1. Legacy of Nuremberg

2. Nuremberg Trials
The International Military Tribunal of 1946, convened by the U.S., British, French and Soviets, which convicted the major Nazi leaders who survived World War II
AND
Twelve cases tried by U.S. military tribunals at Nuremberg from of groups of doctors, lawyers, industrialists, and more.

3. Sir Geoffrey Lawrence, President, Opening Remarks
Why Trials?
The Trial which is now about to begin is unique in the history of the jurisprudence of the world and it is of supreme importance to millions of people all over the globe.
Sir Geoffrey Lawrence, President, Opening Remarks
Create precedents in international law
Create moral precedents
Collate historical record
Precedent: Always look to the past to make decisions for the future. Also wanted to send a message to future Hitlers.
Plain: We will not descend to their level – a political solution as advocated by Churchill and Stalin. Wanted to have them found guilty through due process. Milosovec and Hussein trials are and will be an example.
Collate: Nazi paper trail massive – becomes a record for historians, teachers and future generations. Foresaw era of Hol. Denial – same reason Eisenhower filmed camp liberations. Important lesson for future generations – everything was planned – Wannsee Conference, Mein Kampf, etc. Wanted to send a signal that if people are planning and talking, it will happen. Goring also understood this – wanted to give Nazi perspective. Hence his memoirs in prison and his active defense of the “least bloody revolution in history.” Milosevic is also doing this – has media and technology tools – playing to a hometown crowd, trial is live in Serbia.

4. Legacy International Law Human Rights & Genocide Conventions
Code of Medical Ethics
Enforcement Mechanisms & Tribunals
Models of Bringing Individual Perpetrators to Justice
Deportations to Home Countries for Justice
Vocabulary: War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity, Genocide
Models: International Criminal Court, War Crimes Trials, Truth and Reconciliation Commission

5. Legal Changes International Tribunal Individuals Tried
States do not commit crimes; individuals do
No Immunity for Heads of State, etc.
First time an international tribunal convened to prosecute perpetrators in international law. Prior to this: domestic.
Until then, international law did not recognize individuals, only countries. This meant that individuals did not have human rights – no inherent dignity and worth by virtue of being human. Human rights until then did not exist.
In individual countries, immunities are respected – sovereign and independent. No state can subjugate another state or its reps. to its laws. But an international tribunal has no reciprocity rules.

6. Substantive Innovations
Established Crimes Against Humanity as a charge: mass crimes – murder, torture, (rape)
Established Crime of Genocide
A new order of magnitude
Was not a charge but was being articulated by a man named Raphael Lemkin

7. Timeline
11/30/43: Moscow Declaration signed by U.S., U.K., Soviet Union and China.
2/4-11/45: Yalta agreement signed
by Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin
4/12/45: Truman becomes President
4/12/45: Dachau liberated by U.S.
Moscow Declaration: Fascist Leaders and army generals known or suspected to be war criminals shall be arrested and handed over to justice.
Yalta Agreement: Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin agree to prosecute Axis leaders after the Allies achieve victory in Europe. Pledge to bring all war criminals to just punishment.

8. Timeline continued 4/30/45: Adolf Hitler commits suicide.
5/2/45: Supreme Court Justice Robert
Jackson appointed as chief U,S,
prosecutor in the Nuremberg War
Crimes Trial.

9. Timeline continued
5/8/45: Germany surrenders unconditionally to Allies.
7/7/45: Jackson visits Nuremberg & recommends it as trial site.
8/2/45: Potsdam Protocol
8/8/45: London Agreement
10/6/45: 4 powers issue
joint statement of indictment

10. Timeline continued
10/14/45: Sir Geoffrey Lawrence (UK) elected President of the IMT
10/18-19/45: 24 men and 7 organizations are indicted, charged with the systematic murder of millions of people
11/20/45: Nuremberg Trials begin. All defendants plead “not guilty.”

11. Timeline continued 10/1/46: Verdicts handed down.
10/13/46: All appeals rejected.
10/15/46: Goering commits suicide.
10/16/46: Ten war criminals are hanged.
10/25/46: 12 more trials of 199 officials begin.

12. Nuremberg Charges The Common Plan or Conspiracy Crimes Against Peace
War Crimes
Crimes Against Humanity
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Bergen Belsen
Peace: Planning, preparation, initiation or waging a war of aggression, or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances.
War Crimes: Violations of the laws or customs of war – murder, ill-treatment or deportation to slave labor or for any other purpose of civilian population of or in occupied territory, murder or ill-treatment of prisoners of war or persons on the seas, killing of hostages, plunder of public or private property, wanton destruction of cities, villages or towns, or devastation not justified by military necessity.
Humanity: Murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation and other inhumane acts committed against any civilian population, before or during the war; or persecutions on political, racial or religious grounds in execution of or in connection with any crime within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal, whether or not in violation of the domestic law of the country where perpetrated.
Begin to see principles whereby other war crimes, war reparations and reconciliation commissions have operated. No mention of genocide.

