The Impact of Human Rights Prosecutions

New perspectives on human rights prosecutions in
various regional contexts

Human rights
prosecutions are the most prominent mechanisms that victims demand to obtain
accountability. Dealing with a legacy of gross human rights violations presents
opportunities to enhance the right to justice and promote a more equal
application of criminal law, a fundamental condition for a more substantive
democracy in societies. This book seeks to analyse the impact, advances, and
difficulties of prosecuting perpetrators of mass atrocities at national and
international levels. What role does criminal justice play in redressing
victims' wrongs, guaranteeing the non-repetition of mass atrocities, and
attempting to overcome the damage caused by systematic human rights violations?
This volume addresses critical issues in the field of human rights prosecution
by drawing on the experiences of a variety of post-conflict and authoritarian
countries covering three world regions. Contributing authors cover prosecutions
in post-Nazi Germany, post-Communist Romania, and transnational legal
complaints by victims of the Franco dictatorship, as well as domestic and
third-country prosecutions for human rights violations in the pioneering South
American countries of Argentina, Chile, Peru, and Uruguay, prosecutions in Darfur
and Kenya, and the work of the International Criminal Court.

The Impact of Human Rights Prosecutions offers insights into the difficulties human rights trials
face in different contexts and regions, and also illustrates the development of
these legal procedures over time. The volume will be of interest to human
rights scholars as well as legal practitioners, participants, justice system
actors, and policy makers.

Contributors: Aleida Assmann (University of
Konstanz), Kristine Avram (Philipps University of Marburg), Ulrike Capdepón
(University of Konstanz), Rosario Figari Layús (Justus Liebig University of
Giessen), Boris Hau (Diego Portales University), Iris Jave (Pontifical Catholic
University), Geoffrey Lugano (Kenyatta University), Joachim J. Savelsberg
(University of Minnesota), Debbie Sharnak (Rowan University), Valeria Vegh Weis
(Free University of Berlin), Annette Weinke (Friedrich-Schiller University
Jena)

This publication is GPRC-labeled (Guaranteed Peer-Reviewed Content).