scholarly journals Reconciling Indigenous peoples with the judicial process: An examination of the recent genocide and sexual slavery trials in Guatemala and their integration of Mayan culture and customs

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-252
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Madeleine Patterson
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
National Court ◽  
Judicial Process ◽  
Sexual Slavery ◽  
Legal Decisions ◽  
Head Of State ◽  
Military Commanders ◽  
Almost All ◽  
First Time

This article examines two recent landmark cases in Guatemala. The first one is the 2013 Rios Montt genocide case, which led to one of the first convictions of a former Head of State for genocide in a national court. The second one is the 2016 Sepur Zarco case, which marked the first time former military commanders were convicted in a national court of crimes against the duties of humanity for sexual and domestic slavery. In both cases, almost all the victims were Indigenous. The author was present for parts of both trials as an international observer and interviewed individuals directly involved in the prosecution. Considering that Guatemalan and international law require that legal decisions give due consideration to the customs of the Indigenous peoples concerned, the article assesses to what extent Indigenous culture was taken into account during the trial and how Indigenous concepts and customs were considered in the judgements. In both cases, the tribunal did not modify usual court procedures, except to provide interpreters for the testimony of the unilingual Q’eqchi and Ixil witnesses. Both judgements did, however, take into account several concepts and customs from the Mayan worldview and these were key to the Court’s reasoning leading to the guilty verdicts.

Towards the International Protection of Indigenous Peoples' Rights

1994 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 405-423 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julian Burger ◽  
Paul Hunt
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
International Protection ◽  
Cultural Genocide ◽  
Indigenous Movement ◽  
The Right ◽  
Human Rights Standards ◽  
First Time

This article traces the development of indigenous peoples' international activity and considers why the international indigenous movement has grown since the 1970s. The authors examine the draft declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples which is due to be considered by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights for the first time in early 1995. The article makes some general points about the draft declaration before looking in some detail at three of its provisions: the right to protection from ethnocide and cultural genocide, the right to guarantees in relation to cultural and intellectual property, and the provision about treaties between indigenous peoples and States. The authors argue that although these provisions build on existing international law, they constitute an innovative evolution of international human rights standards.

scholarly journals EL DERECHO EN INSURRECCIÓN: El uso contra-hegemónico del derecho en el movimiento purépecha de cherán*

2013 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Orlando Aragón Andrade
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Movements ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Social Process ◽  
Judicial Process ◽  
Derechos Humanos ◽  
Municipal Authority ◽  
The Social ◽  
First Time ◽  
Political Scene

El 2 de noviembre de 2011 la Sala Superior del Tribunal Electoral del Poder Judicial de la Federación emitió una resolución a favor del municipio indígena de Cherán en la que por primera vez en la historia del Estado mexicano reconoció el derecho de un municipio indígena para elegir a una autoridad municipal conformada de acuerdo a sus “usos y costumbres”. Esta sentencia que ha sido considerada paradigmática en materia de derechos humanos de los pueblos indígenas en realidad fue el corolario de un extraordinario proceso social que trastocó la escena política de Michoacán en plena coyuntura electoral. En este trabajo reflexiono a partir de mi experiencia como abogado de la comunidad de Cherán en el proceso judicial citado y como participante de este proceso los alcances y los límites del uso del derecho en los movimientos sociales de los pueblos indígenas de México.palabras clave: Cherán, derechos humanos, “usos y costumbres” y uso críticodel derecho.---LAW IN UPRISING: The counter-hegemonic use of law in the Purepecha movement of CheranOn November 2nd, 2011, the Electoral Court of the Judicial Power of the Federation in México, issued a resolution in favor of the indigenous town of Cherán. For the first time in México’s history, the state recognized an indigenous municipality’s right to elect a municipal authority formed according to their “uses and customs”. This judgment, which has been considered paradigmatic for indigenous peoples’ human rights, was actually the culmination of a remarkable social process that disrupted Michoacán’s political scene, while in full electoral conjuncture. Parting from my experience as a lawyer of the community of Cherán in said judicial process, and as a participant of it, I reflect in this paper on the scope and the limits of the use of law by the social movements of México’s indigenous peoples.keywords: Cherán, human rights, “customary”, and law’s critical use.

