Consideration of Women’s Tribunals Under Protection and Hypothetical Yezidi Women’s Tribunals

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Consideration of Women’s Tribunals Under Protection and

Hypothetical Yezidi Women’s Tribunals

NOHA Master Thesis

By Bilgesu Madenli

Supervisor: Dr. Mustafa Ali Sezal 2nd_{Supervisor: Dr. Gorka Urritia Asua}

Groningen University July 2020

This thesis is submitted for obtaining the Master’s Degree in International

Humanitarian Action. By submitting the thesis, the author certifies that the text is from his/her hand, does not include the work of someone else unless clearly indicated, and that the thesis has been produced in accordance with proper academic practices.

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Abstract

The study moots the idea of establishing Yezidi women’s tribunals in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq by protection-mandated humanitarian organizations as a protection activity at the field level. It claims that Yezidi women’s tribunals could secure justice for Yezidi women and assist the recovery process of the women at the same time, in case protection workers initiate them. In line with this claim, the study examines the conceptual understandings of two concepts, protection and women’s tribunals, by interpretative analysis of the existing literature in order to establish a conceptual link between them. Findings show that both concepts have similar understandings to the concepts of human rights, dignity, autonomy, safe space and vulnerability and shared functions in practice. Furthermore, women’s tribunals could facilitate people’s recovery, targeted by the protection too, by their procedures. As a result, the study suggests the establishment of Yezidi women’s tribunals under the scope of protection activities for Yezidi women. Further academic and field research are recommended to produce quantitative data on the claim of the thesis and extend the conceptual debate of the thesis’s argumentation.

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Acknowledgments

I would like to sincerely thank my supervisor Dr. M. Ali Sezal for his guidance and assistance throughout the process of composing the dissertation. I also would like to extend my genuine thanks to Dr. Duygu Cantekin for encouraging me since the beginning of my ongoing path for humanitarian work, as well as for this thesis. I feel indebted to my mother for providing this opportunity to me and supporting me all along my life. I would like to express my deepest appreciation to her.

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List of Abbreviations

AWF Asian Women’s Fund

CBP Community-Based Protection

CFS Child-Friendly Spaces

i/NGOs International/Non-governmental Organizations

IASC Inter-Agency Standing Committee

ICC International Criminal Court

ICCPR International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

ICJ International Court of Justice

ICRC International Committee of the Red Cross

IHL International Humanitarian Law

IMTFE Military Tribunal for the Far East

ISIS State of Iraq and Syria

KR-I Kurdistan Region of Iraq

MSF Medicines Sans Frontiers

OHCHR Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights

PTSD Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

PPT The Permanent People’s Tribunal

RBP Rights-Based Protection

UN United Nations

UNHCR United Nations of High Commissioner for Refugees

UNICEF UN Children’s Fund

WHS The World Humanitarian Summit

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1. Introduction

1.1. Background Information

The Yezidis1_{is an ethnoreligious minority group whose population is estimated at} 700.000-1.000.000 in the world.2_{They are populated mostly in the Kurdistan Region of} Iraq (KR-I) but also Northern Syria, Turkey, Europe, especially Germany, Armenia, Russia and the US (Bari). Their religion is a monotheistic religion called as ‘Yezidism’ which prompted lots of massacres, sufferings and genocides in their history. The Yezidis have suffered from at least 733_{different massacres because of their religion, mostly} during the Ottoman Empire period. The last genocide was committed by an Islamic fundamentalist terror organization, namely State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) on 3 August 2014 in Sinjar4_{district. ISIS killed thousands of Yezidi men and boys. On the other side,} ISIS’ crimes against Yezidi women and girls were much more complex, consisted of ‘non-killing’ persecutions. It raped, sexually enslaved, forcibly impregnated, tortured, and sold women in slave markets (Global Justice Center). Moreover, the report of Medicines Sans Frontiers (MSF) declares that almost every Yezidi people in Sinjar have been suffering either moderate or severe mental health problems, and mental health infrastructures in KR-I are not sufficient (Medicines Sans Frontiers).

1.2. Problem Statement

Yezidis name all of the genocides including the last one they have survived out as their ‘farman’. Deriving from Persian, the word farman signifies authority, order, and commanding. In the Ottoman Empire, farman denotes any edict or decree of the ‘sultan’, who was the first and only authority (Lewis, Pellat and Schacht). Azad Baris, a Yezidi sociologist, states that the Yezidis have been massacred as a rule of ‘farman’ that has been ordering their slaughter for centuries, and this is why they name the genocides which they have been subjected throughout history as their ‘farmans’ (Baysal 25). The sociologist

1_{Known as also ‘Yazidi’ and ‘Ezidi’. The thesis uses ‘Yezidi’ to reach more audiences because most} of the literature searches are done through the keyword of ‘Yezidi’.

2_{The total number of Yezidi population is speculative in resources.}

3_{This number includes the forced migration of non-Sunni Muslims and non-Arabs, including the} Yezidis too, initiated by the Ba’ath Regime during the mid-1970s. However, this number can increase to 74 if the suicide bombing attack targeted Yezidis in 2007 is counted. For more information about Saddam’s attack on Yezidis, see Dulz p.136-137, found in works cited list. For more information related to suicide bombing, see the Federal Bureau of Investigation p.80, found in work cited list.

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7 points out the learned helplessness of the Yezidi people in conjunction with the

expression they use for their hopeless positions. The analogy of farman simply implies that the Yezidis still consider themselves emotionally desperate and passive over the last genocide, and they have been waiting for justice at the same time. Nevertheless, there has not been sufficient justice secured for either Yezidis or Yezidi women so far. Also, Nadia Murad, a Yezidi women survivor of sexual violence and advocator for Yezidis, states that healing process of victims can come true only if the perpetrators are taken to an open court and publicly tried for their crimes, referring to the report of MSF (Murad). Therefore, Yezidi society needs justice without further delay, but they also need to heal psychologically.

1.3. Research Process

This part includes the aims and objectives of the research, research questions, methodology and limitations. It also justifies the relevance of the research topic to the humanitarian field.

1.3.1. The Aims and Objectives

The purpose of this dissertation is to moot and ground the establishment of Yezidi women’s tribunals as a community (CBP)- and rights-based protection (RBP) activity. The dissertation suggests establishing Yezidi women’s tribunals to protection workers in northern Iraq, KR-I where the Yezidi society largely populated. To make the research feasible and to frame the topics, the dissertation includes the following objectives:

1. to define and review the concept of women’s tribunals in academic literature 2. to discuss the need for Yezidi women’s tribunals

3. to find out relevance between CBP and RBP with the concept of women’s tribunals in order to suggest the establishment of Yezidi women’s tribunals by protection workers

The thesis claims that if protection workers initiate establishing Yezidi women’s tribunals as a protection activity, it would also contribute to the recovery process of primarily Yezidi women individuals and groups, and also Yezidi society, who suffered from the ISIS’s violence. However, it is essential to underline that this research does not

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8 intend to test this claim but to reinforce the foundation of it. In order to elaborate on this claim, the thesis also includes the following objectives.

