On 6 December, ELAC Deputy Director and IPS Executive Director Federica D’Alessandra participated to a panel discussion titled ‘Filling an Accountability Gap? How a Standing UN Investigative Mechanism Would Further International Criminal Justice’. The panel discussed the prospects and potential benefits of the creation of a new standing, independent investigative mechanism in the UN system, including options for its establishment, competences and functioning. Panellists discussed, inter alia: lessons and innovations of the existing investigative mechanisms, and their broader contribution to the exercise of universal jurisdiction and accountability; the benefits and potential challenges of a standing UN investigative mechanisms, including its relationship to other justice mechanisms (e.g., ICC, domestic jurisdictions) and its benefits for victims; and existing proposals for the creation of a standing UN investigative mechanism and their reception.
Speakers included Catherine Marchi-Uhel, Head, International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism for Syria (IIIM); Stephen Rapp, Senior Fellow, US Holocaust Museum and Oxford ELAC; Former US Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice; Kingsley Abbott, Director for Global Accountability, International Commission of Jurists; Rayhan Asat, Uyghur Human Rights Advocate and Senior Fellow, Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights; and Carsten Stahn, Professor of International Criminal Law and Global Justice, Leiden University (moderator).
