Transitional Justice Watch

A PARADOX FOR THE WEST

Kenya, a country that is a vital ally against the Islamist militancy in the region and has sent 5,000 troops to Somalia as part of the western backed force. The only problem is the newly elected Kenyan president, Uhuru Kenyatta, is facing charges against humanity at the International Criminal Court.

Kenya's fourth president, Uhuru Kenyatta, thanks well-wishers after being sworn in last month. Source: Simon Maina/AFP/Getty Images

 

            Now that he is the president of a key ally, how will the West treat? Well before his victory western countries stated that they will have only “essential contact” with him. West while fighting against the extremists in the region must use caution not to ally it self with an accused war criminal. Sine the victory in the  elections the government of Kenya is pressuring the UN to seize the trail against the Kenyan president.  The West must stand firm against such attempts and be cautious not to sacrifice its morals in order to achieve a military alliance in the region.

 

LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL FOR JUSTICE

 

            When we think about administrating justice, we sometimes place limitations on its deliverance, these limitations are called statue of limitation. According to the statue of limitations there is a certain time limit on prosecuting a person for a crime they might have committed many years ago. The news article I read this week would inspire those of us who believe in the long arms of justice and believe that statue of limitation should never apply to war criminals.

Hans Lipschis: Nazi who served at Auschwitz arrested in war crimes probe. Source: Mirror News

 

            Mr. Lipschis, a former Nazi SS guard at the infamous Auschwitz camp was arrested on Monday by the German authorities. The authorities believe they have “compelling evidence” that the 93-year-old is the now 6^th most wanted man on the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s List.  After WWII, Lipschis moved to the United States and was deported in 1983 after an investigation brought to light his Nazi past.  The story of Mr. Lipschis serves as a warning to all those who have committed crimes against humanity. The warning being that you may hade for decades, but justice will find you one day.

Syria: A land of Massacres

 In a recent Al Jazeera news article there were reports of massacres carried out by the government and the rebel forces. According to the news article “Government forces and militia members loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad stormed the coastal village on Thursday, killing between 50 and 100 people including women and children, according to opposition activists.” The same article points out that the rebel forces also carried out the massacres.

 

A Free Syrian Army fighter practiced using a Dragunov semiautomatic sniper rifle during training exercises in the countryside outside of Homs in June. Source: The New York Times (May 5, 2013)

 According to the article  “There were reports that the raid came in response to rebels attacking a busload of pro-Assad fighters, known as shabiha, earlier in the day, killing at least six and wounding up to 20 more.” In the past two years Syria has become a land of massacres, where both the government and the rebel forces are killing indiscriminately. The global community has a responsibility to intervene; the only question is how and in what capacity?

Transitional Justice and Crowd Mapping (Revised)

             Transitional Justice is a term used to describe a post conflict period that encompasses accountability for crimes committed. We live in a globalizing world, anything happening thousands of miles away is reported to us by CNN or social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.  Still when it comes to hundreds of thousands victims of crimes committed during a conflict, the victims are stuck in a long legal limbo. Refugees fleeing Syria for example have described being raped by the government forces and the rebel forces. Many have lost their relatives and are unable to locate them post conflict or after fleeing. How can we assess the true impact a major conflict has on the civilian population? Well, I believe that it’s very clear that we need to use technological tools to enable a more efficient collection of data, which can be used to create crowd mapping.

            Crowdsourcing is a method of getting a feedback from a community through various electronic devices. The reporting process is simple and often easy to use with a simple mobile device with a SIM card in places where access to computers is scarce. Currently the United Nations collects its statistical data through various international agencies and NGO’s working in regions of conflict.  But the statistics cannot be very reliable since the regions that are in turmoil and experiencing human rights violations are also too dangerous for organizations to put people on the ground to collect data. The challenge for transitional justice is to ensure that the data collected is not only reliable and well documented, but the International Criminal Court is able to use that data to prosecution at a later date.

            The data attained through crowdsourcing can be used to create a crowd-map, during this process the data is visualized through the use of maps. Crowd-mapping currently being utilized in Syria by many different NGO’s in order to keep the world more informed.  Syria Tracker, a crowd mapping dealing with crimes ranging from water tampering to killings. The question is how useful has the collection of data been as far as prosecution of those committing crimes against humanity is concerned? While we have yet to see any legal actions against the regime or member of the regime in Syria, since the conflict is still ongoing. We can certainly analyze past prosecutions of war criminals to see what sort of data is required to actually prosecute a war criminal.

             In 2002, the International Criminal Court was established to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression. Since its foundation the ICC handed down only two verdicts. First in July 2002, the ICC found Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, a military commander from the Democratic Republic of Congo for violating various crimes against humanity and sentenced him to 14 years in prison. The second man to receive a verdict was a militia leader by the name of Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui also from the Democratic Republic of Congo and this time the court delivered an acquittal. The ICC recognized that mass murders took place in the country, which occurred while Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui was a militia leader.  When reading the acquittal the ICC stated that the witnesses presented were not credible and therefore there was not enough evidence for a conviction. The ICC pointed out that there is a lack of valuable data collection as the basis for the acquittal. In order to insure justice in places where it may be very difficult to gain access. The ICC must set a standard of collecting evidence through crowdsourcing, which can be used during trials. We must as members of the human community seek to close the gaps and come together to put an end to human rights abuses, especially during conflicts.