4. to demonstrate the sufferings of Yezidi women at individual and group levels, as well as sufferings at societal level

5. to analyze how the establishment of Yezidi women’s tribunals by protection actors could also contribute to recovery of Yezidi women individuals and groups, and the society

The thesis works on two concepts, protection and women’s tribunals, which have never been reviewed together in the literature before. Therefore, it aims to identify the areas where two concepts meet by drawing a reasoned conclusion founded on the understanding of both themes based on the existing evidential literature in order to enhance the idea of the establishment of Yezidi women’s tribunals by protection workers as a protection activity.

1.3.2. Research Questions

The main research question is: How can women’s tribunals go beyond their legal understanding by means of their protective elements to be regarded as a CBP and RBP activity that would also facilitate the recovery process of Yezidi women individuals and groups, and the society?

In order to find out the answers to the research questions, the following sub-questions have been contextualized:

1. What are the concepts of people’s tribunals, recovery and protection within the framework of this dissertation?

2. What is the concept of women’s tribunals, and why does this thesis encourage women’s tribunals over people’s tribunals for the aim of the thesis?

3. Why is there a need for the establishment of Yezidi women’s tribunals? 4. What are the common points of protection and women’s tribunals, enabling

women’s tribunals to be considered as a protection activity, so that the protection workers could initiate Yezidi women’s tribunals?

5. How could hypothetical Yezidi women’s tribunals as a protection activity contribute to the recovery?

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9 1.3.3. Methodology

This research has been implemented through the first and secondary data collection and the analysis of the gained data.

1.3.3.1. Data Collection

After formulating and splitting the research question into sub-questions, first, the data on two main concepts, protection and women’s tribunals, was collected. In order to collect data for women’s tribunals, the keywords ‘women’s tribunals’, ‘people’s

tribunals’, ‘unofficial tribunals’ were typed. To collect data of community-and rights-based protection, the keywords were depicted but not limited to; ‘protection’,

‘humanitarian actions’, ‘community-based protection’, ‘rights-based protection’, ‘protection cluster’ and so on.

The data for women’s tribunals and recovery, was collected through the crossed searched of the keywords; ‘women’s tribunals’, ‘recovery’ and ‘healing’. Since the search did not respond to enough data, the search was extended, and keywords were decided as but not limited to: ‘human rights violations’, ‘trauma’, ‘recovery’, ‘truth commissions’, ‘psychological recovery’ etc.

Since this research has been conducted on mostly secondary data gained by extensive literature review, the sources were selected based on their reliability and relevance to the research topic. The relevance was verified by scanning of the documents obtained through the search. Internationally recognized and published sources were selected in order to ensure reliability.

Besides academic literature and books, primary data such as international/ non-governmental organizations (i/NGOs), United Nations (UN) and non-governmental and governmental structure’s reports, meetings notes, national and international law

agreements and treaties, and declarations have been examined to complement conceptual knowledge gain statistical data. Also, magazine and newspaper articles by experts on the topics such as researcher journalists, international lawyers and human-rights activists were included to the collection of the data.

1.3.3.2. Data Analysis

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10 between women’s tribunals and protection, the current research is conceptual and explanatory in nature. It explains the phenomenon and analyses them through an interpretative analysis by comparing the outputs presented in the literature and

interpreting the common areas of them. To do so, it makes an objective and explanatory analysis of what is presented in the literature of women’s tribunals. Then, it analyses the common elements of women’s tribunals and protection by interpreting the conceptual understanding of them to establish a link between two main concepts because there is no literature addressing these two main themes together. The thesis does not present a review of the literature belongs to the concept of protection, but it makes the

interpretation of two themes by bringing some literature from protection into the analysis part. To discuss the contribution of hypothetical Yezidi women’s tribunals to the recovery, the thesis interprets the characteristics of women’s tribunals along with the recovery concept in various disciplines, mainly psychology. The overall analysis

produces a set of findings that has advisory characteristics for the protection sector in humanitarian actions.

1.4. Relevance and Importance of the Research to Humanitarian Field

As mentioned before, one of the components of this research is the concept of protection. There has been an ongoing debate about the scope of protection in

humanitarian actions, thereby, about the definition of protection too, which this paper will discuss in the following chapter. Regardless of the ongoing debates in academia and the humanitarian world, the importance of protection in humanitarian actions cannot be denied. The World Humanitarian Summit (WHS) has recognized the

significance of protection several times and put protection in the center of humanitarian action. For example, article 14 of WHS Regional Consultation Eastern and Southern Africa addresses protection concerns in all assessment and programming by

organizations (World Humanitarian Summit 4). Another example, article B of WHS Regional Consultation Europe and Others Group highlights the importance of protection in humanitarian work in relation to the fulfillment of International Humanitarian Law that assures protection of people (World Humanitarian Summit 3).

Unquestionably, the phrase “protection in the center” highlights the importance of protection in humanitarian actions in theory. Nevertheless, it is also important to clarify what centrality of protection means in practical terms: the United Nations of

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11 High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) states that protection in practice is the main constituent of preparedness works to an immediate implement life-saving

activities. It takes place along and after the period of humanitarian response, including seeking out solutions for prolonged problems. Furthermore, putting protection to the core of humanitarian activities necessitates CBP mechanisms too (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Placing Protection at the Centre of Humanitarian Action 3).

While humanitarian actions put protection in the center, CBP puts capacities, rights, and dignity of people of concern in the center. Therefore, it produces more efficient and sustainable protection outcomes in some context by enhancing local

resources and capacities, making CBP important for humanitarian work (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Protection Policy Paper 7). Also, a rights-based approach to protection is grounded on mutual principles and objectives of CBP, which also makes it highly crucial in terms of humanitarian actions. (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, A Community-based Approach in UNHCR Operations 17).

Women’s tribunals, which are another component of this dissertation, are introduced in the existing literature closely related to human rights. For that reason, the literature of women’s tribunals is presented in conjunction with only human rights organizations in humanitarian actions. Nonetheless, human rights organizations’ efforts to ensure compliance with the law to stop violations and sufferings the violations induce are conventionally oriented toward protection (International Committee of the Red Cross, Strengthening Protection in War 8). Therefore, this thesis takes the concept of women’s tribunals from a broader perspective than being an issue related to only human rights organizations, elaborating it in conjunction with protection in humanitarian action by getting beyond the legal understandings of women’s tribunals.

Given the importance of community- and rights-based approach to protection under the scope of protection and the lack of literature of women’s tribunals in

connection to the protection, this dissertation produces a worthy contribution in filling the gap in the academic literature. Furthermore, discussing those concepts targeted to the Yezidi women whose sufferings have been continuing makes this dissertation more meaningful for the humanitarian field.

