For twenty years, ad-hoc courts (for example the ICTY for ex-Yugoslavia and ICTR for Rwanda), ‘institutionalised’ courts such as the Special Court for Sierra Leone or Lebanon, as well as special tribunals or chambers in various countries such as East Timor, Kosovo and Cambodia, have been created to enable investigations and prosecutions in places where the national judicial systems do not permit them. These international or internationalised courts have, however, very precise, time-specific mandates; they are created as a mechanism for transitional justice following a conflict or particular event.
FIDH has worked to see these courts set up and function effectively, and continues to work in this direction, for example in the creation of the Special Criminal Court in the Central African Republic.
FIDH has also represented 10 civil parties, who were victims of crimes committed during the Khmer Rouge regime, in hearings before the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC).