In a discussion paper entitled What is Governance?, Francis Fukuyama searches for a better way of measuring the quality of good governance. Fukuyama argues that current measures are woefully inadequate for complex countries - like China and the U.S. - and do not account for bureaucratic capacity and autonomy. CDDRL's Governance Project, led by Fukuyama, will begin working to develop an empirical instrument to measure governance incorporating these principles.

The Program on Human Rights at Stanford's Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law inaugurated the 2012-2013 Sanela Diana Jenkins Speaker Series by hosting a Dec. 7 seminar with the former prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), the Honorable Luis Moreno-Ocampo. The lecture series will bring to light current challenges and possibilities for the ICC over the next decade, which include: how to determine reparations for victims; U.S. and ICC relations; and nation-state cooperation. During the 2012-2013 academic year, the series will examine the ICC by hosting debates with local, national and international experts, academics and activists.

On July 1, 2002, the ICC was established by more than 100 nations to ensure that those who have committed violations of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity are brought to justice. National governments that have signed the treaty establishing the ICC have promised to progressively structure their national criminal systems so these egregious human rights violators will be brought before their own people and courts under fair trial processes.

In the last decade the ICC has brought 16 cases to the court from seven different conflicts in Africa.

“The ICC is now firmly established as international destination for genocidaires,” said Helen Stacy, director of the Program on Human Rights. “In the coming decade, we shall know better whether the ICC deters would-be genocidaires before they commit their awful crimes. The next decade will also show if the world's biggest exceptionalists — such as the U.S. and China —are willing to accept ICC jurisdiction. The time is ripe for this series to assess the impact of the international criminal justice on human rights after devastating conflict, both its triumphs and its shortcomings,” continued Stacy.

Moreno-Ocampo came to the ICC with a distinguished record as a prosecutor in the trials of Argentine military officials of the 1976-1983 military dictatorship. Over his ten year term in the ICC, Moreno-Ocampo was responsible for establishing the Office of the Prosecutor as an institution, opening ICC investigations and prosecuting those who were ultimately brought to trial.

The ICC and Moreno-Ocampo symbolize historic achievements in international law. The 121 signatories to the treaty recognizing the ICC demonstrated that international criminal justice is an important issue on the global political agenda. In addition, the ICC’s actions in its first decade have not only had a positive impact on the lives of tens of thousands of direct victims, but also for millions of people in affected communities and societies who have re-built their lives after years of civil war, genocide, murder, rape and the destruction of property.  

“We are looking forward to a lively conversation about important issues of global politics and justice at Stanford and on the web,” said Richard Steinberg, visiting professor of international relations at Stanford and editor-in-chief of the Online Forum. Steinberg, who is also a professor of Law at UCLA, added, “The series will feature debate on key questions about the ICC, including the extent to which peace and international justice are compatible and how the ICC can retain its legitimacy as a justice institution while navigating the perils of international politics.”

The Sanela Diana Jenkins ICC Speakers Series will take place over three academic quarters: a fall quarter workshop with Luis Moreno-Ocampo; a winter quarter speaker series open to the entire Stanford community and the public (and also a one-unit credit course for Stanford students); and a spring quarter conference. The results of these conferences will be compiled in a working papers series on the ICC and international criminal justice. Beginning January 8, 2013, speaker series presentations will also be presented to and debated by a global audience on the Human Rights & International Criminal Law Online Forum at www.stanfordhumanrights.com.

 For more information on the series, please visit: http://humanrights.stanford.edu/events/one_decade_of_the_international_….

The Program on Human Rights at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) is beginning to expand its research to examine the response of regional and sub regional court systems to human trafficking in Asia. Stanford Professor Helen Stacy, a senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and director of the CDDRL Program on Human Rights, initiated this new research initiative during a visit to Jakarta, Indonesia in September.

“Regional and sub regional courts are key to dealing with the international issue of human trafficking when governments are unwilling or lack the capacity to modulate trafficking across borders,” said Stacy. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have until very recently moved beyond approaching of human trafficking as an issue of national sovereignty and towards  a regional strategy Trafficking in the region is most widely acknowledged as an issue involving women and children.

While in Jakarta, Stacy met leading activists on the ground as well as court and government officials. This included the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR), personnel at the U.S. Embassy and activists working for grassroots anti-trafficking NGOs. The ASEAN declaration against trafficking —adopted in November 2004 —is now the primary document against the trafficking of women and children in the region. The AICHR, founded in September 2009, now mediates the regional response to human trafficking.

Personnel from the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta are also working to institutionalize Indonesia’s larger response to human trafficking. The forced labor and trafficking of young boys to fishing platforms off the coasts of many surroundings islands remains a growing concern. Campaigns set up through the U.S. Embassy and local NGOs are now working with local law enforcement to recognize, manage and prevent trafficking using a victim-centered and sensitive approach. 

Groups working on anti-human trafficking in and around Jakarta are gaining growing support from the community. Founded by survivors of sex trafficking, a woman’s empowerment and anti-human trafficking organization campaigns around the capital of Indonesia working with victims and strengthening networks of women.

Stacy’s background in regional and sub regional court systems in both southern and eastern Africa has shaped the platform for a study of such existing systems in ASEAN. Her work now continues in Burma, Thailand and China.