ABSTRACT
Over the last few years many in the human rights community have focused on criminal remedies for pursuing individual human rights abusers. Civil remedies include damage awards for injuries and punitive damages meant to deter future abusive conduct as well as send a message to others that such conduct is unacceptable. The Filartigas came to the Center for Constitutional Rights and asked if they could sue the torturer and bring him to justice. The problem plaintiffs faced was that the court might find that Karadzic, an unrecognized foreign leader, was not acting on behalf of the state when he authorized or approved massive human rights abuses. While most of the cases were brought under the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA), a few utilized a 1992 statute, the Torture Victim Protection Act. The Karadzic decision opened up the possibility of suing such entities as a result of its holding that certain international law violations could be committed by private parties.
