The Peoples’ Tribunal: A Solution to Ending Impunity?

By Breanna McCann

As of November 5, there are sixteen confirmed murders of journalists worldwide in 2021.[1] Since the beginning of The Committee to Protect Journalists’ (CPJ) data collection in 1992, that number stands over 900.[2] With the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, there seemed to be a renewed emphasis on holding governments accountable for the murder of journalists. However, threats to reporters persist worldwide, with little remedy for those affected by the state-sanctioned targeting of reporters. While a state can say they abhor the murder of a journalist and that they are investigating it, how often does this end in justice for the victim and punishment for the perpetrator? This result is infrequent. Article 19, an international NGO that promotes freedom of expression in civic life, defines impunity as “exemption from punishment or freedom from the injurious consequences of an action.”[3] One of the most pressing problems facing civil society today is this impunity for abuses against journalists, but the question becomes what the solution is to a problem as persistent and systemic as widespread impunity.

NGOs such as RSF frequently release statements, condemning abuses against reporters and calling upon governments to answer for certain abuses or release unjustly imprisoned journalists. One recent release from RSF centers around a Chinese journalist sentenced to four years in prison for her reporting on the earliest days of the pandemic from Wuhan. To protest her unjust imprisonment, Zhang Zhan is undertaking a partial hunger strike. She is very near to death, leading the RSF to publish a joint letter with forty-four other NGOs demanding “Chinese President Xi Jinping… exonerate and release Zhang Zhan” as well as ten other reporters detained in China for their reporting who are also in danger of death.[4]

November 2 is the international day to end impunity for Crimes Against Journalists, a day on which the United Nations and NGOs such as RSF and CPJ renew their promises to fight for reporters and hold states accountable for their abuses. The difficulty lies in the fact that none of these organizations are actually given the latitude to fulfill the latter part of that mission. Through no fault of their own, only being able to call upon a leader to release a wrongfully imprisoned journalist does not provide an organization with many truly actionable steps to support that reporter past the incredibly valuable work of providing support and resources and reminding them they are not alone. These NGOs also do exceptional work protecting journalists out in the field and providing resources for them, but the discussion again returns to impunity.

There may finally be an answer to the question of impunity. On November 2, the People’s Tribunal opened in The Hague. An initiative of Free Press Unlimited (FPU), CPJ, and RSF, the People’s Tribunal “against the killings of journalists will operate over a period of six months. This week’s opening hearing will be followed by three three-country specific hearings and a closing hearing on May 3, 2022, World Press Freedom Day 2022.”[5] The mission of the People’s Tribunal is “to hold governments accountable for violations of international law, raise public awareness and collect legitimate evidence, as well as empower victims to express themselves and have their stories recorded.”[6] The five hearings will try the governments of Sri Lanka, Mexico, and Syria for specific assassinations and murders. However, the People’s Tribunal is not a criminal court. Instead, the objective is “to deploy research and judicial expertise to hold those governments to account that do not investigate crimes against journalists,” with RSF Executive Director Christian Mihr saying that the new “tribunal was not a criminal court in terms of international law but instead, its goal was to raise public awareness.”[7] Another objective is finally creating a UN special representative for the safety of journalists, a long-time goal of the RSF.[8] Irene Khan, the special rapporteur on freedom of expression for the United Nations, addressed this in her speech at the tribunal’s opening, saying that “‘[w]hat is missing is a standing instrument to allow investigations to be carried out internationally…’ However, she immediately warned that: ‘Setting up an independent investigatory mechanism may be complicated.’ Instead, she proposed a kind of task force of experts as an interim solution.”[9] This task force would include specialists such as forensic scientists who could make use of established UN institutions.[10]

The People’s Tribunal is a promising development in the battle against impunity. A standing institution that provides legal recourse for abuses against journalists means there is at least one actionable step for journalists and those advocating on their behalf to take. One promising case study comes from Colombia, where the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (CIDH) ruled in October that the Colombian state was responsible in part for the kidnapping, rape, and torture of journalist Jineth Beodya Lima in 2000. CIDH also ruled “that there had been grave omissions in the legal handling of the case. It was a resounding blow for the government of conservative president Ivan Duque,” showing such institutions can yield actual tangible results.[11] The question becomes if it will fall victim to the same challenges as organizations like the UN and other NGOs that are lacking the proverbial teeth to actually hold these governments and actors accountable for their actions.

Like the International Criminal Court (ICC), also housed in The Hague, the success of the People’s Tribunal largely depends upon how they establish and assert their jurisdiction. A party has to refer a case to the ICC, and the ICC’s jurisdiction “is based on the consent of the States to which it is open.”[12] Furthermore, “[i]f a State has not recognized the jurisdiction of the Court at the time when an application instituting proceedings is filed against it, that State has the possibility of subsequently accepting such jurisdiction to enable the Court to entertain the case” (7). This limited jurisdiction, which arises out of necessity and is no fault of their own, largely prevents such institutions from truly holding the most severe perpetrators accountable. However, the People’s Tribunal is taking a different approach, purposefully not portraying itself as a criminal court. It will be crucial to see if this different framing leads to more widespread support, or if, at the very least, it allows the People’s Tribunal to have a broader range of actionable options that will enable it to be more successful in combatting impunity. Over the next six months, the People’s Tribunal has the opportunity to prove itself a legitimate and effective venue for legal recourse against states that continually perpetrate abuses against journalists.

[1] Committee to Protect Journalists, Data: Journalists Killed in 2021, (2021), https://cpj.org/data/killed/2021/?status=Killed&motiveConfirmed%5B%5D=Confirmed&type%5B%5D=Journalist&start_year=2021&end_year=2021&group_by=location

[2] Committee to Protect Journalists, Data: Journalists Killed between 1992 and 2021, (2021), https://cpj.org/data/?status=Killed&start_year=1992&end_year=2021&group_by=year&motiveConfirmed%5B%5D=Confirmed&type%5B%5D=Journalist&typeOfDeath%5B%5D=Murder

[3] Article 19, Ending impunity for crimes against journalists, (Nov. 2 2018), https://www.article19.org/resources/ending-impunity-for-crimes-against-journalists/

[4] Reporters Sans Frontières, RSF calls for the release of a Chinese journalist in imminent danger of death, (Nov. 3 2021), https://rsf.org/fr/actualites/rsf-appelle-la-liberation-dune-journaliste-chinoise-en-danger-imminent-de-mort

[5] Reporters Sans Frontières, Court opens in The Hague to bring justice to murdered journalists (Nov. 1 2021), https://rsf.org/fr/actualites/ouverture-dun-tribunal-la-haye-pour-rendre-justice-aux-journalistes-assassines-0

[6] Id.

[7] Deutsche Welle, A tribunal to fight impunity for killing journalists (Nov. 3 2021), https://www.dw.com/en/a-tribunal-to-fight-impunity-for-killing-journalists/a-59710156

[8] Id.

[9] Id.

[10] Id.

[11] Id.

[12] International Court of Justice, Basis of the Court’s Jurisdiction (2017-2021), https://www.icj-cij.org/en/basis-of-jurisdiction