 Presiding Judge Bruno Cotte from France (L) and Judge Christine Van Den Wyngaert from Belgium (R) stand during the verdict of the trial of Congolese warlord Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, December 18, 2012. Source: Voacongostory

            Crowd mapping as a concept is a great tool, but for the purposes of collecting evidence it must be incorporated with legal experts to help guide the collection of data and there must be cooperation and collaboration with the United Nations. The collaboration must include local population, lowest level of government body still able to provide reasonable amount of security, and legal experts such as law enforcement experts and lawyers. Finally, all the participants must be able to not only look at the collected data, but also provide recommendations. The collaborated data must then be submitted to the prosecutors of war crimes in order to prosecute those responsible at a later date or whenever reasonable security may allow.

            In practice, crowd source mapping would work something like this. A person in Syria sends a text ‘witnessed 3 people get shot by the Syrian military’ to the widely publicized website, the website would in a series of texts gain relevant data (legal requirements established by the ICC for this case). The website is automatically programed to use the relevant information to contact the legal professional (interested in human rights and war crimes). These professionals sort through the data and prepare a report to be forwarded to collaborative international organizations (e.g. United Nations). These records are then kept on file in order to present them to the ICC once the military conflict is over.

            In conclusion, as I pointed out justice at the international level has been moving at a very slow pace, as compared to our technological advances. In order to level the field a more collaborative crowd mapping system is needed. One in which legal experts from around the world can provide their inputs on cases. While crowd mapping will provide the locations and other data on crimes the technical experts can assist in ensuring the quality of the data collected is up to the ICC standards, through perhaps a peer review process.  Finally, there must be collaboration with the United Nations and NGO’s in order to perhaps share resources in order to hold perpetrators of heinous crimes responsible.

 

 

My Reflection

The field of transitional justice heavily depends on data gathered by NGO’s or international organizations, such as the United Nations. In many cases the data that is retrieved represents a small portion of the whole. In the age of information and Arab Springs, we have seen tyrant regimes take precautions to stop the flow of information. Across the region many nations even shut down their Internet in efforts to control the information leaving the borders.So, how can open data help prevent major catastrophes committed by a sovereign state, which is suppose to be responsible for the security of its citizens.

Well, the idea open data that states that certain data should be available for general public to use. This can lead to entrepreneurs using the data to do things like data mapping, During my Governance 3.0 class I was thrilled to see how raw data from taxi cabs was used to illustrate the movements of taxis on a map. Through cross data analysis one can see where the most social activities take palace or where is one most likely to be stuck in traffic. If possible any data obtained from a country could help us visualize events chronically. As technology increases in developing countries the growth of data will increase, allowing for many possibilities to analyze data.

So, how do we obtain data in a nation that proactively seek to suppress or distort information flow in and out of their state? Prof. Jack Snyder in an interview with me last week said that news media is also a form of big data. Analyzing the news and the information it releases to the public and how it dispenses it may help open the doors to better understanding. This I think may allow a better understanding in states that proactively seek to suppress or distort the information flow.

Interview with Prof. Jack Snyder

This Wednesday, I had the opportunity to sit down with Prof. Jack Snyder from Columbia University. Professor Snyder is the Robert and Renee Belfer Professor of International Relations in the political science department and the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University.  He has authored many books and articles. Some of his books include Electing to Fight: Why Emerging Democracies Go to War (MIT Press, 2005), co-authored with Edward D. Mansfield, From Voting to Violence: Democratization and Nationalist Conflict (Norton Books, 2000, and The Ideology of the Offensive: Military Decision Making and the Disasters of 1914 (Cornell 1984). We had a conversational interview about transitional justice and the role of big data. Our conversation began with Prof. Snyder describing his experience in Egypt. He described how the streets were empty when he went there and how the infamous Tahrira Square in Cairo was completely empty. Then suddenly thousands gathered again as soon as the verdict against Hosni Mubarak was given.  I asked Prof. Snyder why did this happen?  He stated that through the noises of the crowd he heard anger being expressed against what the Egyptians saw as leniency towards Mubarak.

The Egyptians wanted more accountability. They wanted Mubarak to be pay for what they saw as crime against humanity. There is no doubt the under Mubarak’s regime many Egyptians were killed and tortured. One can imagine the anger and frustration the revolutionaries felt for Mubarak who had ruled Egypt for three decades. Who is Mubarak’s regime should be prosecuted? Here lies the main paradox in the field of transitional justice. In one hand we want those responsible to be held accountable and yet everyone living under an authoritarian regime must obey the orders of the regime. For example, a person working as a journalist in Egypt would never criticize the government unless he or she was prepared to go to prison or worst. 

