Whither Thou Truth and Justice

Abstract

Chapter 13 examines micro-level components shaping the witness experience. It develops a model of procedural justice to examine witness perceptions about the search for historical truth and justice. Based on extensive survey data from witnesses who testified before the International War Crimes Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the study evaluates in depth the impact of testifying. The chapter uses logistic regression to evaluate whether certain testimonial challenges such as trial delays, language translation difficulties, and other stressors associated with the process of testifying contribute to perceptions about about witnesses’ contributions to truth and justice. Notably, we find ethnic and gender differences among the witnesses regarding whether they believed they have contributed to truth and justice by having testified, and the findings reveal limited support for the proposition that if witnesses feel they have been treated fairly they are more likely to believe they have contributed to justice.