Abstract
The purpose of this Article is to start a debate on whether human rights fact-finding conducted under the auspices of the United Nations should be used to establish individual criminal responsibility, and whether the information obtained through such missions should be used in international criminal prosecutions. Throughout this Article, I look into the goals, functions, and mandates of human rights fact-finding, and the working methods used in fact-finding missions. My analysis includes a comparison of the methods applied in human rights fact-finding and the procedural rules of international criminal law. Using three cases—the missions to Rwanda, Darfur, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)—I show that there are no procedural and methodological standardized rules on how to conduct human rights fact-finding. As a result, each mission applies its own standards for establishing criminal responsibility.
Recommended Citation
Talsma, Lara
(2012)
"U.N. Human Rights Fact-Finding: Establishing Individual Criminal Responsibility?,"
Florida Journal of International Law: Vol. 24:
Iss.
2, Article 4.
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.ufl.edu/fjil/vol24/iss2/4