The Daily Star, Lebanon
April 23 2004
Examining efforts to stop genocide
Some wonder if international treaties are enough
The US is singled out for particular criticism in its renouncement of
the International Criminal Court convention
By Leila Hatoum
Special to The Daily Star
The international community must go beyond judicial commitments and
processes in order to prevent genocides.
That was but one of the arguments raised Thursday at the start of a
two-day international conference on “Genocide, Impunity and Justice,”
organized and held by the Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia.
“What is the use of all the treaties and institutions … if the
powerful do not abide by [them]?” said Nawaf Kabbara, professor of
political sciences at the Balamand University.
“Justice is determined by the powerful, but in the power game, the
dominant emerges, but he is not necessarily the best,” he said.
The conference was meant to coincide with the anniversary of the
Armenian genocide which took 1.5 million lives.
“The 20th century was an age of genocides,” said Catholicos Aram I,
in his opening speech, despite ” significant and encouraging
development.”
This was the result of numerous international declarations for human
rights, including the establishment of the International Criminal
Court (ICC) in 1998, he said.
According to him though, the international community “failed to
respond immediately in Rwanda, which led to disastrous repercussions.
While in Kosovo, thousands of human beings were saved because of a
preventive action.”
Aram also pointed out that the punitive approach is an essential
factor for the restoration of justice, which only happens when the
rights of the victim are fully recognized and adequately addressed.
“Why can’t the International Criminal Court bring governments or
nations to justice?” asked Aram.
He added that the punitive approach should be followed by retributive
justice. This means that victims should be compensated, truth should
be revealed and responsibility accepted.
Information Minister Michel Samaha, who delivered President Emile
Lahoud’s address, said that the Ottoman state took the lives of 1.5
million Armenians in the massive genocide it carried in the early
20th century to eliminate Armenian culture .
However, the “Armenian people were able to survive, and rebuild their
country,” said Samaha. As for refugees, “they were able to mingle
with the countries they fled to and contribute to their development,”
he added.
Louis Joinet, magistrate at the Court of Cassation in France, and the
rapporteur of UN special sub-commission on human rights, spoke of the
natural humanitarian movement towards impunity and justice.
“There has to be a right to know individually and collectively where
and when genocide took place. (There also has to be) a right to
achieve justice,” said Joinet.
He added that “good justice” is never quick, and that he prefers
reconciliation through pardon.
But according to Joinet, the question is who should be pardoned? He
pointed out that no one was willing to claim responsibility for such
actions, as France did for the massacres in Algeria years after they
had originally occurred.
Ninan Koshy, ex-human rights professor at Harvard University, said
that back in the 1920s there was no definition of massacre until
Rafael Lemkin, a linguistics student in Poland, gave it the name
genocide.
Koshy also said that the ICC is hampered by legal loopholes, such as
its inability to look into crimes that took place before the court
came to force in July 2002.
Another threat was manifested by the US, as Koshy pointed out when he
explained that the US was still looking to avoid responsibility for
its actions.
“May 6, 2002, the Bush administration renounced US ratification of
the Rome treaty that formally established the ICC,” said Koshy.
He added that on August 3, 2002, the US declared it would use
military force if necessary to liberate any American or any citizen
of an allied country that was held by the ICC – a move dubbed as the
Hague Invasion Act.
“What would the US do? Bomb the Hague?” Koshy said.
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