The Witness Experience Testimony at the ICTY and Its Impact

This book provides the most comprehensive and scientific assessment to date of what it means to appear before war crimes tribunals. This ground-breaking analysis, conducted with the cooperation of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) Victims and Witnesses Section, examines the positive and negative impact that testifying has on those who bear witness to the horrors of war by shedding new light on the process. While most witnesses have positive feelings and believe they contributed to international justice, there is a small but critical segment of witnesses whose security, health, and well-being are adversely affected after testifying. The witness experience is examined holistically, including witness' perceptions of their physical and psychological well-being. Because identity (gender and ethnicity) and war trauma were central to the ICTY's mandate and the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, the research explores in-depth how they have impacted the most critical stakeholders of any transitional justice mechanism: the witnesses.

1. Introduction to the survey and survey methodology; 2. Exploring the gender, ethnicity and trauma characteristics of the witness sample; 3. The witnesses and their encounter with international justice; 4. The witnesses and human security: the social, economic and security consequences of testimony; 5. The impact of testifying; 6. Perceptions of justice; 7. Conclusions.

Kimi Lynn King, J.D./Ph.D. is a distinguished teaching professor at the University of North Texas (UNT), founding member of the American Moot Court Association, director for the Texas Undergraduate Moot Court Association, and coach of the nationally ranked UNT Moot Court team. Along with partner James David Meernik, she led the undergraduate/graduate study abroad courses which won the American Political Science Association Award, and together they have co-authored fifteen articles or book chapters on the Supreme Court and foreign policy, as well as in-depth research on the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
James David Meernik, Ph.D. is a professor of political science and Director of the Castleberry Peace Institute at the University of North Texas (UNT). From 2003–2008 Meernik was Associate Editor of the flagship journal of the International Studies Association, International Studies Quarterly. He co-leads a UNT Study Abroad Program to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) that won the 2007 American Political Science Association award for the most innovative course in the United States. He has authored or co-edited four books on international relations.