Prosecuting Saddam:
Tribunals Face Challenges to Legitimacy

Statement of Michael Posner
Executive Director of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights

NEW YORK - The arrest of Saddam Hussein gives new urgency to a proposal by the Iraqi Governing Council to create a special tribunal to try those responsible for gross human rights violations.

The Lawyers Committee supports the creation of a tribunal to prosecute these crimes. But in order for the tribunal to be successful it must address several key challenges.

One principal challenge the special tribunal faces is to be seen as independent, both in Iraq and elsewhere. The tribunal can help enhance its independence by involving the broader international community in its work. In particular the tribunal should seek to involve countries with direct experience investigating and trying crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide.

A second challenge is that the tribunal must have technical capacity to investigate and prosecute these crimes. Other countries emerging from periods of severe repression or conflict - for instance, the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Cambodia, and Sierra Leone -- have found it essential to enlist international experts to prosecute these crimes in an effective manner.

Partnership with the international community need not involve surrendering local ownership and control. It is possible to establish a tribunal that would apply Iraqi law, give a central role to Iraqi jurists and other personnel, and apply international law.

As it drafts the legal framework under which these tribunals will operate, the Governing Council should also ensure that its rules comply with internationally recognized fair trial standards.