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1.5. Limitations

The fact that there is not any literature covers both the protection and women’s tribunals constitutes the major limitation of the thesis, resulting in not being able to bring proved and empirical evidences to the thesis’s argument. What is more, some printed books composed of expert notes and final decisions of vital women’s tribunals, which could have strengthened the argument, have not been accessible due to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic that appeared during the preparation and composition process of the thesis. By the same token, the thesis’ methodology had to be an interpretative analysis of the first and secondary sources whilst it was initially planned to conduct semi-structured interviews with few NGOs assisting Yezidi women, about the hypothetical Yezidi women’s tribunals and their foreseen effects to the recovery. Furthermore, the limited literature on women’s tribunals’ impacts on the recovery restricted the discussion of hypothetical Yezidi women’s tribunals’ contribution to the recovery.

1.6. Thesis Outline

The thesis consists of seven chapters. The first chapter gives a brief overview to Yezidis in order to lay the base for the problematization of the thesis. It also clarifies the research process by presenting the aim and research question of the thesis based on the problematization. The chapter also explains the methodology and the relevance of the thesis to the humanitarian field. The second chapter frames and contextualizes the main concepts, people’s tribunals, protection and recovery, of the thesis according to the research question. The third chapter explicates people’s tribunals by presenting the literature of the concept, and it elucidates women’s tribunals in order to characterize them in more detail. In chapter four, the need for Yezidi women’s tribunals is covered through the existing official tribunals and the UN investigation reports about the ISIS crimes against Yezidi women. The chapter five, which is the analyzing part of women’s tribunals as a CBP and RBP activity, examines women’s tribunals through protection principles, and it answers the sub-question: “What are the common points of protection and women’s tribunals, enabling women’s tribunals to be considered as a protection activity, so that the protection workers could initiate Yezidi women’s tribunals?”. In other words, the chapter establishes a link between protection and women’s tribunals. It also makes an induction that illustrates why hypothetical Yezidi women’s tribunals are associated with Yezidi women’s recovery by the dissertation. In the sixth chapter, the aim is to explore Yezidi

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13 women’s tribunals’ hypothetical contribution to the recovery of Yezidi women

individuals and groups, in case of their establishment as protection activity. This chapter utilizes some literature of the science of psychology. Chapter seven concludes the research and the findings. It also discusses the limitation of the dissertation and makes recommendations for academic and practical works.

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2. Conceptual Framework and Operational Definitions

This chapter defines the concepts which are the primary themes of the main and sub-research questions. Also, it outlines the concepts within the framework of the thesis for a better employing and understanding of them.

2.1. People’s Tribunals

Firstly, it should be noted that the term tribunal is used interchangeably with the term court in the literature. Nevertheless, since tribunals are relatively informal and less legal structured compared to courts, this dissertation prefers to use the term ‘tribunal’ unless the original literature uses the other way. Secondly, since the concept of women’s tribunals is derived from people’s tribunals, people’s tribunals are being framed as a broader concept.

Before defining people’s tribunals, it is important to mention that the term of people’s tribunals shows some different forms in the literature. Some scholars name these tribunals as ‘citizens’ tribunals’ or ‘opinion’s tribunals’. There are both benefits and disadvantages to each. Whilst naming them as citizens’ tribunals points out the responsibility for the state to enforce the law for its citizens and the citizens’ rights owing to being a citizen under that state, the dissertation opts for the term ‘people’s tribunals’ in order to highlight people’s tribunals’ comprehensiveness and inclusive function for everyone, including non-citizens as well. Also, although calling tribunals as ‘opinion’s tribunals’ perfectly fits to their working mechanism which is built on sharing judicial opinions, this thesis pursues to use ‘people’s tribunals’ since sharing

testimonies in these tribunals are much more than judicial opinions, which is everything belongs to the people.

Similar to the ambiguity in the definition of people’s tribunals, it is also not possible to make a single and rigid definition of people’s tribunals, because those tribunals can deal with a range of issues from homophobia5_{to refugees and migrants}6_at national or international level. Since this thesis focuses on international crimes

5_{To see an example of a people’s tribunal focusing on homosexuality, see Peter de Waal, found in} works cited list.

6_{To see an example of a people tribunal focusing on migrants, see Jennifer Allsopp, found in works} cited list.

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15 conducted by ISIS against Yezidi women, Simm’s and Byrnes’s definition of people’s tribunals can be the most compatible one within the thesis’s frame:

An international people’s tribunal is a process initiated by civil society that involves the presentation to a body of eminent persons of evidence and arguments that seek to establish whether a state, international organization, corporations, or, less frequently, specified individuals have committed breaches of international law or of another body of law or norms. (Simm and Byrnes, Introduction 3)

2.2. Protection

First of all, it is necessary to mention that protection is a broad term, and it has been featuring widely in the agendas of states, i/NGOs and the UN. Nevertheless, its definition varies between and even within the groups. In the literature of protection, broadly speaking, protection is associated with four spheres of action: political, military or security, legal and humanitarian (International Review of Red Cross 752). What is more, humanitarian protection does not mean only one thing either. This part will briefly touch on different implyings of protection in humanitarian actions to reach the eventual definition within the framework of this thesis.

One aspect of humanitarian protection is concerned with protection of people in war and armed conflict situations. Indeed, protection of people is primarily under the responsibility of states. In other words, states are primarily responsible for protecting people in its territory under any circumstance. Nevertheless, when states do not have adequate capacity to protect or do not show enough willingness to protect, humanitarian organizations may take a responsibility to protect civilians (Pantuliano and O’Callaghan 3). The legal framework of this scope of protection is founded in international law, including the International Humanitarian Law (IHL) but not limited to. IHL sets the rules seeking to mitigate or limit the effects of war and armed conflict situations. It relies primarily7_{on the 4}th_{Geneva Convention which is related to protection of civilians during} wartime, and the Additional Protocols of 1977 to Geneva Conventions on the protection of victims in armed conflict situations (International Committee of the Red Cross, What is International Humanitarian Law? 1). Thus, in the simplest terms, that aspect of

7_{There are other international agreements that IHL relies on. For example, the Universal Declaration} of Human Rights, the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention or the 1997 Ottowa Convention on anti-personnel mines, and so on.

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16 humanitarian protection in humanitarian actions, which deals with protection of civilians in war or armed conflicts, takes its fundamental power from these two agreements mentioned, even though protection is not defined in the agreements. Nevertheless, the 4th Geneva Convention pronounced that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and any other impartial humanitarian organization may undertake for protection of civilians and their reliefs in case of necessity (GENEVA CONVENTION RELATIVE TO THE PROTECTION OF CIVILIAN PERSONS IN TIME OF WAR art 10).

