Marquez 1

Cruz Marquez

Mrs. McCann

English 1302.201

12 April 2022

War Crime Investigations

Ever since World War 2 war crimes have been committed however very little justice is

being made. To this day, war criminals have been found and prosecuted way after the war had

ended. It is unfair for the people who were affected by these war criminals for many reasons.

These war criminals deserve to be punished at the hand of law but because of the flaws of the

system and other things that can affect a trial. In order to prevent war crime cases from being

unfair towards one of the sides, prosecutors should further investigate what crime a war criminal

committed because without thorough investigations, justice is not served and criminals do not get

the punishments that they rightfully deserve.

During times of war it could seem unrealistic that there are war crimes however because

of these war crimes, war can be a little more humane. Many of these war crimes are made to

prevent immoral things being done in war. For instance after WW2, flamethrowers were made

illegal to use in war due to its inmoral nature as it caused a lot of unnecessary pain to soilers.

This is the same thing that happened with mustard gas and other things. War crimes were created

with the purpose of making war more humane, however, like in every war there will be people

who break these rules and laws. This leads to the persecution of the person who commits a war

crime.

Although these war criminals are brought to justice, in some cases the complete opposite

happens. In some cases the war criminals are either not found or do not get charged for their
 Marquez 2

crimes. This shows that there are many flaws in the system that need to be fixed in order for the

war criminals to be rightfully persecuted and brought to justice. War criminals should be

rightfully tried with the proper punishment not be set free for something that they did wrong.

War Crimes Present and Past

In war, war crimes have been a high priority to follow by the soilders however throught

the years of vatious wars these rules have been broken however not many people know that this

is the case. Many people do not know what war crimes are and what theyre purpose in war is.

This contributes to many factors such as no attention being given to these horrible acts being

done. Since the media does not focus much on war crimes being commited there is less justice

being brought. Flaws in the trials are a example of the many bad things that could occur during

the trials. For instance, when there is no publicity of the flaws or changes that are made that

could favor the person who is being prosecuted they could end up free and away from any harm.

As stated in the article Prosecuting sexual violence at the Camnbodian War Crimes Tribunal:

Challenges, limitations, and implications, war crimes are very difficult to evaluate due to war

complications. There have been many trials that have not succeeded in finding justice for the

victim of a war crime. For example, there was once a case in which war criminals, (NAMES),

commited sexual crimes in was and were sent to trial however they were set free in the end.

These types of flaws should not be happening in the system as it can lead to even more problems.

Problems With No Justice

As stated before, issues with the court and trials could lead to the lack of justice for the

victims and the family or frineds of the victims. For this reason, the victims family will most

likely want to get revenge or a type of justice on their own. There have been cases in which the

victims themselves or the family of the victims have tried having jsutice on their own because of
 Marquez 3

the actions of the criminal. No justice being served can also mean that the trials for the criminals

are practically useless. Instead of trials of warcrimes being helpfull towards not only the people

but also the war, the trials could hurt the decisions being made by the soulders in a time of war.

“Such trials endanger prospects for peace by encouraging enemies to continue fighting” (Martins

and Bronsther, p.83). In this article it is stated that soldiers could be encouraged to fight even

more and in turm make things much much worse.

How Can War Crime Trials Be More Effective?

The effectiveness of trials is nothing to talk good about as it has many flaws and in some

cases it is useless. For this very reason, there should be something done and changes should

happen in order for justice to be rightfully served. If trials such as the one that happened

(Source) would have gotten more attention by the media the ciminals would not have been let

free. Over the years the media has had a huge impact on communities and problems of the

worlds. If these trials were to get more attention, without a doubt, less crimilas will be set free

and mroe would be brought to justice. Unfortunately, since war is not a very interesting topic to

most people this is less likely to work.

Attention from the media is not the only way these issues with trials can be fixed.
 Marquez 4

Works Cited

Burt, Jo-Marie. “The Justice We Deserve: War Crimes Prosecution in Guatemala.” Latin

American Research Review 56.1 (2021): 214-232.

Cheah, Wui Ling, and Mortiz Vormbaum. “British Crimes Trials in Europe and Asia, 1945-1949:

A Comparative Study.” Leiden Journal of International Law 31.3 (2018): 669-698.

Jackson, Jonathan, and Ronald Winch. “The complexity of investigating war crimes.” Journal of

Global Faultlines 8.2 (2021): 209-218.

Martins, Mark S., and Jacob Bronsther. “Stay the hand of justice? Evaluating claims that war

crimes trials do more harm than good.” Daedalus 146.1 (2017): 83-99.

Irvin-Erickson, Douglas. “Prosecuting sexual violence at the Camnbodian War Crimes Tribunal:

Challenges, limitations, and implications.” Hum. Rts. Q. 40 (2018): 570.