Vulnerable Populations

In Search of Justice: A Survey among Cambodian-Americans about their Participation in the Khmer Rouge Tribunal

Agustina Calatayud
Vener Macaspac
Rosa Maria Martinez
Rebecca Minty
Rebecca Palstrom
Eleanor Taylor-Nicholson
Julia Watson
2011

Little attention has been given to perceptions of the ECCC amongst Cambodian diaspora communities, particularly in the United States. This report examines participation in the ECCC of Cambodians who have settled in the United States and now form part of the Cambodian diaspora. This research was conducted by the 2009–2011 Rotary Peace Fellows at UC Berkeley, supervised by Patrick Vinck and Phuong Pham.

The Impact of the Rome Statute System on Victims and Affected Communities

Eric Stover
Camille Crittenden
Alexa Koenig
Victor Peskin
Tracy Hurd
2010

1. Attention to the concerns of victims of mass violence has grown significantly since the first major international war crimes trials at Nuremberg and Tokyo, where the voices of victims were largely absent. Regional human rights bodies, such as the European Court for Human Rights and the Inter-American Court, have developed effective remedies that States are obligated to provide to victims of serious violations of international human rights. These procedural and substantive rights also have been codified in two important United Nations declarations2 and the Rome Statute of the...

Genocide and the Plight of Children in Rwanda

Eric Stover
Paul Geltman
1997

THE RWANDAN genocide of 1994 will be remembered as one of the greatest human tragedies of our time. In less than 3 months, extremists systematically slaughtered more than 500 000 people, including thousands of children. The massacres reignited a bloody civil war that forced more than 4 million people to flee their homes. Today, nearly 3 years later, Rwanda remains a highly traumatized society, where children are its most vulnerable members. Among those most at risk are more than 100000 children who were orphaned or separated from their parents (United Nations Children's Fund, unpublished...

Justice, Accountability and Social Reconstruction: An Interview Study of Bosnian Judges and Prosecutors

Laurel Fletcher
Harvey Weinstein
2000

Breaking Bread with the Dead

Eric Stover
Molly Ryan
2001

The establishment of two international ad hoc tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, and the creation of an International Criminal Court within the next fi ve years, has increased the need for archaeologists who can assist in the exhumation of individual and mass graves associated with war crimes and genocide throughout the world. This work examines the efforts of teams of archaeologists and forensic scientists which have investigated forced disappearances, political killings, and war crimes in Argentina, Guatemala, Iraqi Kurdistan, and the former Yugoslavia since 1984. As more...

The Missing in the Aftermath of War: When Do the Needs of Victims’ Families and International War Crimes Tribunals Clash?

Eric Stover
Rachel Shigekane
2002

The international war crimes tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda have increasingly relied on forensic scientists to collect physical evidence of mass killings associated with acts of genocide and crimes against humanity. Typically, these investigations have resulted in only a small number of the deceased being identified because the tribunals lack the resources to conduct thorough investigations of the missing or because the evidentiary needs do not require that all of the victims be identified. Meanwhile, the families of the missing are left in a limbo of ambiguous loss...

Violence and Social Repair: Rethinking the Contribution of Justice to Reconciliation

Laurel Fletcher
Harvey Weinstein
2002

This article explores limitations of international criminal trials that assign accountability for mass atrocities to individuals, and offers a model to understand the contribution of trials to social reconstruction. In the last decade, there has been a burgeoning interest in the question of how countries recover from episodes of mass violence or gross human rights violations. This interest has focused on the concept of transitional justice, a term used to describe the processes by which a state seeks to redress the violations of a prior regime. Despite the fact that military and...

Bosnian and Soviet Refugees’ Experiences with Health Care

Juliene G. Lipson
Harvey Weinstein
Eleanor A. Gladstone
Rhonda H. Sarnoff
2003

Studies of refugees in the United States rarely address health the first few years following resettlement in part because the refugees become subsumed under the foreign-born or immigrant category. A national study reaffirmed the so-called healthy immigrant effect, but fewer sick days and less physician use may actually reflect access problems, economic concerns, and health beliefs or practices that clash with American health care. Because statistics may mask differences in health and why people seek professional care, it is important to combine qualitative and quantitative approaches. This...

Trauma and PTSD Symptoms in Rwanda: Implications for Attitudes Toward Justice and Reconciliation

Phuong Pham
Harvey Weinstein
Timothy Longman
2004
Context:

The 1994 genocide in Rwanda led to the loss of at least 10% of the country's 7.7 million inhabitants, the destruction of much of the country's infrastructure, and the displacement of nearly 4 million people. In seeking to rebuild societies such as Rwanda, it is important to understand how traumatic experience may shape the ability of individuals and groups to respond to judicial and other reconciliation initiatives.

Objectives:

To assess the level of trauma exposure and the prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and their predictors among Rwandans and...

Exposure to War Crimes and Implications for Peace Building in Northern Uganda

Patrick Vinck
Eric Stover
Phuong Pham
Harvey Weinstein
2007
Context:

Since the late 1980s, the Lord's Resistance Army has waged war against the Ugandan People's Democratic Army and the people of northern Uganda. Ending the conflict and achieving peace have proven to be challenges. In this context, it is important to examine population-based data on exposure to war crimes to understand how survivors perceive mechanisms aimed at achieving a lasting peace.

Objectives:

To assess the level of exposure to war-related violence and the prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression symptoms in northern Uganda and to determine how...