The Burden of Bearing Witness: The Impact of Testifying at War Crimes Tribunals

King, Kimi Lynn; Meernik, James

doi:10.1177/0022002717736567

Cited by 9 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 62 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In a survey study of 300 ICTY witnesses Kimi King and James Meernik (2017;2019) found that few of the witnesses experienced re-traumatisation due to testifying. Charters and Vahidy (2009) and Stepakoff et al(2005) found that the majority of the witnesses -and particularly the victim-witnesses -in the Sierra Leone tribunal had positive experiences from testifying.…”

Section: Studies Of Victims In Trials After Gross Human Rights Violationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Survivors’ experiences with testifying in trials after gross human rights violations in Argentina

Sønneland

2021

torture

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In Argentina, persons who were held detained-disappeared during the last military dictatorship (1976 - 1983) now testify in trials related to the military regime’s use of enforced disappearances, torture and other crimes. The trials were re-initiated in 2005, after more than a decade of impunity. Trials have been taking place all over the country since then. Trials are related either to individual perpetrators, individual victims, or to places where the crimes were committed. Many witnesses testify in a number of trials. In this article, I explore experiences with testifying in these trials, based on interviews with 23 persons who were held ‘detained-disappeared’ for political reasons during the dictatorship. The witnesses have testified both to what they themselves have endured, and to crimes committed towards persons who remain forcefully disappeared. The testimonies of persons who were held detained-disappeared are central in the trials, as there is often little evidence besides these testimonies. The interviewees express a strong sense of responsibility related to testifying in court, due to the central role of these testimonies as well as the witnesses’ responsibility towards those who remain forcefully disappeared or were killed. Through testimonies in court, persons who remain forcefully disappeared are presented as persons with agency and often with a political commitment; not only as victims of serious violations of human rights. I discuss testimonies in court as a longer process, which begins before the trial is initiated and where the testimony itself is the main event. To testify in court may lead to distress, and there is a worry about re-traumatisation. Several aspects of trials have an influence on the experience with testifying, among them the presence and attitude of the defendants; the presence of threats, the ways in which questions are asked during testimonies, and how many trials the witness has testified in.

show abstract

Section: Studies Of Victims In Trials After Gross Human Rights Violationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Survivors’ experiences with testifying in trials after gross human rights violations in Argentina

Sønneland

2021

torture

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The greater the damage to their physical and mental well-being as a consequence of war, the more susceptible individuals become to intimidation and threats of violence (Davies 2014). While not all those who survive exist in a perilous state indefinitely, as many may be quite resilient and become motivated to speak truth to power, those who can be intimidated represent prime opportunities for targeted violence (King and Meernik 2019).…”

Section: Targeting and Violencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…These witnesses are an attractive target for those seeking to deter them from testifying because they isolate themselves and may have a limited social network (Justino 2009). Conversely, healthy coping mechanisms should help increase a witness’ resilience and provide a social support system offering protection against would-be adversaries (King and Meernik 2019). Those who seek the support of others (friends, family, religious figures, coworkers, etc.)…”

Section: Targeting and Violencementioning

confidence: 99%

The Security Consequences of Bearing Witness

Meernik

King

2019

Journal of Conflict Resolution

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

It is a central assumption of our research that threats to a fragile security and violence can continue during postconflict peacebuilding and that these threats are driven by many of the same sociopolitical dynamics that initially led to war. We examine a critical but much less queried area of postwar societal instability—violence directed at segments of the population who may still be targets for those seeking dominance. Using a survey of 300 individuals who testified before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), we seek to explain violence, threats of violence, and other forms of intimidation directed at those who witnessed human rights violations during the wars in the former Yugoslavia. Our theory of postwar violence emphasizes the vulnerability of the (potential) victims of postwar violence. We argue that victims are selectively chosen because of their vulnerability. We develop and test an alternative explanation for this selective targeting that emphasizes the level of exposure an individual may have because of testifying at the ICTY. The results demonstrate quite convincingly, however, that it is vulnerability rather than exposure risk that predicts who is most likely to be targeted with human security threats.

show abstract

“…Scholars across the disciplines have extensively examined the relative merits and faults of the witness‐driven model, highlighting concerns such as reliability and re‐traumatization, to name a few (Ciorciari and Heindel ; Combs ; Dembour and Haslam ; King et al ; Stover ). Such studies often focus on the experience of the individual witness as their object of research.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Mass Atrocity, Mass Testimony, and the Quantitative Turn in International Law

Keydar¹

2019

Law Soc Rev

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The article identifies and analyses the development it labels the “quantitative turn” in international criminal law. Addressing the cumulative effect of the large numbers of witnesses in international processes, the article considers quantity as an integral, and substantively beneficial, component of the law's response to atrocity crimes. The article develops a theorized understanding of the relationship between mass atrocity and mass testimony and provides a taxonomy of the functions that the quantity of testimonies fulfills in international trials: the evidentiary, didactic, epistemic, and restorative functions. Focusing on a recent case before the International Criminal Court in the matter of The Prosecutor v. Bemba, the article demonstrates how the different players in the international justice system—Prosecution, Defense, Victims, and the Court—employ the functions of quantity, while negotiating concerns over manageability and scale. The goal of this article is to prompt a debate and a more careful consideration of the potential benefits of a meaningful participation of witnesses and victims in post‐atrocity proceedings. This is particularly important given the dominance of the efficiency paradigm in international criminal law (ICL) discourse, which directly impacts the quantitative turn. The article forges new ways for ICL institutions to maintain a plurality of voices and their commitment to victims while safeguarding the rights of the accused.

show abstract

The Burden of Bearing Witness: The Impact of Testifying at War Crimes Tribunals

Cited by 9 publications

References 62 publications

Survivors’ experiences with testifying in trials after gross human rights violations in Argentina

Survivors’ experiences with testifying in trials after gross human rights violations in Argentina

The Security Consequences of Bearing Witness

Mass Atrocity, Mass Testimony, and the Quantitative Turn in International Law

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About