IICI guidelines for investigating international crimes and serious human rights violations affecting children

IICI has started developing written guidelines for the accountability-focused investigation of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and systematic and grave human rights violations against and otherwise affecting children.  The audience of the guidelines will include international and national criminal and human rights investigators, as well as prosecutors, judges, other professionals, and policy-and law-makers.

Investigating such crimes and violations in resource-constrained environments (such as conflict-affected and failed-state contexts, refugee and IDP camps) in accordance with the best interests of children and applicable international law and best practices will form a key component of the guidelines.  The guidelines will underscore that directly engaging with children for accountability purposes should be undertaken only by those with specific investigation skills and experience related to children and accountability.  The guidelines will plug an important gap and support the building of the international community’s capacity to properly investigate and pursue justice for such crimes and violations.  The guidelines will build on IICI’s earlier training courses which IICI co-organised with Justice Rapid Response.