Fact-Finding in Situations of Atrocities: In Search of Legitimacy

Abstract

While international inquiries have long been used by states and international organisations to address situations of human rights violations, it is only since the turn of the millennium that they have increasingly become the focus of academic reflection. Harwood’s book is unique in that it represents the first effort at systematically surveying and systematising the practice of atrocity-related UN inquiries. In this essay, building on both the arguments set out in the book and other relevant scholarship, I propose three lenses to read through Harwood’s meticulous review of the practice of UN inquiries: legitimacy, juridification, and roles and functions. While Harwood makes a largely critical-descriptive argument that positions atrocity-related UN inquiries in the liminal space between principle and pragmatism, I contend that any discussion about the roles and functions of international inquiries should be informed by a reflection on their legitimacy.