The Russell Tribunal, also known as the International War Crimes Tribunal, Russell–Sartre Tribunal, or Stockholm Tribunal, was a private people's tribunal organised in 1966 by

Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, and public intellectual. He had influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, and various areas of analytic ...

, British philosopher and Nobel Prize winner, and hosted by French philosopher and writer

Jean-Paul Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was a French philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary criticism, literary critic, considered a leading figure in 20th ...

, along with Lelio Basso,

Simone de Beauvoir Simone Lucie Ernestine Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir (, ; ; 9 January 1908 – 14 April 1986) was a French existentialist philosopher, writer, social theorist, and feminist activist. Though she did not consider herself a philosopher, nor was she ...

, Vladimir Dedijer, Ralph Schoenman,

Isaac Deutscher Isaac Deutscher (; 3 April 1907 – 19 August 1967) was a Polish Marxist writer, journalist and political activist who moved to the United Kingdom before the outbreak of World War II. He is best known as a biographer of Leon Trotsky and Joseph S ...

Günther Anders Günther Anders (; born Günther Siegmund Stern, 12 July 1902 – 17 December 1992) was a German-born philosopher, journalist and critical theorist. Trained as a philosopher in the phenomenological tradition, he obtained his doctorate under ...

Lázaro Cárdenas Lázaro Cárdenas del Río (; 21 May 1895 – 19 October 1970) was a Mexican army officer and politician who served as president of Mexico from 1934 to 1940. Previously, he served as a general in the Constitutional Army during the Mexican Revo ...

and several others. The

tribunal A tribunal, generally, is any person or institution with authority to judge, adjudicate on, or determine claims or disputes—whether or not it is called a tribunal in its title. For example, an advocate who appears before a court with a singl ...

investigated and evaluated American foreign policy and military intervention in Vietnam. Bertrand Russell justified the establishment of this body as follows: The tribunal was constituted in November 1966, and was conducted in two sessions in 1967, in

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

, Sweden and

Roskilde Roskilde ( , ) is a city west of Copenhagen on the Danish island of Zealand. With a population of 53,354 (), the city is a business and educational centre for the region and the 10th largest city in Denmark. It is governed by the administrative ...

, Denmark. Bertrand Russell's book on the armed confrontations underway in Vietnam, ''War Crimes in Vietnam'', was published in January 1967. His postscript called for establishing this investigative body. The findings of the tribunal were largely ignored in the United States. Further tribunals were also held on various other issues, including

psychiatry Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of deleterious mental disorder, mental conditions. These include matters related to cognition, perceptions, Mood (psychology), mood, emotion, and behavior. ...

human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

, and the Israel-Palestine conflict and, most recently, on the disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

Composition and origin

The idea for the tribunal was first proposed to Russell in 1965 by M.S. Arnoni. Representatives of 18 countries participated in the tribunal's two sessions. The tribunal committee, which called itself the International War Crimes Tribunal, consisted of 25 notable individuals, predominantly from peace organisations, including winners of the Nobel Prize, Medals of Valor, and awards of recognition in humanitarian and social fields. Neither Vietnam nor the United States was directly represented by any individual on the 25-member panel, although a couple of members were American citizens. More than 30 people, including military personnel from the United States, and both of the warring factions in Vietnam, gave evidence to the tribunal. Financing for the Tribunal included a large contribution from the North Vietnamese government after a request made by Russell to

Ho Chi Minh (born ; 19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969), colloquially known as Uncle Ho () among other aliases and sobriquets, was a Vietnamese revolutionary and politician who served as the founder and first President of Vietnam, president of the ...

Tribunal members

* Wolfgang Abendroth, JD, Professor of Political Science, Marburg University (did not attend the sessions in Stockholm and Roskilde) *

Tariq Ali Tariq Ali (;; born 21 October 1943) is a Pakistani-British political activist, writer, journalist, historian, filmmaker, and public intellectual. He is a member of the editorial committee of the ''New Left Review'' and ''Sin Permiso'', and co ...

, journalist and political campaigner *

, writer and philosopher * Mehmet Ali Aybar, international lawyer; Member of Turkish Parliament; President, Workers' Party of Turkey * A. J. Ayer, British philosopher and logician * James Baldwin, African-American novelist and essayist (did not attend the sessions in Stockholm and Roskilde) * Lelio Basso, international lawyer; Deputy of Italian Parliament and Member of the Commission of Foreign Affairs; professor, Rome University. President of PSIUP (Italian Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity) *

, former President of Mexico * Stokely Carmichael, American civil rights activist, Chairman,

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and later, the Student National Coordinating Committee (SNCC, pronounced ) was the principal channel of student commitment in the United States to the civil rights movement during the 1960s. Emer ...

