The Hague: hub for humanity
Constructing the road towards accountability
Dutch commitment explained
Article 90 of the Dutch constitution prescribes that the Dutch government furthers the international legal order. As a result, The Hague is now considered to be the legal capital of the world. It’s not only a place where important conventions have been adopted in the past, but it also hosted and hosts various international legal organisations, such as the International Court of Justice, various ad hoc international criminal tribunals and the permanent International Criminal Court.
National expertise
Building on Canadian best-practices The Netherlands was an early adopter of a so-called national comprehensive approach regarding the investigation and prosecution of perpetrators of core international crimes. In the 90’s specialist war crimes units were set up within the migration service, the police and the office of the prosecutor. Lateron, a national multidisciplinary strategy regarding combatting core international crimes was developed as well as a national Task Force.
Capacity building
The developments in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda in the 90’s, the establishment of both the Yugoslav and Rwanda tribunal and the adoption of the Rome Statute, leading to the International Criminal Court, were catalysts for more countries to invest in specialist war crimes units. Within the EU, another factor was the establishment of one common external border and the open inner-borders. In December 2010 FIDH and Redress published “Strategies for the Effective Investigation and Prosecution of Seriuous International Crimes: The Practice of Specialist War Crimes Units” and in September 2014 HRW published “The Long Arm of Justice. Lessons from Specialized War Crimes Units in France, Germany and The Netherlands“.
Intergovernmental cooperation
The Council Decisions 2002/494/JHA and 2003/335/JHA have been crucial to foster EU(+) cooperation in the field of international criminal justice. Contact points were appointed and as from 2011 the Genocide Network Secretariat was established within Eurojust. In November 2014, the Genocide Network adopted the Strategy of the EU Genocide Network to combat impunity for the crime of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes within the European Union and its Member States. This Strategy, based on the experience of practitioners and past meetings of the Genocide Network, identifies best practice and includes a list of recommendations for EU Member States and Institutions to combat impunity. Europol has now a dedicated Analysis Project Core International Crimes and the European Asylum Support Office has a dedicated EASO Exclusion Network.
Towards cross-sector cooperation
Some 14 countries that are member of the Genocide Network now have specialist war crimes units. In recent years, the Genocide Network has become a point of reference and as such opened up for cross-sector cooperation. The Genocide Network (national prosecutors), now brings together Interpol/Europol (criminal investigations), and dedicated NGO’s (Human Rights and Victims centered organisations) and the EASO Exclusion Network (migration).
The Eurojust Genocide Network at a glance
It’s foreseeable that the hub will win in importance and will attract:
- research and knowledge institutions
- civil society organisations
- private sector organisations and start-ups (e.g. The Hague Humanity Hub)
- security sector and bordersecurity
- open source research institutions
Great chances may well lay in areas such as:
- data and artificial intelligence
- operational support
- expertise
- prevention: early warning systems
- wisdom of the crowd