Traumatised Witnesses in International Criminal Trials

This book focuses on the testimonial evidence of traumatised witnesses in trials of international crimes. It analyses transcripts of proceedings and case law of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the International Criminal Court, and Dutch courts prosecuting international crimes.

Suzanne Schot is Assistant Professor of International Criminal Law at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Acknowledgements viii Abbreviations x 1 Introduction 1 2 Remembering Trauma: A Focus on International Crimes 22 3 From Memory to Testimony: Becoming a Witness in Criminal Proceedings 52 4 Trauma and Preparing Witnesses for Testifying about International Crimes 77 5 Protecting Traumatised Witnesses during Testimony: Unavoidable Confrontation? 99 6 The Complexity of Putting Trauma into Words: Challenging the Scope of Testimony 143 7 On the Edge of Reason? Identifying and Assessing the Effects of Trauma on Testimonial Evidence 174 8 Conclusion 212 Index 228