1. Innovation, Independence and Dysfunction: The role of international organizations in Holocaust & Transitional Justice Reparations Efforts Dr. Kathy L. Powers Visiting Fellow United States Holocaust Memorial Museum & University of New Mexico Department of Political Science School of Law Program of Africana Studies kpowers1@unm.edu

2. South African Apartheid What can you do if the perpetrators of human rights violations receive amnesty?

3. Rwandan Genocide How do you resume living next to your neighbors after your neighbor murdered your family as well as tortured and sexually mutilated you?

4. Who protects you when your government commits human rights violations toward you (e.g., Holocaust Victims, Asian Comfort Women)?

5. Bosnian Serb Ethnic Cleansing of Muslims in Srebrenica in 1995 What recourse do you have when you are forced to flee your home because of civil conflict or you are forcibly impregnated as a strategy to eradicate your ethnic group?

6. Slavery in America Are reparations possible when so much time has passed? Contemporary contours e.g. Ferguson

7. Who protects you? If your human rights are violated by your government… Who protects you? What recourse for justice do you have?

8. What are your options when your atrocities have been committed against you? Survive Simmer Take up arms Seek Justice

9. Key Questions In the aftermath of mass atrocities, what is justice? Why are some reparations efforts pursued and awarded while other such efforts are not? What role do international institutions play in individual reparations efforts?

10. What is justice?: The Holocaust

11. Reparations in International Relations Victor’s Justice Fines exacted among states, usually for damages incurred during war (Torpey 2006:8) Victor state forces defeated state to pay reparations as punishment. Old: World War II Reparations In 1945, West and East Germany paid $23 billion in war reparations to the Allies. New: Holocaust Restitution and Reparations 450 million DM to Israel for the relief, rehabilitation and resettlement of European Jewish refugees. Reparations for material claims in the from of indemnification and restitution to the Claims Conference (through Israel). Only Western European victims received reparations.

12. What is an IO? Organization with bureaucracy Treaty Regime Network of relationships Treaty Nesting Legal person with rights and duties under international law

13. What is treaty nesting? Treaties are connected. together. Linkage must be considered in order to understand treaty effects. Multilateral treaties linked to bilateral treaties Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) International Criminal Court

14. Table 1: Treaty Nesting Relationships: Cooperative Treaty RelationshipDescription AmplifyTo build new understandings in an already existing treaty SpecifyMore narrowly extends content of an existing treaty ImplementImplement content in an existing treaty AdjustsTo address unintended consequences of an existent treaty PreparePreparing member states for entry into another treaty *LegalizeMake norms in one treaty binding in another

15. Table 2: Treaty Nesting Relationships: Conflictual Treaty FunctionDescription CircumventCircumventing the content in an existent treaty *Remove/stripRemove or strip content of an existing treaty *TerminateOne treaty terminates another treaty.

16. What is International Legal Personality? A State Possesses sovereignty Controls a defined territory General authority over a population Similar to a person in a domestic legal system Capacity to own property Capacity to enter into contracts Capacity to bring a claim or be subject to one in an international tribunal Capacity to engage in international relations

17. International Legal Personality Do non-state actors have rights and duties separate from states under international law? Can an individual bring a claim against a state in an international venue? Can an international organization sign an international treaty?

18. International Legal Personality IGO rights and duties: Reparations Case of 1949 Can an IO bring a claim or be the target of one in certain international venues? Can bring a claim against a member or a non-member state?

19. International Legal Personality IGO Treaty-making power: Usually conferred under constituent treaty “The capacity of an international organization to conclude treaties is governed by the rules of that organization.” (Art. 6, VCLTSIO) Some IGOs do not have treaty making powers e.g. Benelux Union Others do e.g. EU, MERCOSUR SACU

20. International Legal Personality and IGOs IGOs with ILP: Have rights and duties separate from member states that create it Is a legal person with the ability to contract in its own name No presumption that the creator is liable (Amerasinghe 1996: 67)

21. International Legal Personality and IOs Sources of legal personality: Constituent treaty Delegation Case law Implied or Assumed powers

22. Types of International Organizations Intergovernmental Organizations (IGOs) Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) Is there something in between?

23. Institutional Innovation, Independence and Dysfunction: The Holocaust Institutional Landscape Pre-Nuremberg War Crimes Trial Field Teams Field trials accompanied Allied liberation. Nuremberg Charter Treaty used to create international courts that tried individuals for war crimes under international law. Allied Military Law Used to create the Jewish Restitution Successor Organization that sought reparations for individuals. Reparations Agreement of 1952 Agreement between states for German restitution to Israel Created an NGO that negotiates reparations agreements with states for individuals.

25. What is Transitional Justice ? Transitional Justice: Refers to the set of judicial and non-judicial measures that have been implemented by different countries in order to redress the legacies of massive human rights abuses. Transitional Justice Mechanisms: War Crimes Tribunals Truth Commissions Reparations Lustration Amnesty Institutional Reform

26. Reparations and War Victim’s Justice Reparations for mass human rights violations committed (Powers and Proctor 2014). Violation of rights under international law so a right to redress. “Connote with massacres inflicted on defenseless individuals and place the call for for redress in a lexical field demarcated by trauma, memory, and recognition—in a web that draws on the Holocaust as its foundational event” (Ludi 2012: 1) Reparations demanded in post-dictatorship and post-conflict societies, but….also… in cases of unresolved historic injustices, in negotiations to settle armed conflicts and in criminal and civil cases involving war crimes and HRVs” (ICTJ 2010).

27. Institutional Innovation, Independence and Dysfunction: Transitional Justice Reparations Institutional Landscape Treaties Peace agreements, trade agreements Courts International ICC Victims Trust Fund Regional European Court for Human Rights, Inter-American Court for Human Rights Domestic U.S. Airline Stabilization Act of 2011 IO Resolutions e.g., United Nations Right to Remedy (2005) War Crime tribunals ICC Victim’s Trust Fund Truth Commissions South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission Argentina’s Truth Commission Reparations policy programs Governments pass legislation that creates and funds a reparations program

28. Holocaust Restitution and Reparations vs. Transitional Justice Reparations Notion of justice has evolved with the acknowledgement of trauma. Individuals can pursue reparations claims cases against their own governments in venues above the state. Reciprocal influence. International legal personality and treaty linkages are factors that should be considered in explaining reparations pursuits and awards.