13. from his opening statement
The wrongs which we seek to condemn and punish have been so calculated, so malignant, and so devastating, that civilization cannot tolerate their being ignored, because it cannot survive their being repeated. …
Justice Jackson
from his opening statement

14. Shortcomings First time Ad hoc – for a particular purpose
Need a permanent tribunal to be effective, not subject to political whims and current politics
ICC 6/98
Not all sides were investigated
Victors’ justice
E.g. Malmedy Massacre – POW’s shot during the Battle of the Bulge

15. Defense Restrospective Law-making Superior Orders
Crimes Against Humanity didn’t exist until 1946
Cannot legislate retrospectively – unfair and wrong. A person is entitled to act if it is not illegal – there should be no surprises. However, Tribunal unearthed rationale behind this – Nazis should not be surprised. Looked at internal legal systems and state practices which set precedents for international laws. Without exception, every single state outlawed murder, even Germany, throughout WWII. So defendants could not have been taken by surprise.
Superior Orders: Anticipated this defense – SO could not be invoked as an exculaptry defense – the major 22 defendayst GAVE the orders. Tribunal developed spectrum based on moral choice – the greater the choice, the less SO counted. There were gradations, and a spectrum was recognized – sensible way to deal with human behavior.

16. So … Nuremberg Trials closed the circle … International Law prevailed
Message sent
International Law prevailed against a regime that held international law in contempt
A loud and strong message that there is a higher law above national legal systems that could hold leaders to account AND the people who took their orders

17. Legacy: Genocide Convention
1933: Raphael Lemkin begins to write about mass murder as a crime under international law
1943: Coins the word: “genocide.”
Greek –genos (family, tribe or race)
Latin cide (killing)
1946: Genocide recognized by UN as crime in international law
1948: Genocide Convention adopted by UN. Rape eventually added as an act of genocide
Uses the words” Barbarity” and “Vandalism” – not enough Genocide first used in his book: Axis Rule in Occupied Europe
1948: States obligated to bring perpetrators to justice once a genocide is acknowledged. Central to charters of International Tribunals.
Closes the Nuremberg loopholes: States could not be left alone and states and rebels were liable for genocide whether internal or external. Permitted and Mandated Intervention.
Rape: – e.g. Bosnia

18. Genocide Convention Article I:
The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish. 
Article II: In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. 
Article III: The following acts shall be punishable:
(a) Genocide; (b) Conspiracy to commit genocide; (c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide; (d) Attempt to commit genocide; (e) Complicity in genocide. 
Article IV: Persons committing genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III shall be punished, whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals.

19. Legacy: Genocide
4 decades before the U.S. ratifies the Genocide Convention
50 years before anyone is convicted of genocide
97 countries ratify the convention before the U.S.
Objections:
Infringement on U.S. sovereignty
Obligated U.S. to act

20. Sen. William Proxmire D-Wisconsin
1967 Began campaign
1985 Bitburg Cemetery Visit
2/11/86 Genocide Convention Ratified by U.S.
19 years
3,211 speeches
Bitburg Cemetary Visit – protests prompted Reagan to push for GC

21. Legacy: Human Rights
Adoption by UN of Declaration of Human Rights follows the Genocide Convention in 1948 on the next day.
Article 1.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Article 2.
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.
Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.
Article 3.
Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
Article 4.
No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.
Article 5.
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

22. Legacy: Nuremberg Code of Medical Ethics
Code of Ethics:
Informed Consent mandatory and exercised freely
Experiments must avoid physical and mental suffering
Experiments must be avoided if death or disabling injury a possibility
Doctors’ Trial
Ultimate betrayal of trust we place in doctors: murder and torture done in the na,e of medical research and science.
Message: No corner of society is immune from prosecution.
Focused primarily on High Altitude experiments, Cold Experiments, Sterilization experiments

23. Never Again?

24. Genocides Continue Armenia East Timor Sudan Europe Uganda ??
Indonesia Iraq ??
Burundi Yugoslavia
Bangladesh Rwanda
Uganda
Cambodia