Introduction

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
George Ulrich ◽  
Ineta Ziemele
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
International Law ◽  
National Court ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Annual Conference ◽  
Global Challenges ◽  
The World ◽  
The Republic ◽  
First Time ◽  
Different Parts

The 12th Annual Conference of the European Society of International Law (ESIL) took place in Riga, Latvia, on 8‒10 September 2016. The Society organized the conference together with the Riga Graduate School of Law and the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Latvia. The overall purpose of the conference was to address the theme: How International Law Works in Times of Crisis. This was a conference characterized by several firsts. It was the first time that the Annual Conference had moved to Eastern Europe. It took place in a country with a wealth of relevant history for international law. It was also the first time that among the organizers we could count a highest national court. The conference gathered one of the highest numbers of participants, that is, 420 from 43 countries representing different parts of the world. The general theme of the conference reflected on both past times and current developments and on both regional and global challenges implicating international law....

Indigenous Peoples: An Emerging Object of International Law

1986 ◽  
Vol 80 (2) ◽  
pp. 369-385 ◽  
Author(s):  
Russel Lawrence Barsh
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Indigenous Rights ◽  
Indigenous Populations ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
International Level ◽  
Annual Session ◽  
Indigenous Organizations ◽  
First Time

The Working Group on Indigenous Populations, an organ of the United Nations Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, ended its fourth annual session last August by distributing seven “draft principles” to governments and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) for comment as the first step in preparing “a draft declaration on indigenous rights, which may be proclaimed by the General Assembly.” For the first time since indigenous organizations took their concerns to the international level in 1977, a formal commitment has been made to the development of new law, probably in time for the “cinquecentennial” in 1992 of the “discovery” of the Americas and a proposed international indigenous year.

‘Sexualized Slavery’ and Customary International Law

2020 ◽  
pp. 366-380
Author(s):  
Patricia Viseur Sellers ◽  
Jocelyn Getgen Kestenbaum
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Slave Trade ◽  
Sexual Assaults ◽  
Sexual Slavery ◽  
Customary International Law ◽  
Legal Decisions ◽  
International Crimes ◽  
Sexualized Violence ◽  
Actus Reus ◽  
Males And Females

This chapter examines the doctrinal avenues for the recognition and prosecution of ‘sexualized slavery’. The Hissène Habré trial and appellate judgments represent watershed legal decisions rendering long-denied justice to victims of the brutal Chadian regime. Delayed charges of credible sexual violence inflicted upon both males and females challenged the judges of the Extraordinary African Chambers (EAC) in Senegal. Legal characterizations of sexual assaults ultimately attributed to Habré represent significant jurisprudential advancements on rape, sexual slavery, and torture as international crimes. The EAC's observations acknowledge that sexual slavery constitutes part of the actus reus of enslavement as crime against humanity and of slavery as a war crime. While agreeing with the Chambers that sexual slavery is anchored in customary international law, the chapter deepens the inquiry into the international legal prohibition of sexual slavery. It posits that, in fact, the 1926 Convention to Suppress the Slave Trade and Slavery (1926 Slavery Convention) proscribed what is identified as ‘sexual slavery’ because sexualized violence is and always has been part and parcel of both de jure (legal) and de facto (customary) forms of slavery.

