This article discusses to what extent Nils Christie's famous stereotype of the 'ideal victim' is applicable in a context of international crimes. It argues that the characteristics of the ideal victim of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes largely overlap with the ideal victim of conventional crimes. Nevertheless, victims of international crimes face much more difficulty in publicizing their fate and consequently 'benefiting' from their status as victim. It is only when potential status givers are aware of the victims' existence that the victim status can be granted. It is argued that, to grasp international media attention, particular attributes of a conflict should also be present: the conflict should be comprehensible, have a unique selling point, have a limited time span and be well-'timed'. Whether such media attention materializes in actions by international politicians or private humanitarian organizations depends on domestic policies, geopolitical interests, accessibility to the region and the possibility of donors identifying with the victims.
While cited as one of the goals of international sentencing and used as a factor for deciding on early release, rehabilitation of perpetrators of international crimes has thus far been neglected by academia and practitioners. This article presents an analysis of all ICTY and ICTR early release decisions handed down until July 2013, indicating how the tribunals have conceptualised rehabilitation of these ‘enemies of mankind’. After observing that the success rate of rehabilitating international prisoners is very high, we suggest that this may be attributable to (i) a lack of the Presidents’ critical evaluation of the materials upon which he bases his conclusions regarding prisoners’ rehabilitation and (ii) the fact that perpetrators of international crimes are a ‘different kind of perpetrator’. We offer suggestions to re-conceptualise rehabilitation in the context of international crimes and to adjust the enforcement system of international sentences in order to better promote rehabilitation.
Against the backdrop of push-pull and social network theories on migration and criminological theory on human smuggling, this article tries to answer the questions of why and how Angolan asylum-seekers migrated to the Netherlands since the end of the 1990s. The study shows that the migrants can be described as opportunity seeking migrants, rather than survival migrants. Most migrants made no use of typical human smugglers during their travel. They rather used assistance from their social network and made use of the services of middlemen, called esquemas, on an ad-hoc basis. In this article it is argued that ''archetypal'' large smuggling organisations in Angola have not evolved because of the existence of these highly informal networks. Support is found that both push-pull and social network theories can contribute to explaining irregular, asylum migration.
The departure of substantial numbers of ‘foreign fighters’ and the occurrence of terrorist attacks on European soil have prompted renewed interest in citizenship deprivation as a policy measure. This article aims to contribute to the debate on its utility as a counterterrorism measure by examining recent developments in citizenship deprivation legislation and its use in Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK; discussing the wide array of possible scenarios that may follow after an individual is deprived of citizenship; and analysing to what extent the various outcomes are instrumental in countering terrorism. It concludes that most of the outcomes are problematic from a human rights perspective, or counterproductive in the fight against terrorism as they may cause further marginalisation and radicalisation and can play into the hands of terrorist groups, may cause people to disappear from the radar, and may undermine crucial international cooperation.
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