ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how international criminal tribunals have dealt with issues of coercive interrogation, more particularly torture. It also describes some key aspects of relevant international law and the institutions involved in the enforcement of that law. The chapter reviews relevant jurisprudence of the post-Second World War International Military Tribunals, the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda (ICTR) and for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the hybrid tribunal in Cambodia, and the International Criminal Court (ICC). The international criminal tribunals are part of the broader machinery for the suppression of unlawfully coercive interrogations, especially torture. Torture is specified as among the crimes for which the Rome Statute of the ICC gives the ICC jurisdiction, but only when committed as a war crime or crime against humanity. The ICC operates on a standing basis, covering states that have ratified the Rome Statute of the ICC, and in relation to any matter referred to it by the UN Security Council.