Another aspect of humanitarian protection deals with protection of refugees. When a person seeks asylum to become a refugee in another state based on the defined reasons stated in the article 1 of the 1951 Refugee Convention, the responsibility for the protection of this person during the asylum process and after getting the status of refugee belongs to the state in which this person escaped to. Despite governments guarantee the protection of refugees, safety, basic needs and legal concerns of refugees and asylum seekers might appear sometimes. In these kinds of situations, protection of these people is the main mandate of the UNHCR even though it is not a supranational organization (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Protecting Refugees: questions and answers). The UNHCR may provide basic needs and infrastructure like hospitals or schools as well as financial aid to refugees. Moreover, it might advise governments practical interpretations of the 1951 Refugee Convention to ensure the protection of asylum seekers even though its advices are not legally binding in terms of determining a person’s refugee status8_{. Furthermore, in some countries where the state is not a party to} the legal international refugee instruments but requests UNHCR’s assistance, UNHCR might be in charge of determining refugee statutes. Lastly, the UNHCR also assists internally displaced people too in some cases (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Protecting Refugees: questions and answers).

There are many other different aspects of the topic than these two traditional-understandings from humanitarian protection. Indeed, the concept of humanitarian

protection is like a living organism that constantly renews itself. One reason for that is the change in the nature of humanitarian crises. Human sufferings require protection do not

8_{As an example, see the UNHCR Handbook on Procedures and Criteria for Determining Refugee} Status, available at: https://www.unhcr.org/4d93528a9.pdf , accessed 20 March 2020.

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17 result only from war or armed conflicts anymore. Natural disasters and prolonged

conflicts also cause humanitarian crises and human suffering, which require other protection needs. This situation generates different understandings of protection by humanitarian organizations due to the new needs emerged, and it modifies their roles in protection. For example, before, it was considered that the protection is under the mandate of only the ICRC and the UNHCR based on the fact that they are given the authorization by the 4th_{Geneva Convention and other related international law. However, recently, the} UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) have been included in the group of protection mandate-specific humanitarian agencies (Pantuliano and O’Callaghan 4-5). Moreover, since protection needs have become diversified and increased, other humanitarian organizations have started to take part in protection with their roles when national authorities do not satisfy their responsibilities.

When more humanitarian organizations started getting involve in protection, a confusion emerged around what humanitarian protections exactly means and how it is performed by different humanitarian agencies in practice. At this point, it is strongly important to mention that every humanitarian organization has its own definition of protection, or better saying, they have their own focuses and inferences of protection in terms of its implementation in the field9_{. Regardless of the various implementation of} protection by different humanitarian organizations, the definition of protection by the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), which was formed during the workshops conducted between 1996-2000 by the ICRC to promote understanding of protection, is the one agreed on by the humanitarian world. The IASC defines protection as:

(…) all activities aimed at obtaining full respect for the rights of the individual in accordance with the letter and the spirit of the relevant bodies of law (i.e. International Human Rights Law (IHRL), International Humanitarian Law, International Refugee law (IRL). Human rights and humanitarian actors shall conduct these activities impartially and not on the basis of race, national or ethnic origin, language or gender. (Inter-Agency Standing Committee, INTER-AGENCY STANDING COMMITTEE POLICY ON PROTECTION IN HUMANITARIAN ACTION 2).

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18 The difficulty with the IASC’s definition is that; the definition means both

everything and nothing at the same time to humanitarian organizations (Niland, Polastro and Donini 23). That is to say; the definitional confusion is not about semantics but the operational explanation of protection in practice. A factor giving rise to that confusion is the vague comprehension of the integration of protection into all humanitarian clusters. In 2005, the humanitarian cluster system was established by the IASC which was given authorization by the General Assembly resolution 46/18210_{for the coordination and} policymaking, following the recommendations of Humanitarian Response Review 200511 (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs). The IASC

established the humanitarian cluster system and mandated different UN agencies and humanitarian organizations with different responsibilities. In 2013, it called for the centrality of protection in all humanitarian clusters to ensure protection in every aspect (Inter-Agency Standing Committee, Statement-The Centrality of Protection in

Humanitarian Action1). That call increased the attention for protection among all humanitarian organizations mandated with other responsibilities (Niland, Polastro and Donini 21). On the other hand, it resulted in great confusion in minds in terms of what protection means to them in practice. As stated in the definition by IASC, protection is about the fulfillment of people’s rights, but ‘all activities’ that fulfill rights are not considered as protection activity. For instance, having access to food is one of the fundamental human rights. However, distributing food, which greatly contributes to that right of people, is not a protection activity but food assistance conducted under the mandate of the food cluster (Inter-Agency Standing Committee, IASC OPERATIONAL GUIDELINES ON THE PROTECTION OF PERSONS IN SITUATIONS OF

NATURAL DISASTERS 6). Where the protection cluster could engage in the given issue would be a situation in which one cannot have access or safe access to the food

distribution point because of discrimination against her/him. One the other hand, 10_{The Resolution 46/182 is availabe at: www.undocs.org/A/RES/46/182, accessed 12 April 2020} 11_{The Humanitarian Response Review is available at:}

www.interagencystandingcommittee.org/system/files/legacy_files/Humanitarian Response Review 2005.pdf , accessed 11 April 2020

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19 planning, organizing and implementing activities which ensure children's right to

education is the mandate of the education cluster. However, also the protection cluster takes a role in establishing child-friendly space (CFS) that satisfy the right to education of children in emergency situations as well, and CFSs are considered as a protection activity besides being an educational activity. Given all mentioned, the convolution of the

protection roles and interrelatedness of the humanitarian clusters generate an ambiguous understanding of protection in practice. Niland et al. claim in the report of the Norwegian Refugee Council that “There is an urgent need to provide a practical, operational

explanation of what protection in the context of humanitarian action means in practice.” (Niland, Polastro and Donini 23).

My understanding is that; protection can be a goal, an approach or an activity meeting people with their rights, and that is where the confusion starts related to different interpretations of protection. In other words, the practical explanation of protection is defined by how an organization approaches protection. Therefore, it is essential to clarify that this thesis confines protection as a ‘goal’ in its framework, and it considers the establishment of women’s tribunals as a ‘protection activity’ at the field level that would be carried out by protection mandate-specific workers. It sticks to the definition of protection by IASC since it’s the widely agreed and the most comprehensive one which could cover women’s tribunals under the premise of ‘all activities aimed at obtaining full respect for the rights of the individual’.

2.3. Recovery

The term ‘recovery’ appears in multiple contexts, ranging from economy, health, psychology to humanitarian actions. In a context where a person gets cancer, recovery refers to be back to the healthy state again. If a natural disaster happens and damages houses and buildings, recovery refers to the reconstruction of the buildings. So, its definition as well as its components differ depending on the context. Therefore, the best way to define recovery is to decontextualize it and re-contextualize it based on the context.

