Special international Criminal courts : Legal Achievements or Selective justice

Abstract

The temporary international criminal tribunals represented an essential step in the path of international criminal justice, as they came in response to serious crimes that shook the conscience of humanity, as the international military tribunals at Nuremburg and Tokyo established the principle of individual criminal responsibility and the absence of impunity after World War II and laid the foundation for the principle of trying individuals for international crimes, regardless of their position. In the 1990s, the international criminal tribunals for Yugoslavia and Rwanda reinforced this trend by prosecuting crimes of genocide and crimes against humanity. These courts contributed to Developing international criminal law, strengthening the principle of non-impunity, and establishing a culture of accountability at the international level.