25. War Crimes Continue
Srebrenica
Rwanda
Abu Grahib

26. Genocides are Planned: Rwanda
TO: BARIL/DPKO/UNATIONS NEW YORK
FROM: DALLAIRE/UNAMIR/KIGALI
11 January 1994
“Belgian troops were to be provoked and if Belgians soldiers restored to force a number of them were to be killed and thus guarantee Belgian withdrawal from Rwanda.”
“Since UNAMIR mandate he has been ordered to register all Tutsi in Kigali. He suspects it is for their extermination. Example he gave was that in 20 minutes his personnel could kill up to 1000 Tutsis.”
Genocide began April 6th, 1994
1. Force commander put in contact with informant by very very important government politician. Informant is a top level trainer in the cadre of interhamwe-armed militia of MRND.
2. He informed us he was in charge of last Saturdays demonstrations which aims were to target deputies of opposition parties coming to ceremonies and Belgian soldiers. They hoped to provoke the RPF BN to engage (being fired upon) the demonstrators and provoke a civil war. Deputies were to be assassinated upon entry or exit from Parliament. Belgian troops were to be provoked and if Belgians soldiers restored to force a number of them were to be killed and thus guarantee Belgian withdrawal from Rwanda.
6. Principal aim of Interhamwe in the past was to protect Kigali from RPF. Since UNAMIR mandate he has been ordered to register all Tutsi in Kigali. He suspects it is for their extermination. Example he gave was that in 20 minutes his personnel could kill up to 1000 Tutsis.

27. The “G” Word Ghost of Mogadishu Genocide = Obligation to Act
Public is silent
“no recognizable national interest in taking a role” Washington Post, 4/17/94
“Rwanda: Is the world just too tired to help?” Ted Koppel, Nightline 5/4/94
“The phones aren’t ringing” – NSA Anthony Lake
UN Operation in Somalia to relieve famine in 1992 – led by UN and US – Blackhawk down 10/16/93 – 18 US Rangers and 3 helicopters. US reaction – get out – restrict US participation in UN PKING

28. Eventually … War Crimes Trials occur Accountability
Documentaion and trials demonstrate meticulous planning
Essential to truth-telling and reconciliation

29. Not On My Watch …
Many countries investigated their own accountability – French, Belgians and UN – Not the US. However, 9/01 – Atlantic Monthly publishes Power’s findings after 3 year investigation into the Clinton Administration’s response to Rwanda. 3 weeks later – memo on genocide prevention makes it’s way onto President Bush‘s desk, summarizing Atlantic article and warning on Burundi
Read quote on p. 311

30. The Legacy cont.
CNN.com Friday, March 18, 2005 Posted: 6:25 AM EST (1125 GMT)
Dutch Iraq war crimes case opens
London Times World News April 02, 2005
Darfur genocide trials to reach world court after US 'climbdown' From James Bone in New York
Dutch Iraq: ROTTERDAM, Netherlands -- A Dutch court has opened hearings in the case of a businessman accused of helping former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein commit genocide by selling materials for chemical weapons to Baghdad.
Frans Van Anraat, 62, appeared in a Rotterdam court Friday to face charges of complicity in war crimes and genocide.
Darfur: THE United States has granted its first formal recognition of the International Criminal Court by agreeing to allow perpetrators of atrocities in Darfur to be brought before the new global tribunal.

31. The Legacy cont.
British troops charged with war crimes By Simon Freeman, Times Online, 7/20/05
War-crimes trials gear up in Iraq Hussein and others may be tried in next few weeks in cases that will ripple around the world. By Faye Bowers | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor 2/23/05
British Troops:
British military leaders today said that three soldiers charged with war crimes for mistreating Iraqi prisoners would be tried by a court martial in the UK, and would not have to face the International Criminal Court at The Hague.
The trio have been accused of the inhuman treatment of prisoners in Iraq. They are the first British troops to face charges which fall under the terms of the International Criminal Court Act 2001.
War Crimes Trials: WASHINGTON – With the paint still drying on the walls of the newly constructed Baghdad courthouse, the Iraqi Special Tribunal is counting down to T-day, when it places the alleged perpetrators of the world's most gruesome crimes on trial in front of television cameras for the world to witness. War-crimes trials for Saddam Hussein and 11 of his Baathist Party cohorts, accused of genocide, crimes against humanity, and other human rights violations, will begin within the next two to four weeks, according to a US government official who works with the Iraqis.
They are crucial for not only bringing these leaders to justice, according to international law and human rights experts. But they are essential to promoting the healing of a population still reeling from war and decades of barbaric rule, and for providing a boost to the new Iraqi government's legitimacy.

32. Finally … Intervention and Trials are beginning to make a difference …
Eyes are trained on Washington and Europe
Perpetrators realize the prospect of accountability
“Hotel Rwanda”