When recovery is considered out of a specific context, it means ‘the process of improving or becoming stronger again’ (Oxford Dictionary). For someone or something to be ‘stronger’ again, first, this subject must currently be at a weaker situation or level

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20 than the previous state. In order to reach the description of the recovery within the

framework of this thesis, the factors making the Yezidi women individuals and groups and the society ‘weaker’ must be identified. It has been introduced that Yezidi women have been exposed to war, sexual violence including rape, slavery, torture and so on. These are accepted as ‘human rights violations’ by international law. There are plenty of research on the effects of human rights violations, and one aspect of them is related to their psychological effects on people. Severe human rights violations cause a

psychological trauma which is defined by the American Psychological Association as: any disturbing experience that results in significant fear, helplessness, dissociation, confusion, or other disruptive feelings intense enough to have a long-lasting negative effect on a person’s attitudes, behavior or other aspects of functioning (American Psychological Association).

The association also states that traumatic experiences include those caused by human acts such as rape, torture, war etc. Therefore, this thesis considers the human rights violations acted against Yezidi women as traumatic experiences that they have been going through. Moreover, it recognizes that the effects of the traumatic experiences have been reverberating on Yezidi women individuals and groups, as well as on the Yezidi society. The figure below illustrates the sufferings at the individual and group levels for Yezidi women, and the societal level for Yezidi society.

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Figure 1: the wounds. Source: author

The hypothetical Yezidi women’s tribunals in the figure take place in the post-trauma environment in which official justice is insufficient and where they deal with the injustice which refers to the committed crimes by ISIS. Since women’s tribunals are juridical structures in the first place, their contribution to the recovery process of the Yezidi women is considered as an indirect effect. In other words, the ‘recovery’ within the frame of the thesis is considered as secondary effect of the hypothetical Yezidi women’s tribunals. Recovery has a holistic meaning in the dissertation and defined as ‘better state of the current psychological, cultural and social wounds caused by the traumatic experiences at the individual, group and societal levels’. It is important to mention that this thesis utilizes the science of psychology whilst bringing some examples for mental health problems occurred at the individual level, but it does not deal with the definition of the psychological terms. It generalizes and accepts all mental health problems, as well as other sufferings, as wounds of the individual and groups of Yezidi women, and the Yezidi society. The sufferings at the bottom part of the figure refer ‘wounds’ within the framework of the thesis, which is discussed in more detail in the chapter of ‘Yezidi Women’s Tribunals and Recovery’.

Here, the notion of ‘protective elements’ mentioned in conjunction with the

recovery in the research question should also be clarified. Protective elements in the thesis refer to the women’s tribunals’ characteristics that both protect women from the

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22 occurrence of further wounds and contribute to their well-being at the same time. In practical terms, it refers to women’s tribunals’ shared elements with the protection.

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3. Women’s Tribunals

This chapter has the purpose of answering the sub-question: “What is the concept of women’s tribunals, and why does this thesis encourage women’s tribunals over people’s tribunals for the aim of the thesis?”. In order to explain the concept of women’s tribunals, the chapter first presents a background to people’s tribunals because the concept of women’s tribunals derives from people’s tribunals. Then, it discusses their formation and aims to point out why people need these tribunals. Next, it illustrates some instances from women’s tribunals to elaborate in which aspects women’s tribunals vary from people’s tribunals, to clarify why this thesis opts for women’s tribunals while suggesting protection workers to set them up.

3.1. Background to People’s Tribunals

As defined in the conceptual framework chapter, international people’s tribunals are civil society initiatives built to submit arguments to international law experts coming from different countries to evaluate accusations of the international law standards, in the light of the evidence provided to adjudicative authorities of tribunals. Although people’s tribunals became on the rise mostly after the Second World War (WW-II), their origins can be traced further back. As an instance, a trial took place on 7 March 1934, at Madison Square Garden, organized by the American Jewish Congress, with a gathering of twenty thousand people around the square, for the aim of running a mock trial12_{against Hitler’s government in Germany (Anthes 391). However, the} literature on people’s tribunals puts a spotlight particularly on the Russell Tribunals which were the first example of its kind and became an inspiration for subsequent people’s tribunals. Simm even mentions that the original Russell Tribunal organized by Bertrand Russell, Jean Paul Sartre and several other intellectuals in 1966 to question the legality of United States’ military interventions during the Vietnam War has borrowed the name of International Military Tribunals (the Nuremberg Trials) that was held in Nuremberg to try Nazi leaders for their acts for war crimes and crimes against peace and humanity13_{conducted during the WW-II (Simm, Peoples’ Tribunals, Women’s}

12_{Officially known as “Case of Civilizations against Hitler”}

13_{To review the definition of the mentioned crimes in the scope of the Tribunal, see Charter of the} International Military Tribunal, article 6, available at:

www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-crimes/Doc.2_Charter of IMT 1945.pdf, accessed 17 April 2020.

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24 Courts and International Crimes of Sexual Violence 64). This metaphorical expression the writer uses provides a good indication for how the Russell People’s Tribunals have modeled themselves and the reason for the need that the people decided to establish them: to bring war crimes into the light and under the jurisdiction of people. Also, the international law expert Falk supports that the Nuremberg Trials inspired the idea of Russell Tribunals, and an unauthorized and symbolic implementation of the Nuremberg idea underlies the Russell Tribunals (Falk 133). Russell, as a president of the first Tribunal, made the following speech in the first meeting of the Tribunals in 1966, addressing not only similar but also distinctive features from the Nuremberg Trials:

The Tribunal has no clear historical precedent. The Nuremberg Tribunal, although concerned with designated war crimes, was possible because the victorious allied Powers compelled the vanquished to present their leaders for trial. Inevitably, the Nuremberg trials, supported as they were by state power, contained a strong element of realpolitik (…) Our own task is more difficult, but the same

responsibility obtains. We do not represent any state power nor can we compel the policy-makers responsible for crimes against the people of Vietnam to stand accused before us. (Russell 215)

Considering that there was no permanent international court which the

allegations could be brought to in that time and the International Criminal Court (ICC) which investigates and tries individuals accused of crimes that are concern to

international community did not exist yet in 1966, it is a definite inference that the Russell Tribunals were raised from a need. However, despite the establishment of the ICC in 2002 in Rome, people continued to set up people’s tribunals. Even, a Russell Tribunal on Palestine was recently organized between 2009-201414_{. In this respect, one} can ask why people still feel a need for those tribunals. In other words, what those unofficial tribunals offer different than the official courts do. These questions will be answered in the following section in relation to their aims and function.

3.2. Formation and Aims of People’s Tribunals

Like official courts, many people’s tribunals include international law experts who are called as ‘judges’ or ‘jurors’ and chosen by the organizers of tribunals.

14_{For more information about the Russell Tribunal on Palestine, see} www.russelltribunalonpalestine.com/en/, accessed 17 April 2020.

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25 However, some people’s tribunals are less legalistic in terms of the formation of the tribunal and the terminology used for the attenders whose expertise might not be in the area of international law but in different disciplines (as in the original Russell Tribunal) such as science, literature, philosophy, economy etc. (Simm and Byrnes, International Peoples' Tribunals: Their Nature, Practice and Significance 14).