I then asked Prof. Snyder about the role the technology played in spreading the revolution.  Prof. Snyder stated how although technology makes it easy to communicate today, there have been revolutions in the past that spread pretty fast and they had only printing press (referring to the French Revolution).  So, I asked Prof. Snyder why does he think this is so? He made two recommendations and future research that may have the potential to answer this question. First, an analysis of media and how it dispenses the data may help to explain whether if regions of conflict disburse data within their ethnic or national group or do they reach across those lines perhaps this can help to show how big data can influence people. Second, an analysis of whether media broadcast can help to modernize public opinion or does the public opinion narrow the views of the media.

I asked if Prof Snyder “Do you think transparency is always better”? He responded by saying, “Yes, it more transparency is always good.” I thoroughly enjoyed my conversation with Prof. Jack Snyder and look forwards to sitting down with him again. As I move forward I will definitely sought out more scholars and practitioners in order to shed more light on challenges facing transitional justice. 

Nassar Habib on Transitional Justice

I went to a great event today hosted by Transitional-Justice Network at New York Law School. Professor Ruti Teitel, a leading authority on transitional justice, chaired the event and the guest speaker was Habib Nassaar, director of Middle East and North Africa at PILnet. Mr. Nassar has 15 years of experience in human rights and transitional justice in Middle East and North Africa. Mr. Nassar explained how the Arab Spring rose out of deep economic crisis. Many type of crisis are used to spread corruption and maintain control in countries that went through the Arab Spring. Mr. Nassar made a great point about evaluating economies of the countries in order to understanding corruption. The rise of which can lead to toppled governments and insecurity. The field of transitional justice is encompasses all elements that deal with the transition from one government to another (victor).  I am hoping to interview a very special speaker on the matter of transitional justice very soon.  

Russia's Ghosts (Revised)

            The Russian government has come a long way from the Soviet years to a democratic nation it is today. But, there are a few issues from its Soviet past it must confront in order to move forward democratically. It must exercise the influence it has and play a more active role in Syria, by taking the side of the people not the tyrant. Finally, Russia must allow its citizens to express their opinions without the fear of repercussions, if it truly seeks their input in Opening Government. The purpose here is not to criticize the efforts by the Russian government, but rather point out some ghosts in its past that once confronted would make Russia a truly marvelous democracy.

            First, It is important for the Russian nation to demonstrate that it will not tolerate crimes against its own citizens, no matter when they have occurred. During the period between the Bolshevik revolution and the fall of Soviet Union the Russian government killed and displaced millions of its own citizens and yet no one has been prosecuted or even condemned.  The most conservative accounts of mass murders during the Joseph Stalin’s regime place the number of those killed at 25 million. During the period between 1935- 1941 more than 19 million people were arrested and sent to the Gulag or remote concentration camps. During the great trails and purges hundreds of thousands of communist leaders were put to death without a trail out of 1.7 million total persecuted. Yet the Russian government post Soviet era has failed to condemn these catastrophes.  It is Important for Russia to set a strong foundation of trust between it self and the citizens by addressing the mistakes of the past.

Source: Russian Pedia

            Second, The Russian Government must show its commitment to democratic movements abroad. Arab spring showcased the hopes of ordinary Arabs, fueled not by some radical ideology, but rather aspirations of democracy and liberty. Syria like many other Arab nations demanded openness and more basic human rights, but instead of hearing their calls for change and reforms the regime of Bashar al-Assad has been carrying out catastrophes against civilian population. The recent death toll numbers suggest more than 70,000 Syrians have been killed by the regime through vicious military attacks against its own population, during almost 2 years of conflict. The Russian government is in a position to use its influence in the region and pressure the Syrian regime to open the lines of communications with its citizens and seize all hostilities.   

Source: Foreign Policy Blogs

            Lastly, in spirit of the Open Government initiative the Russian government must take steps to allow its citizens to express their views without being penalized. Much like the show trails of the Soviet era three Russian women, all members of the Pussy Riot music band were arrested and imprisoned for publicly criticizing the Russian leadership.  On August 17, 2012, they were sentenced to serve two years in a penal colony by the orders of Khamovnichesky District Court in Moscow, causing an outrage throughout the world.

 

Source: The Times of London

            In conclusion, with Open Government Initiative Russia is building a skyscraper of democracy, but without strong foundation this effort is nothing short of window dressing. Russia must build a strong foundation by first addressing the past catastrophes committed by the Soviet Union and condemning them. It must also show its commitment to democracy by supporting open government in Syria, by using its influence in the region. Finally, the Russian citizens must be assured that criticism of government officials will not bring unjust harm to them in anyway. Only then can Russian truly commit to the concept of Open Government, in which it already vows to protect human rights.

 

 

Government 3.0 and Transitional Justice

Welcome Everyone,

I just spent a couple of hours in a classroom at NYU with Chris Vein and Beth Noveck. Wow, i can say that I am truly inspired by the discussions that took place. A appetizer for thought, what does Opening Government mean to you?