Librarians’ Note: This E-Library is maintained by the International Crimes Strategy Forum (ICSF), a strategic coalition of activists and organisations sharing the common goal of assisting the prosecution of war criminals of Bangladesh 1971. Only the members registered to E-Library site will enjoy FULL-TEXT download-access to the entries. It is advised that you open your free-account today by clicking the Registration link. To be able to download full-text of the items stored on this library, or to add new items, you will need additional user-rights which can be requested from the Library-Admin at the Feedback-Address. You are also welcome to suggest new records to the library database. We hope the resources made available on this site will facilitate serious research of high standard on issues relating to the Liberation War of Bangladesh and the prosecution of war criminals.

***********************

Arriaza, Naomi Roht. “Universal Jurisdiction: Steps Forward, Steps Back.” Leiden Journal of International Law. 17.2 (2004): 375-389.

Abstract: The arrest of the Chilean general Augusto Pinochet Ugarte in London in 1998, and decisions in UK, Spanish, Belgian, and other European courts supporting his extradition, opened new hope that prosecutions of international crimes in national courts under universal jurisdiction laws might prove a viable strategy for combating impunity. Complainants brought cases in a number of European countries, most notably Spain and Belgium. In Spain, the Supreme Court eventually cut back on the reach of the universal jurisdiction law by superimposing the requirement of a nationality tie to the forum, as well as modifying other prior jurisprudence. In Belgium, the courts grappled with issues of immunity and the ability to initiate proceedings in the absence of the defendant. Under US pressure the Belgian legislature eventually narrowed and weakened the law. The article traces these developments, and concludes that advocates need to be more strategic in choosing both the number and type of cases they present under theories of extraterritorial jurisdiction. The primary criterion, the author argues, should be the potential for the extraterritorial case to catalyze anti-impunity efforts in the territorial state.

Butler, A Hays. “The Doctrine of Universal Jurisdiction: A Literature Review.” Criminal Law Forum. 11.3 (2000): 353-373.

Abstract: The Court lacks universal jurisdiction wherewithal to track down and try perpetrators of heinous crimes irrespective of their nationality and the place where they committed the crimes. The purpose of this article is to provide a resource that will assist scholars, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and governments as they begin establishing an integrated system for the prosecution of serious humanitarian crimes.

Luban, David. “A Theory of Crimes Against Humanity.” Yale J. Int’l L.. 29 (2004): 85-168.

Abstract: This article offers an interpretation of crime against humanity- an interpretation according to which they represent an affront to our nature as political animals. He explains the sense in which crimes against humanity are crimes against humankind. These are crimes committed by politically organized group against other groups in the same civil society.

Mookherjee, Nayanika. “Gendered Embodiments: Mapping the Body-Politic of the Raped Woman and the Nation in Bangladesh.” Feminist Review. 88 (2008): 36-53.

Abstract: There has been much academic work outlining the complex links between women and the nation. Women provide legitimacy to the political projects of the nation in particular social and historical contexts. This article focuses on the gendered symbolization of the nation through the rhetoric of the ‘motherland’ and the manipulation of this rhetoric in the context of national struggle in Bangladesh. I show the ways in which the visual representation of this ‘motherland’ as fertile countryside, and its idealization primarily through rural landscapes has enabled a crystallization of essentialist gender roles for women. This article is particularly interested in how these images had to be reconciled with the subjectivities of women raped during the Bangladesh Liberation War (Muktijuddho) and the role of the aestheticizing sensibilities of Bangladesh’s middle class in that process.

Mookherjee, Nayanika. “Skewing the History of Rape in 1971: A Prescription for Reconciliation?” Forum. 2.1 (2006).

Abstract: This is a discussion of Sarmila Bose’s article: “Anatomy of Violence: Analysis of Civil War in East Pakistan in 1971” (EPW, Oct 8, 2005). A version of this paper was first presented by Dr Bose at a two-day conference, on June 28-29, 2005.

Author’s note:

As an Indian working in Bangladesh for nearly a decade on the public memories of sexual violence during the Bangladesh war of 1971, I was particularly struck by the author’s use of the phrase “civil war” to refer to the Bangladesh war. Most Bangladeshis denounce the use of the term “civil war” to refer to the Bangladesh war as it deflects attention from its genocidal connotations. Instead, they semantically and politically distinguish the Bangladesh war as either muktijuddho (liberation war) or shadhinotar juddho(independence war).