While official international courts’ judgments are made based on only positive law such as international law, the source of the law of people’s tribunals also contains ‘people’s law’ as well as moral and ethical values (Simm and Byrnes, International Peoples' Tribunals: Their Nature, Practice and Significance 23). In this vein, Blaser states that “Legal standards applied by tribunals include some conventional standards applied conventionally, some conventional standards applied unconventionally, and some unconventional standards” (Blaser 357). Put simply, people’s tribunals make their judgments by referring to internationally recognized legal standards in some cases. In other cases, they instinctively stand on these standards, for example standards of human rights law, which means that they use the standards by definition based on their

philosophy. Lastly, they use unconventional standards that are not officially recognized but set up by people’s tribunals, which is known as ‘people’s law’.

The extent of the relationship between the international law’s standards and people’s tribunals and the scope of ‘people’s law’ which is specific to people’s tribunals are the two crucial questions. Where people’s law can be best found at is the Universal Declaration of the Rights of People (Algiers Charter) which has norms and principles, deriving from the interpretation of international law15_{. The Charter came into being after} the first two Russell Tribunals have been implemented, as a result of the lessons from those tribunals and a necessity for establishing a coherent and systematic way of jurisdiction for people’s tribunals. The Charter has been a ground for Permanent People’s Tribunals since 1979. It takes its point of departure from article 1, 55, and 56 of the Charter of United Nations16_{on the rights to self-determination of people, and it}

15_{To review the Algiers Charter, see www.permanentpeoplestribunal.org/algiers-charter/?lang=en,} accessed 19 April 2020.

16_{To review the articles 1, 55, 56 of Charter of the United Nations, see} www.treaties.un.org/doc/publication/ctc/uncharter.pdf, accessed 23 April 2020.

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26 additionally articulates the other rights of people such as right to existence, culture, environment and economic rights17_{. Moreover, it has an aim to accomplish the} assertions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights approved in 1948.

People’s law which stands on the Algiers Charter shows the means where people’s tribunals have complemented the formal sources of international law, deemed missing in their inclusivity of people. Richard Falk notes that international law and the way it perceives the notion of morality are the reflections of the state system (Simm and Byrnes, International Peoples' Tribunals: Their Nature, Practice and Significance 25). As opposed to international law, people’s law gives the authority for making the law not to states but to all people who have this ultimate right (Simm and Byrnes, International Peoples' Tribunals: Their Nature, Practice and Significance 26). Moreover, international people’s tribunals dispute the constraints against those who are excluded by

international law such as; non-state applicants, like people, and non-state respondents, like corporations. Therefore, the fundamental function of those tribunals is to deliver justice to those excluded by the formal legal process (Simm and Byrnes, International Peoples' Tribunals: Their Nature, Practice and Significance 24).

The fact that people’s law and accordingly people’s tribunals take their power from being a criticism against and a complement for international law (particularly international criminal law since most of the people’s tribunals handle international crimes) creates an explanation for the function of people’s tribunals. Simm contends that one distinctive function of people’s tribunals from other official criminal courts is that people’s tribunals work more based on human rights principles and their scope of jurisdiction. Also, people’s tribunals’ stress is on crimes by states rather than individual criminality (Simm, Peoples’ Tribunals, Women’s Courts and International Crimes of Sexual Violence 65). Simm also finds the International Court of Justice (ICJ)

appropriate regarding being an effective decision mechanism when a dispute occurs between states. However, she adds that ICJ can hardly enforce the law due to some barriers such as legal barriers, lack of standing people before the Court, troubles in constituting jurisdiction as well as political leverages, which mean that the Court cannot

17_{The rights to existence, culture, environment and economic rights are found at the articles 1,3,4,5} of the Algiers Charter. To review these articles, see

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27 efficiently hold states responsibilities (Simm, Peoples’ Tribunals, Women’s Courts and International Crimes of Sexual Violence 65-66). Lastly, she points out that jurisdiction under international criminal law can satisfy people up to some point, but what people indeed want to have is a systematic change in that jurisdiction system, which can force states to take their part of responsibility (Simm, Peoples’ Tribunals, Women’s Courts and International Crimes of Sexual Violence 65).

While Simm’s comment is solid for almost all people’s tribunals, there are nonetheless distinctive features in the aim and exercise of such tribunals. Otto categorizes the function of people’s tribunals into three groups: ones that call upon people to make a critical judgment about failures of international (national in some cases) courts to uphold the law in force, others strive to contribute for advanced people’s law that derive from acquaintances with marginalization and oppression, and those demand an overall transformation in the system of law, creating a shared

responsibility of people to fight against injustice (Otto, Impunity in a Different Register: People's Tribunals and Questions of Judgment, Law, and Responsibility 293).

In the first category of people’s tribunals, tribunals perform to highlight violations and defaults of existing law. In many respects, Russell Tribunals can be provided as an example for this category of people’s tribunals. It brought the “real” facts to the public attention and called public attention to pass a judgment based on the evidence presented the reality. The reality was built on documentation, research that was conducted by volunteers through years, government states, expert notes and

recommendations, and personal testimonies including former American military officers and Vietnamese victims (Otto, Impunity in a Different Register: People's Tribunals and Questions of Judgment, Law, and Responsibility 296). What the Russell Tribunal was seeking was to stir the public’s consciousness by shedding light on the violations of law and unlawful acts of the US in Vietnam. The accusations were related to genocide (there were also other charges such as crimes of aggression and war involving the utilizing illegal weapons and shelling to civilians, torture and inhuman treatment of civilians and prisoners of war) (LeBlanc 381). It made the allegations by referring the international law instruments such as the Hague Convention, the Charter of United Nations, the 1949 Geneva Convention, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the Statutes of

Nuremberg (Otto, Impunity in a Different Register: People's Tribunals and Questions of Judgment, Law, and Responsibility 297). From this point of view, the purpose was to

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28 make a criticism of not enforcing the law and to call international institutions to apply the law.

The second category of people’s tribunals seeks a new source of law. In this sense, they are more critical than the tribunals seeking the enforcement of the existing law. People’s tribunals in this category criticize the existing law, and they claim the law itself needs to be changed before dealing with justice. People’s testimonies are seen as the source of a more all-embracing and liberating law, enabling to break the hierarchical power hold up by the law issued from states. Those tribunals’ functions can be

overlapped with those in the first category in relation to demanding people’s judgment. However, the most important features of those tribunals are to identify, apply and promote an alternative source of law that tackles the matters brought up by the testifiers and experts who are oppressed or marginalized in most cases. (Otto, Impunity in a Different Register: People's Tribunals and Questions of Judgment, Law, and

Responsibility 304). Therefore, they analyze the inequalities within the law in a broader way, enabling them to analyze structural disparities and draw their consideration for the law they advocate for.

