The Justice Cascade: The Origins and Effectiveness of Prosecutions of Human Rights Violations

Abstract

The justice cascade refers to a new global trend of holding political leaders criminally accountable for past human rights violations through domestic and international prosecutions. In just three decades, state leaders have gone from being immune to accountability for their human rights violations to becoming the subjects of highly publicized trials in many countries of the world. New research suggests that such trials continue to expand and often result in convictions, including some of high-level state officials. This article summarizes research on the origins of the justice cascade and its effects on human rights practices around the world. It presents evidence that such prosecutions are affecting the behavior of political leaders worldwide and have the potential to help diminish human rights violations in the future.

Human Rights Trials in an Era of Democratic Stagnation: The Case of Turkey

“…13 More recent studies of this phenomenon, which Sikkinnk calls the "justice cascade," use large-N data analysis to test the impact of trials (Sikkink and Booth Walling 2007;Kim and Sikkink 2010, 96;Olsen, Payne, and Reiter 2010;Sikkink and Kim 2013). The assumption that human rights trials follow democratic transition is strong in this literature as well (Sikkink and Booth Walling 2007;Kim and Sikkink 2010, 96;Olsen, Payne, and Reiter 2010;Sikkink and Kim 2013), consistent with the previous scholarship (see Carothers 2002, 7). The frequent usage of the term "after transition" projects an image of an unambiguous process of democratization.…”

Is conflict prevention a science, craft, or art? Moving beyond technocracy and wishful thinking

“…More recently, such grand debates have given way to a recognition that different ontological and epistemological commitments come with their own scope conditionsor at least benign ignorance. Furthermore, core insights of social constructivism for example about the importance of norms, ideas, and identities have been taken up by rationalist scholars (Sikkink and Kim, 2013;Simmons, 2009;Weinstein, 2007). Analytical eclecticism and mixed methods studies try to combine the comparative strengths of different approaches (Cornut, 2015a;Sil and Katzenstein, 2010).…”

comparative frame analysis of state party reports related to the international covenant on civil and political rights

“…Finally, this study expands the scope of criminology. Although research in other domains like political science, law, and public policy have written extensively about human rights, human rights institutions, and their application (See: Alter 2011;Oberlietner, 2007;Sikkink & Kim, 2013), there is very little literature that uses criminological or sociological theory to explain or understand human rights institutions. Rather, the literature comes from a legalistic approach that does not take into account cultural, historic, or social contexts.…”

“…Throughout the remaining decades of the 20 th century, mass atrocities throughout the globe became the concern of political leaders and human rights advocates, which paved the way for a growing interest in human rights. This shift towards human rights accountability has been described as the "justice cascade" (Sikkink and Kim, 2013). The justice cascade refers to a trend of holding political leaders accountable for human rights violations (Sikkink, 2011).…”

“…The justice cascade refers to a trend of holding political leaders accountable for human rights violations (Sikkink, 2011). Beginning with the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials, the justice cascade resulted in trying the atrocities that took place during World War II in court (Sikkink and Kim, 2013). This growing interest in human rights, catalyzed by historical events, has subsequently lead to the creation of many global human rights institutions such as the International Criminal Court, International Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia, and the United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner.…”