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Scharf, Michael P. --- "Self-representation of the accused before international tribunals" [2011] ELECD 104; in Brown, S. Bartram (ed), "Research Handbook on International Criminal Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: Research Handbook on International Criminal Law

Editor(s): Brown, S. Bartram

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847202789

Section: Chapter 12

Section Title: Self-representation of the accused before international tribunals

Author(s): Scharf, Michael P.

Number of pages: 15

Extract:

12 Self-representation of the accused before international
tribunals: an absolute right or a qualified privilege?
Michael P. Scharf



INTRODUCTION

Echoing the wording of article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
(ICCPR),1 the Statutes of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), and all of
the other modern war crimes tribunals provide that the defendant has the right `to defend
himself in person or through legal assistance of his own choosing'.2 Relying on this language,
former leaders standing trial for war crimes often seek to act as their own lawyers in order to
transform the proceedings into a political stage.3 Is this a necessary evil attendant to the right
to a fair trial under conventional and customary international law, as Judge Richard May, who
presided over the trial of Slobodan Milosevic, concluded? 4 Or can the Covenant, customary
international law and the Statutes of the international tribunals be read as permitting a war
crimes tribunal to appoint counsel over the objections of the defendant, as the ICTR held in
the Barayagwiza case?5
How war crimes tribunals answer this question in the future will have a significant effect
on their ability to contribute to peace, reconciliation and the rule of law by establishing a
historic record of atrocities committed by the former regime that is accepted by the target



1 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 19 December 1996, 999 UNTS 171
(ICCPR), art. 14(3)(d) (`In the determination of any ...