Article

The International Court of Justice and applied forms of reparation for international human rights and humanitarian law violations

Gentian Zyberi

• Utrecht law review, Vol. 7, issue 1, January 2011, p. 204-215

English

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This article examines the case law of the International Court of Justice (ICJ or the Court) which is relevant to the issue of reparations that are due to individuals or states for violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. This article will focus on the ICJ decisions that address not only state reparations, but also reparations owed to natural and legal persons. The most recent case which hinges on the issue of whether jurisdictional state immunity can serve as a barrier to individual claims for reparation concerning international humanitarian law violations highlights the legal complexity and the increasing occurrence of requests combining state reparations and individual reparations. The article is divided according to the four types of reparations applied in those decisions, notably restitution, compensation, satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition. While, as mentioned above, those decisions provide a limited discussion on the implementation mechanism or modalities of reparations, the emphasis on the obligation to make full reparations for injuries, whether material or moral, caused by the internationally wrongful acts of a state is present in each of them.

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