Fairness In International Criminal Law

1. INTRODUCTION
It is the most common perception of people to prosecute and punish those who commit war crimes or atrocities against humanity, nonetheless they should be given a fair trial. A fair trial, free from judicial bias and political pressures is a legal right. The fairness is not only the prerogative of the victims but also the accused for it is an important component of the mandate to the International Court of Justice. To interpret fairness one requires a more holistic concept not just limiting to judicial proceeding but one that effectively helps parties realise their rights under the Rome Statute. The concept of fairness in international criminal law is derived from its predecessor, international human rights law. The genesis of

The paper will also look into the whether the international courts have the independence and powers to initiate and ensure a fair trial or are they limited by the paper based laws and political pressures. Further the paper will look at the plausible ways to counter fair-trial limiting tendencies that cloud the intentions of the international tribunals.

2. CRITERIA FOR A FAIR TRIAL
In order to assess whether the International courts and ad-hoc tribunals are fair in their approach or not, it’s important to analyse the standards by which these trials should be judged. To assess this is not as straightforward for these courts are sui generic in nature. The ad hoc courts for starters do not replicate the rules of any one single legal system. Further their statutes contain no choice of law provisions making the interpretation of law difficult for lawyers, judges and commentators.
There are various standards that can be used to assess this problem like binding obligations, human rights treaties to which the states are party etc. In order to counter these problems certain norms are referred to which are:
1. The laws of the countries of

LEGAL FRAMEWORK
The major legal provisions related to a fair trial at the International Criminal Court are found under the Rome Statute which is binding and the law needs to be interpreted in a manner ‘consistent with internationally recognised human rights provisions. ’ Fairness is the crux and an indispensable requirement for the continuation of any trial and if these requirements are not met with there have been precedents wherein the trials have been very nearly dismissed.
The trial chambers responsibility to ensure fair trial is established under Article 64(2) which ensure a ‘fair and expeditious’ trial is conducted with full respect to the rights of the accused while not undermining the rights of the victims and protection both to the victims and witnesses. Further a party has the right to appeal against an “acquittal, conviction or sentence on any ground that effects fairness or reliability of proceedings are questionable”. Besides this if any other decision too seems dubious in light of conduct of proceeding it is protected