Taking its demand-driven approach seriously, The Hague Institute decided to start with a broad range of topics, thus discovering its strengths and added value. After the initial phase, ending early 2013, the Institute will decide on its core focus, given, amongst other things, the results it has obtained in terms of external funding.
Conflict Prevention Climate change poses a risk to the basic needs and human rights of individuals and communities. Extensive research in the natural sciences has laid a solid foundation for the emerging consensus on the phenomenon and man-made contributions to it. However, the social implications of climate change need further illumination. This project aims to overcome some important knowledge gaps through in-depth case study analyses and integrated stakeholder dialogues on climate change-induced socio-political tensions.
Who are we?
Water management and the fair distribution of water is an issue of growing importance on the international agenda. Building on the internationally renowned Dutch expertise in water technology, water governance, conflict resolution, and legal systems, The Hague Institute for Global Justice has joined forces with the Netherlands Institute for International Relations “Clingendael”, Water Governance Centre , UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, and the UPEACE Center The Hague to form a Water Diplomacy Consortium (WDC). The consortium aspires both to become a knowledge hub for water diplomacy, governance, and law, and to contribute to conflict prevention and conflict resolution in relation to water management across and within national borders.
Rule of Law
Fact-finding missions into human rights violations often precede criminal investigations. Yet, it is not clear how these two types of investigations relate to each other, particularly in terms of the sharing of information and evidence. Can criminal investigators and prosecutors interact more effectively with each other and with other investigators (including commissions of inquiry, UN panels of experts and the OHCHR, truth commissions etc.), without compromising their respective mandates? And if so, how?
Rule of Law In the immediate aftermath of a conflict or disaster that has reduced a state’s ability to govern and administer justice, exceptional measures are called for. Stability must be restored, the state’s monopoly on the use of violence reasserted and a strong signal sent out that crimes will not (or no longer) go unpunished. As central government is often too removed from local realities in post-conflict countries, state-building needs to be approached from the level that is closest to its citizens – local government.
Rule of Law Do people live in an environment where justice is hard to come by? And if so, what can be done to improve this? Whilst exploring how citizens experience justice is a largely neglected area, this project will redress the balance somewhat by evaluating how much access citizens have to justice, through which institutions, the quality of the procedures and the fairness of the outcomes obtained. By developing standardised tools, this project aims to support local human rights NGOs, legal aid NGOs and selected legal-service providers in their role as potential guardians of justice. Armed with the appropriate tools, these organisations will be better able to ask specific agents in the legal system for concrete improvements in laws, court procedures, legal information or the provision of legal services.
Rule of Law The foundations of this project were first laid out during the three years of extensive research conducted jointly by the Amsterdam Center for International Law (ACIL) and The Hague Institute for the Internationalisation of Law (HiiL). From that project, came a set of ‘general rules and principles of international criminal procedure’ (to be published with Oxford University Press in March 2013. These principles were found to govern the investigation of international crimes by the various international criminal tribunals and will provide a solid base for a Model Code for the Investigation and Prosecution of International Crimes (‘the Model Code’) in the years to come.
Rule of Law In an attempt to become green, many economies are using natural materials for bio-energy, bio-plastics, and bio-polymers, thus fuelling the potential for biomass disputes. At the same time, views differ about the sustainability of different resources that can be used as biomass, and how and which definitions should be used in sustainable policies. So how much demand is there for a knowledge and remedy network centre for biomass and land use sustainability disputes and would it be feasible and viable to create such a network centre? This project goes in search of an answer to this central question by conducting stakeholder consultations and expert meetings, by commissioning scientific research by the University of Leiden, and by holding interviews with eminent biomass, sustainability and alternative dispute resolution experts.
Rule of Law In June 2012 Ben Knapen, former Minister for European Affairs and International Cooperation of The Netherlands, launched five knowledge platforms. The platforms are part of the new knowledge agenda and policy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and aim to bring together scientists, policy makers, civil society organizations and companies from around the world.
Rule of Law The “peace versus justice” debate is one of the central controversies in the application of international criminal law. The “justice” side of this debate uses fundamentally deontological reasoning to argue that pursuit of justice (human rights) is a social good in and of itself. Thus, the pursuit of justice cannot be held to be subordinate to any other concern, such as the achievement of sustainable peace. In contrast, the “peace” side of the debate contends that considerations of conflict resolution should be prioritised and that sometimes justice will need to be sacrificed, or put aside, in order to achieve the greater social good of peace. Neither side believes that either peace or justice is unimportant, rather the controversy is really a question of priority and strategy.
Rule of Law Justice can be a scarce commodity in countries affected by conflicts. The Hague Institute draws lessons from experiences of postconflict rebuilding activities in Afghanistan and Iraq and from current endeavors in Libya for improved access to justice and building or rebuilding sustainable institutions for the rule of law. The Hague Institute is partnering with the Van Vollenhoven Institute (VVI) to examine access to justice and building institutions for the rule of law in these fragile states. Findings will be presented at the centenary celebrations of the Peace Palace in August/September 2013.
Rule of Law Many experts are dispatched on rule of law missions, but what mechanisms are currently in place to systematically collect first-hand the valuable information from these experts? Once collected, how can such information best be used for future rule of law missions?
Rule of Law The project on developing victimological approaches to international crimes started in 2009 when Intervict organised an international seminar centred on Africa. This resulted in an edited volume (Letschert, R.M., Haveman, R., Brouwer, A.L.M. de, & Pemberton, A. (Eds.). (2011). Victimological approaches to international crimes: Africa. ) of multidisciplinary contributions that reviewed the function and effects of criminal justice procedures and psychosocial recovery in societies torn by mass political violence. Now that the ‘Arab Spring’ has engendered debate across the region on the need to end impunity for international crimes, there are new openings for victimological approaches to international crimes in North Africa and the Middle East.
Global Governance To lead the debate on global governance. Eminent thinkers and renowned institutes from the old and the new world focus on interests and values for a new rule-based world order. The initiative raises awareness regarding the deficiencies and flaws in the current international architecture and presents policy makers with knowledge-based and action-oriented results for how to make global governance work.
Global Governance The protection of intellectual property (IP) is an incentive for research. However, developing countries often cannot afford to pay the high price of knowledge and technology that is protected by intellectual property rights (IPR). Several important global initiatives have been promulgated in recent years to promote research and innovation on how intellectual property rights can be harnessed for development and poverty reduction objectives. Unfortunately, the acceptance of the underlying standards, let alone the implementation process necessary for the approximation of these objectives has proven to be rather unwieldy in practice.
Global Governance Developments in globalization and industrialization continuously push governments, public and private international organizations, and NGOs to reexamine the opportunities available to people at all levels of society to attain basic socioeconomic necessities. Preliminary research into existing social justice initiatives has shown a need for an institution that serves as a one-stop shop for individuals, businesses, NGOs, and policymakers seeking advice and information or needing technical assistance relating to social justice. Such online and offline support could be given by in-house experts focusing on the particular subjects under discussion.