemma of Prosecuting Gender-Based Crimes at the International Criminal Tribunals

Dr. Hilmi M. Zawati and Preface by Justice Teresa A. Doherty, CBE

Reviews and Awards

"A masterly review of the prosecution of gender-based crimes in the ad hoc tribunals and the International Criminal Court (ICC), this work comes with a wealth of research and references reflecting an in-depth and wide ranging compilation of diverse views and studies. I have no doubt this work will add to the development of international criminal law and be of great assistance to judges and practitioners alike." -Justice T. A. Doherty CBE, Special Court for Sierra Leone, The Hague, Netherlands

"This book is essential reading for anyone interested in international criminal justice. It presents a coherent conceptual framework for defining and prosecuting gender-based crimes." -Rebecca Cook, Professor of Law, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto

"There is no other work examining the prosecution of gender related crimes that comes close to fleshing out the fair labelling issues that Hilmi Zawati discusses. A unique contribution to the literature, this work provides thought-provoking reading, and highlights a neglected gap in the field of international criminal law." -Kelly Dawn Askin, Senior Legal Officer, International Justice Open Society Justice Initiative

"By exploring the 'fair labelling principle' with regard to sexual violence crimes, Zawati brings in a new and welcome addition to the existing literature on this topic." -Anne-Marie de Brouwer, Associate Professor, Tilburg Law School

"This timely and critical landmark analysis, brilliantly analyzes the basic laws and jurisprudence of the international criminal tribunals and courts on wartime gender-based crimes with reference to the legal principle of fair labelling. In his cutting edge work, Dr. Zawati lays the foundation stone of what he calls the theory of "fair proportionality" between punishment and crime, and emphasizes that the abstractness and lack of a precise definition of wartime gender-based crimes in the statutory laws of the international criminal tribunals and courts violate the principle of fair labelling, and lead to disproportion between offences and penalties." - Journal of Rights (Majallat al-Huqooq), Issue No. 1, Volume 38 (2014), pp. 709-717. (Arabic).

"Fair Labelling and the Dilemma of Prosecuting Gender-Based Crimes at the International Criminal Tribunals presents a thorough analysis of the prosecution of gender based crime at the international courts and tribunals, and offers a framework for reconceptualising, defining and labelling gender based crimes that can aid the reformulation of the tribunal's laws. It will be of great interest to international lawyers, judges and scholars." -Eithne Dowds, Queen's University, Belfast, Journal of Feminist Legal Studies, Vol. 22, Issue 57