The Permanent People’s Tribunal (PPT) can exemplify the second category of tribunals. The Tribunal was established by an Italian lawyer, Lelio Basso, who has also attended to the Russell Tribunals, in 1979 to investigate the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan. Similar to the Russell Tribunal, it brought the reports prepared by its special inquiry commission, testimonies by witnesses, documentations and information that had evidential value in order to bring the accusations to the consciousness of people. Nevertheless, it recognizes the notion of ‘people’s consciousness’ as a means of an alternative source to law, differently than the Russell Tribunal. Therefore, the Tribunal approached the accusations based on the rules of war with reference to Geneva Conventions and its additional protocols and the Algiers Charter. PPT concluded that the Soviet violated the rules of war and the third article of the Algiers Charter (Findings of People's Tribunal 380). Indeed, Nayar finds the Algiers Charter “not a document for dominant legality but a manifesto of a struggle, a demand for the recognition of right, the legitimacy, of struggles against the wrongs of violence, oppression and

exploitation.” (Nayar 12). To this end, the PPT which is based in Rome has been carrying its activities in collaboration with experts, NGOs, and scholars from all over the world to enforce the alternative source of law.

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29 The third category of people’s tribunals asks for transformative justice, based on the idea of ‘shared responsibility’ by all actors. They are even more critical than those in the second category in a way not accepting individuals’ criminal responsibility that causes impunity of the real offenders. To this end, they try to void the law of states and assign responsibility to all people and structures. The concept of transformative justice is predicated upon that we all, not only states but also institutions and individuals, should share and carry the responsibility for injustice and endeavor to find ways to acknowledge justice. In many respect, those tribunals do not find any hope in the existing laws of states and their practicing, but they engage with politics to reform the existing law (Otto, Impunity in a Different Register: People's Tribunals and Questions of Judgment, Law, and Responsibility 308). Tribunal 12 which was held on 12May 2012 in Stockholm is a fitting example to this last category of tribunals in terms of handling the violation of and mistreatment towards refugees and asylum seekers in Europe by resolving it at different layers. In the mock trial done by the judges,

operations of the European border force and the organization Frontex were accused of being non-transparent under the scope of accountability related questions at the institutional level. As denouncements, maltreatment of states such as; privatization of detention-deportation regime and shelter areas, perverse exercising to control

movements of people, violent detention practicing, and failure to provide basic needs and services were brought up to the court. The Tribunal also chastised individuals, including themselves as organizers, for not doing their parts by highlighting their roles in transforming the existing policies. As Professor Genova noted during the Tribunal:

We can sit with a clean conscious and accuse the power that be, or we can act with the migrants and participate in a creation of a new Europe. (…) We can choose to intervene, we can choose to act. (Allsopp)

Regardless of the various functions of people’s tribunals, they aim to deliver justice to people in essence. When deemed that point, one can ask why we need women’s tribunals while people’s tribunals already exist and what kind of justice they dispense. Next part will briefly explain why people feel another need for establishing women’s tribunals, especially, why this thesis accentuates women’s tribunals in the case of Yezidi women.

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3.3. Concept of Women’s Tribunals

Women’s tribunals formalize themselves like how people’s tribunals do. In other words, they also create a mock court environment with judges, testifiers and submission of evidence like people’s tribunals do so. Furthermore, memorialization, collective responsibility and rewriting the historical records are the shared goals of people’s and women’s tribunals (Simm, Peoples’ Tribunals, Women’s Courts and International Crimes of Sexual Violence 81). Even though both tribunals have the same formation in common, there are nevertheless some slight perceptional, theoretical and

methodological differences between people’s tribunals and women’s tribunals.

Firstly, women’s and people’s tribunals have different kinds of decision-making process, and therefore practices. Different perceptions to ethics by men and women matter in that issue. Regarding this, psychologist Carol Gillian raises the notion of ‘ethics of care (of others)’. In simplest terms, he reveals that women and men are different from each other in terms of ethics of care of others because women show greater empathy with people who suffer whilst men are more interested in logic and reasoning. This difference affects their cognitive process of judgment-making. In other words, women’s judgments are tied to the feeling of empathy, whereas men’s

judgments are more based on logical reasoning (Gilligan 69). In the context of people’s tribunals, that difference may put women in a situation where they are expected to justify themselves in the most reasoned and logical way as possible in order to gain other’s approval and empathy. As a result, a risk of marginalization of women may arise since women’s tribunals’ methodology is founded on affective and aesthetic methods that might be perceived nonsensical (Simm, Peoples’ Tribunals, Women’s Courts and International Crimes of Sexual Violence 71). Furthermore, people’s tribunals are put in a situation where they must verify their legitimacy in front of international official courts and public, and this situation can create further marginalizing of women whose sufferings are deemed unworthy of addressed officially (Simm, Peoples’ Tribunals, Women’s Courts and International Crimes of Sexual Violence 68). Therefore, people’s tribunals avoid dealing with issues related to women. What is more, different than people’s tribunals predominantly focusing on juridical processes and process of legality to increase their legitimacy perceived by others, the first and foremost purpose of women’s tribunals is listening to women and raising awareness. The mentioned differences and conspicuous goal of women’s tribunals generate further hallmarks

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31 specific to women’s tribunals such as; dealing mostly with sexual violence and

gendered issues as well as using feminist approach to justice and poetic grammar or methodology. The rest of this part presents some example from women’s tribunal to clarify these natures specific to women’s tribunals.

Referring to women’s tribunals’ feature which is to handle sexual violence against women, Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal for the Trial of Japan’s Military Sexual Slavery (better known as the Tokyo Women’s Tribunal) is one of the most prominent women’s tribunals presented in the literature. It was established to consider criminal liability of the Japanese military and political authorities as well as the Japanese State, in relation to military rape and forced sex work of women, arising out of the Japanese military activities during the WW-II (Chinkin). Starting in 1932, and in a more systemic manner from 1938, the Japanese State started to establish ‘comfort stations’, importing women from various Asian countries, but mainly from Korea, to bordellos in the areas occupied by the Japanese military (Yoshimi 58-59). When the battle spread, these women who were named as ‘comfort women’ were taken to the battlefield through lies, deception, and violence or force. Once the Japanese army withdrew their soldiers, the women were either left behind or killed (Lévy 126).

