Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity

War crimes, torture, indiscriminate detention and attempts to wipe out large numbers of people based solely on their social identities all too frequently demonstrate man's inhumanity to man. We will examine the debates over the definition, adjudication and punishment of such acts, and study several cases in depth in order to shed light on how effective domestic and international legal institutions can be in preventing such crimes in the future, redressing those that do occur and shaping collective memory and social reconciliation. The Nuremberg legacy, the Israeli kidnapping and trial of fugitive Nazi Adolf Eichmann, the South African and Guatemalan truth commissions, the Pinochet case, the UN trials of Milosevic at The Hague and those of the Rwandan genocidaires in Arusha, the abuses of Abu Ghraib, the fate of Saddam Hussein, and the ongoing detention and alleged mistreatment of supposed enemy combatants in the U.S.-held enclave of Guantanamo, Cuba, will provide primary material for analysis and discussion. A field research and observation visit to the international juridical entities at The Hague, Netherlands, will be offered in mid-March for interested students, who will pay a program fee and their own air transportation expenses. PRJ, REA, WRI