Piracy and Law in the Ottoman Mediterranean

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua M. White
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Mediterranean Basin ◽  
Islamic Law ◽  
Comprehensive Examination ◽  
Legal Space ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
First Time ◽  
Eastern Half ◽  
The Mediterranean Basin

This book offers a comprehensive examination of the shape and impact of piracy in the eastern half of the Mediterranean and the Ottoman Empire’s administrative, legal, and diplomatic response. In the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, piracy had a tremendous effect on the formation of international law, the conduct of diplomacy, the articulation of Ottoman imperial and Islamic law, and their application in Ottoman courts. Piracy and Law draws on research in archives and libraries in Istanbul, Venice, Crete, London, and Paris to bring the Ottoman state and Ottoman victims into the story for the first time. It explains why piracy exploded after the 1570s and why the Ottoman state was largely unable to marshal an effective military solution even as it responded dynamically in the spheres of law and diplomacy. By focusing on the Ottoman victims, jurists, and officials who had to contend most with the consequences of piracy, Piracy and Law reveals a broader range of piratical practitioners than the Muslim and Catholic corsairs who have typically been the focus of study and considers their consequences for the Ottoman state and those who traveled through Ottoman waters. This book argues that what made the eastern half of the Mediterranean basin the Ottoman Mediterranean, more than sovereignty or naval supremacy—which was ephemeral—was that it was a legal space. The challenge of piracy helped to define its contours.

The End of Empire and the Search for Justice

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Linarelli ◽  
Margot E Salomon ◽  
Muthucumaraswamy Sornarajah
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
International Economic ◽  
International Law ◽  
International Economic Order ◽  
The United States ◽  
Economic Order ◽  
Global Context ◽  
Neoliberal Ideology ◽  
First Time

This chapter is a study of the themes of the New International Economic Order (NIEO). It begins with the notion of justice that had been constructed in imperial law to justify empire and colonialism. The NIEO was the first time a prescription was made for justice in a global context not based on domination of one people over another. In its consideration of the emergence of a new notion of justice in international law, the chapter discusses the reasons for the origins of the NIEO, and goes on to describe the principles of the NIEO and the extent to which they came into conflict with dominant international law as accepted by the United States and European states. Next the chapter deals with the rise of the neoliberal ideology that led to the displacement of the NIEO and examines the issue of whether the NIEO and its ideals have passed or whether they continue to be or should be influential in international law. Finally, the chapter turns to the ideas of the NIEO alongside new efforts at promoting a fuller account of justice by which to justify and evaluate international law.

Sovereignty, Self-Determination, and Natural Resources

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jérémie Gilbert
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
International Law ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Potential Role ◽  
Food Sovereignty ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Ambivalent Relationship ◽  
The Right

The issue of sovereignty over natural resources has been a key element in the development of international law, notably leading to the emergence of the principle of States’ permanent sovereignty over their natural resources. However, concomitant to this focus on States’ sovereignty, international human rights law proclaims the right of peoples to self-determination over their natural resources. This has led to a complex and ambivalent relationship between the principle of States’ sovereignty over natural resources and peoples’ rights to natural resources. This chapter analyses this conflicting relationship and examines the emergence of the right of peoples to freely dispose of their natural resources and evaluates its potential role in contemporary advocacy. It notably explores how indigenous peoples have called for the revival of their right to sovereignty over natural resources, and how the global peasants’ movement has pushed for the recognition of the concept of food sovereignty.

Genocide in Rwanda – Is It Really Finland's Concern?

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 155-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Minna Kimpimäki
Keyword(s):  
National Court ◽  
Universal Jurisdiction ◽  
Life Imprisonment ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Court Of First Instance ◽  
First Time

AbstractIn June 2010, a Rwandan citizen, Francois Bazaramba, was sentenced in a Finnish court of first instance, to life imprisonment for acts of genocide committed in Rwanda in 1994. This was the first time that the provisions of Finnish law dealing with genocide had ever been applied in a court. This article examines the details of this case, as well as the Finnish legislation on genocide, jurisdiction and extradition. Many of the questions considered in this article are not only typical for Finland, but have a more general bearing as well. For instance, the issues relating to the transfer or extradition of fugitives to Rwanda have recently been considered in several national and international jurisdictions. A trial conducted in a national court on the basis of universal jurisdiction reveals in a concrete way the advantages and disadvantages of this form of prosecution.

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