As a brief background to the Tokyo Women’s Tribunal, Yun Chung-Ok, Korean Professor and feminist activist, who had investigated the sexual crimes of the Japanese military for many years published an article on Hanyoreh Newspaper in January 1990, leading the survivors to dare to speak out about their experiences for the first time after fifty years of silence (Asian Women's Fund). In November 1990, many Korean women organizations came together to form Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan , and in 1991, the first testimony was shared by Kim Hak-sun who had been obliged to serve as a comfort women (Ishikida). After these leadings, public hearings of the other survivors took place at the Vienna World

Conference on Human Rights in 1993, following the issue showed up at the OHCHR in 1992 (Chinkin). Nevertheless, the Japanese State first denied all the allegations before it had to make some narrow acknowledgment and to repent owing to the increasing number of women who came forward. Some lawsuits have been actualized in Japanese courts, to date with no legal success but only compensation delivered through an

independent organization called as Asian Women’s Fund (AWF) which was established with the support of Japanese government in 1995 to raise private funds to compensate

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32 the survivors (Yoon 29). At this point, women are split over AWF compensation. Some found the compensation appropriate and sufficient ‘formal’ because they were also given medical and social assistance as well as an apology from the former Japanese Prime Minister through AWF. Nonetheless, the majority of them demand an official apology and compensation directly from the Japanese government, meaning that they insist on a fulfilled justice (Ishikida). As a result of lack of response by the Japanese government, the Tokyo Women’s Tribunal was set up in conjunction with sixty-four women groups in Japan on 8-12 December 2000, under the umbrella of The Violence Against Women in War Network (Lévy 125).

The Tokyo Women’s Tribunal was considered as an addendum to the Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE) which was built by the Allied states after the WW-II. However, since the IMTFE failed to prosecute the crimes towards ‘comfort women’ despite of powerful of evidences, the women decided to step towards justice for the maltreatments (Chinkin). In the preamble of the Charter of the Tokyo Women’s

Tribunal, the primary reason is given as to reveal truths to establish the legal liability of states and individuals involved in sexual crimes (Women's Caucus for Gender Justice, Charter of the Women's International War Crimes Tribunal on Japan's Military Sexual Slavery). The preamble further states that witnessing the crimes which were perpetrated by the Japanese military in several Asian states under the Japanese colonial domination during the WW-II remained unresolved without any justice, as well as the ongoing physical and psychological suffers of the women due to the violations and failure to provide justice, including compensation and prosecutions of the perpetrators, caused the establishment of the Tribunal (Women's Caucus for Gender Justice, Charter of the Women's International War Crimes Tribunal on Japan's Military Sexual Slavery).

The Tribunal took some measures to protect the safety, dignity, privacy and well-being of the women through audio-visual proceedings and the other means. In September 2011, the Tribunal concluded that the Japanese State committed

internationally wrongful acts based on the treaties that the Japanese State ratified such as; 1921 International Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Women and Children and the 1930 ILO Convention Concerning Forced Labour (Women's Caucus for Gender Justice, RE: Judgment of the Women's International War Crimes Tribunal 2000 for the Trial of Japanese Military Sexual Slavery). The judges of the Tribunal also found Emperor Hirohito, who governed the country between 1926-1989, guilty

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33 concerning the establishment and maintenance of the comfort system. Lastly, the

Tribunal reminded the Japanese State’s acceptance of the power of IMFTE in the 1951 San Francisco Treaty, approving the IMFTE’s decisions too (Women's Caucus for Gender Justice, RE: Judgment of the Women's International War Crimes Tribunal 2000 for the Trial of Japanese Military Sexual Slavery).

Focusing on sexual violence, like how the Tokyo Women’s Tribunal did, is the main distinguishing characteristics of women’s tribunals over people’s tribunals due to the reasons explained before, and the Tokyo Women’s Tribunals is the most well-known example of that. This kind of women’s tribunals emphasize the lack of law in responding sexual crimes, and they ask for justice for survivors of sexual violence. While doing so, they often have a feminist approach to justice. Nevertheless, there has been a debate in the literature about whether the Tokyo Women’s Tribunals took a feminist perspective to justice. Some experts argue that the Tokyo Women’s did not deal with the injustice from a feminist perspective because it was built as an addendum to IMFTE.18_{Some others evaluate it as a feminist response since it brought the issue of} comfort system to the light and raised public awareness, and restored the dignity of former so-called comfort women. Regardless of an absolute reconciliation, the debate enriches feminist understanding of justice. At this point, it is important to touch upon what a feminist approach to justice means to women’s tribunals.

In fact, feminist approach to justice is not an issue that only women’s tribunals discuss. Since late 1990s, discussion of feminism in justice and feminist critiques of the existing law started to take part within even official law frameworks. As an instance, the definition of international crime of sexual violence in Rome Statute which was

established by ICC includes “rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced

pregnancy, enforced sterilization and any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity” (Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court art 7(1)(g)). However, sexual and gender-based violence that encompasses human rights violations do not add up to international sexual crimes because it is a broader concept than sexual crimes. Indeed, the feminist discussions made a way for an expansion of the legal and normative framework for such crimes, and, as a result, it is now well approved that a

18_{Similar situation to the first Russell Tribunal which modelled itself around the Nuremberg Military} Trials.

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34 war can constitute a sexual violence without requiring further evidence or a sexual violence can constitute an act of genocide in addition to being a war crime (United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, Sexual and gender-based violence in the context of transitional justice, 1). Yet, many feminists make criticism on the ‘fixation’ of ‘war and sexual violence relation’, and they claim that this fixation devalues sufferings occurring in conflict or other extraordinary times and ‘ordinary’ sexual violence crimes (Simm, Peoples’ Tribunals, Women’s Courts and International Crimes of Sexual Violence 63). For example, Janet Halley remarks that rape is not simply a method of belligerent forces but a part of global war against women (Halley 6-7).

Concerning the feminist justice within the scope of people’s tribunals, it would be a mistake to claim that people’s tribunals are not nourished by feminism. On the contrary, the philosophy of people’s tribunals relies on feminist critique, based on the fact that they are survivor-centered organisms and some of them demand for a

mobilization for a change of the existing law by activism (Otto, Beyond legal justice: some personal reflections on people’s tribunals, listening and responsibility 228). However, in the context of unofficial tribunals, feminist justice is the most associated with women’s tribunals in the literature. There are two reasons for that. Firstly, ‘mainstream people’s tribunals’ tend to go astray like official courts in terms of marginalizing sexual violence crimes as a consequence of their legal focus over the course of a tribunal (Simm, Peoples’ Tribunals, Women’s Courts and International Crimes of Sexual Violence 64). Secondly, people’s tribunals create a risk for

marginalization of women, as aforementioned before. Given these grounds, people’s tribunals render women’s tribunals necessary to take care of issues related with women, resulting in that women’s tribunals are associated with feminist perception to justice within the literature of unofficial tribunals.

As noted above, feminist approach to justice come with women’s tribunals. Duhacek claims that feminist justice arises from the notion of injustice. She believes that we wouldn’t know of justice if there was no injustice (Duhacek 165). According to her, women’s tribunals conceptualize feminist justice by focusing on women’s

testimonies and stories which are full of injustice. Additionally, the El Taller International Organization which was among the organizers of the Tokyo Women’s Tribunal asserts that the feminist approach emerged by Courts of Women calls people to

Consideration of Women’s Tribunals Under Protection and Hypothetical Yezidi Women’s Tribunals