Internationalized Criminal Tribunals

The principal international criminal tribunals that have operated to prosecute individuals for serious violations of international criminal law or international humanitarian law – such as war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity – are those established by the United Nations.  Click the following links to learn more about the mandates of these bodies, which include the:

The international community has also cooperated with national governments to establish “internationalized” tribunals to prosecute international crimes.   These courts may operate exclusively within a national judicial system or may have been established by an agreement between the United Nations and the national government, and as such, their staffing and judicial composition may be national or international in nature.

Such bodies have been specially created as part of an international effort to try individuals for crimes under international law, and their jurisdiction is generally limited to specific periods of time corresponding to particularly intense periods of conflict or unrest involving widespread human rights abuses.  Former and existing internationalized criminal tribunals and domestic courts prosecuting war crimes, include: