COTLER: WAR CRIMINALS AREN’T BEING BROUGHT TO JUSTICE
By Irwin Cotler May 9, 2012
T.S. Eliot famously called April “the cruellest month,” and indeed,
last month we marked the anniversaries of the Rwandan genocide,
Yom HaShoah – Holocaust Remembrance Day – as well as the Armenian
genocide and the Srebrenica massacre.
All of these events began in April, and in respect of that, April
has now been designated as Genocide Prevention Month.
Yet, as we remember the victims, it also bears reminder that many
of the greatest war criminals of the 20th century have not been
held to account for their unspeakable crimes. Indeed, there is
evidence that a significant number of these criminals reside here
in Canada. In particular, on this 18th anniversary of the Rwandan
genocide, Rwanda’s prosecutor general, Martin Ngoga, reported that
many suspected genocidaires today call Canada home, something that
the former Rwandan minister of justice, Jean de Dieu Mucyo, affirmed
in conversations with me.
What is true for Rwandan fugitives is no doubt true for fugitives from
other killing fields. Indeed, the Canadian Centre for International
Justice estimates that approximately 2,000 alleged war criminals and
major criminal human rights violators currently reside in Canada.
Canada was at the vanguard of the international fight against
impunity, when – over a decade ago – our government took the lead
in the establishment of an International Criminal Court, worked
to secure the necessary ratifications to bring the ICC treaty into
effect, and enacted the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act,
with all-party support, in implementation of the ICC treaty – a
landmark initiative that became a model for other jurisdictions.
Regrettably, however, the Canadian War Crimes Program, which was
intended to ensure that Canada would never be a base or sanctuary
for these enemies of humanity, is today seriously underfunded,
underutilized, and, as such, simply unable to carry out effective,
proper investigations and prosecutions of suspected war criminals.
The figures speak for themselves: The government’s war crimes program
budget has not had its seriously underfunded annual $15.6-million
budget increased since it was established in 1998. It is not
nearly enough money to carry out complex domestic and overseas
investigations, contributing therefore, to a near total absence of
domestic prosecutions in Canada.
Accordingly, rather than prosecute war criminals domestically as
initially envisaged, the government has resorted to deporting suspects,
a wholly inadequate remedy, and one that risks undermining the cause
of justice and the struggle against impunity.
For when Canada prosecutes international crimes domestically –
under the principle of universal jurisdiction underpinning our war
crimes legislation – it sends a powerful message that not only will
Canada not serve as a base or sanctuary, but that war criminals are
on notice that they will enjoy neither immunity nor impunity for their
international criminality, which transcends borders and jurisdictions.
By prosecuting genocidaires in Canada, we affirm that genocide –
the crime whose name we should shudder to mention – is the ultimate
crime against humanity, and that we have a collective responsibility
to combat it.
Deportation, then, may well allow human rights abusers to evade
punishment for their crimes, particularly if they are not prosecuted
when returned to their countries of origin.
Indeed, human rights activists have expressed concern, for example,
that an alleged Honduran war criminal recently deported from Canada
will be free from prosecution and punishment upon his return home.
Deportation in such cases can also have a seriously prejudicial
impact on post-conflict peace and reconciliation, for there can be
no reconciliation without peace, and no peace without justice for
the victims of such grave human rights abuses.
A no-less-compelling issue is the government’s obligation not to
proceed with prospective deportations of suspected war criminals if
there is a serious risk of unjust prosecution or cruel and unusual
punishment, or even death consequent upon deportation. Indeed,
Canadian courts have affirmed that such deportations violate both
our charter and the foundational principles of international justice.
Simply put, the wholesale, and effectively automatic, deportation of
alleged war criminals is not an appropriate alternative to the domestic
prosecution of war criminals under the Crimes Against Humanity and War
Crimes Act. Yet, the implementation of the act, and the effectiveness
of government undertakings to enforce it, can only succeed in their
obligatory responsibilities if the necessary resources are provided
to give expression to the hoped-for requisite political will.
And so, as we take leave of the solemn Genocide Prevention Month, we
must recommit to – and implement – a robust Canadian Crimes Against
Humanity and War Crimes Program that effectively holds perpetrators to
account, combats the culture of impunity, and implements the principles
of international justice and reconciliation that ensure that Canada is
not a haven for these hostis humani generis – the enemies of humanity.
Irwin Cotler is a Liberal MP and former minister of justice and
attorney general of Canada. He is an emeritus law professor at McGill
University and has written extensively on war crimes justice.
http://www.calgaryherald.com/opinion/op-ed/Cotler+criminals+aren+being+brought+justice/6594536/story.html