Research Profile: Can there be an end to Genocide?

Law and Society professor Maureen Hiebert studies why political leaders decide to commit genocide and the role of international criminal law in bringing justice to the victims of gross human rights violations.

"Regimes bent on perpetrating genocide may not care much about whether outside nations, activists, and international organizations oppose genocidal policies" says Hiebert. "If a regime is already committed to destroying a particular group the international community may not be able to prevent genocide through diplomacy, economic sanctions and moral approbations alone, and instead may have to use military force to prevent or stop the killing. One focus of my research is to examine the ability, or not, of the international community - the United Nations, NATO and individual countries - to intervene to stop genocide."

In her research Hiebert uses historical and government documents, court proceedings, speeches and how a political regime uses the media to communicate its message and foment public support for genocidal policies, to explain why genocide happens in the first place. Her research also investigates how law can be used domestically in the aftermath of genocide to re-formulate society, to uphold human rights, and to hold accountable those who have committed serious human rights abuses.

"Trials like Nuremberg, the International Criminal Tribunals for Yugoslavia and Rwanda, and now the permanent International Criminal Court, are supposed to reinforce the message that there is individual responsibility for the perpetration of crimes against humanity. Unfortunately, there is little evidence to suggest that international criminal prosecutions can deter further atrocities, such as we see in Darfur today".