Gambling with the Psyche: Does Prosecuting Human Rights Violators Console Their Victims?

摘要

Legal action against those accused of committing brutal violations of human rights has flourished in the last decade. Saddam Hussein awaits trial in Iraq. Augusto Pinochet, Chile's former military leader, has been pursued by European and Chilean prosecuting judges since Spain's Balthasar Garzon sought his extradition for murder in October 1998. Meanwhile, at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia ("ICTY"), Slobodan Milosevic is preparing his defense against charges of genocide and war crimes. Even U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, with other senior officials, has been accused in a privately filed criminal complaint in Germany of being responsible for the torture of prisoners held in Iraq. Such legal actions were almost unimaginable a decade ago.