is the tide changing when it comes to holding perpetrators accountable?
A. Progress is being made in the effort to end impunity for grave human rights abuses. During the 1990s, the U.N. created two international tribunals to prosecute those responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. These tribunals have indicted and convicted hundreds of people and have set precedents that will influence laws and trials for years to come. Survivor–led justice movements have emerged in many countries to pursue individuals responsible for violating their human rights. For example, the arrest of former Chilean president Augusto Pinochet in 1998 in London transformed public awareness of the possibility for overcoming impunity. The anticipated trial of former Chadian president Hissène Habré in Senegal would mark the first time the national courts of an African state prosecute a former leader of another state for crimes committed against his own people. Thomas Lubanga, former founder and leader of a militia gr