* Courtland Cox, American civil rights activist,

* Lawrence Daly, General Secretary, Scottish National Union of Mineworkers *

, French writer and philosopher * Vladimir Dedijer, MA, JD, Tribunal chairman and President of Sessions, historian and former

Yugoslav Partisan The Yugoslav Partisans,Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian language, Macedonian, and Slovene language, Slovene: , officially the National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia sh-Latn-Cyrl, Narodnooslobodilačka vojska i partizanski odr ...

fighter * David Dellinger, American pacifist; Editor, ''Liberation''; Chairman, Fifth Avenue Parade Committee *

, Polish-British historian and

Trotsky Lev Davidovich Bronstein ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky,; ; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky'' was a Russian revolutionary, Soviet politician, and political theorist. He was a key figure ...

biographer * Miguel Ángel Estrella, ambassador to UNESCO * Haika Grossman, Israeli liberation fighter, jurist (did not attend the sessions in Stockholm and Roskilde) * Gisèle Halimi, French lawyer; attorney for Djamila Bouhired; author of works on French repression of independence fighters in Algeria * Amado V. Hernandez, poet laureate of the Philippines; Chairman, Democratic Labor Party; Acting President, National Organization of Philippine Writers * Melba Hernandez, Chairman, Cuban Committee for Solidarity with Viet Nam, now the Cuba-Viet Nam Friendship Association * Mahmud Ali Kasuri, Member of the National Assembly of Pakistan, Senior Advocate Supreme Court of Pakistan * Sara Lidman, Swedish novelist and activist (substitute for Wolfgang Abendroth at the Stockholm and Roskilde sessions) * Kinju Morikawa, attorney; Vice-Chairman,

Japan Civil Liberties Union The is a Japanese non-profit organization founded in 1947. Roger Nash Baldwin of the ACLU played an important role in its founding. The JCLU aims to protect human rights, and bases its operation on international human rights standards, princi ...

* Carl Oglesby, Past President,

Students for a Democratic Society Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was a national student activist organization in the United States during the 1960s and was one of the principal representations of the New Left. Disdaining permanent leaders, hierarchical relationships a ...

; playwright; political essayist *

(Tribunal Honorary President), peace activist; philosopher; mathematician *

Shoichi Sakata was a Japanese physicist and Marxist who was internationally known for theoretical work on the subatomic particles.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Sakata Shōichi''" in ; n.b., Louis-Frédéric is pseudonym of Louis-Frédéric Nussbaum, ' ...

, Japanese physicist, educator *

(Tribunal Executive President), philosopher; writer, playwright, political activist *

Laurent Schwartz Laurent-Moïse Schwartz (; 5 March 1915 – 4 July 2002) was a French mathematician. He pioneered the theory of Distribution (mathematics), distributions, which gives a well-defined meaning to objects such as the Dirac delta function. He was awar ...

, Professor of Mathematics, Paris University. *

Alice Walker Alice Malsenior Tallulah-Kate Walker (born February 9, 1944) is an American novelist, short story writer, poet, and social activist. In 1982, she became the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, which she was awa ...

, American author and activist * Peter Weiss, German playwright, novelist; experimental film director Other intellectuals were invited but eventually rejected this invitation for various reasons: *

Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American professor and public intellectual known for his work in linguistics, political activism, and social criticism. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is also a ...

, American anti-war activist.

Aims

The Tribunal aims were stated as follows: :We constitute ourselves a Tribunal which, even if it has not the power to impose sanctions, will have to answer, amongst others, the following questions: ::# Has the United States Government (and the Governments of Australia, New Zealand and South Korea) committed acts of aggression according to international law? ::# Has the American army made use of or experimented with new weapons or weapons forbidden by the laws of war? ::# Has there been bombardment of targets of a purely civilian character, for example hospitals, schools, sanatoria, dams, etc., and on what scale has this occurred? ::# Have Vietnamese prisoners been subjected to inhuman treatment forbidden by the laws of war and, in particular, to torture or mutilation? Have there been unjustified reprisals against the civilian population, in particular, execution of hostages? ::# Have forced labour camps been created, has there been deportation of the population or other acts tending to the extermination of the population and which can be characterised juridically as acts of genocide? :All participants in the war in Southeast Asia are petitioned to attend and present evidence, including Vietnam, Cambodia and the United States, as noted in this excerpt from the Tribunal's description of aims and intent: ::"This Tribunal will examine all the evidence that may be placed before it by any source or party. The evidence may be oral, or in the form of documents. No evidence relevant to our purposes will be refused attention. ... The National Liberation Front of South Vietnam and the Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam have assured us of their willingness to co-operate ... The Cambodian Head of State, Prince Sihanouk, has similarly offered to help ... We invite the Government of the United States to present evidence or cause it to be presented ... Our purpose is to establish, without fear or favour, the full truth about this war. We sincerely hope that our efforts will contribute to the world's justice, to the re-establishment of peace and the liberation of oppressed peoples."

Evidence presented at the Tribunal

During the First Tribunal Session in Stockholm, testimony and evidence was produced by the following witnesses (incomplete list): * Gabriel Kolko, American historian * Jean Chesneaux, French historian * Charles Fourniau, French historian, journalist and playwright *Leon Matarasso, French jurist *Samuel Rosenwein, American constitutional lawyer *Abraham Behar, French M.D. *John Takman, Swedish M.D. and parliamentarian *Axel Höjer, Swedish M.D. and UN official *

Marta Rojas Marta Rojas (May 17, 1928 – October 3, 2021) was a Cuban journalist, historian, historical fiction writer, and revolutionary heroine. A witness to the 26 July 1953 assault on the Moncada Barracks, she reported on the subject of censorship to ''Re ...

, Cuban author and revolutionary * Alejo Carpentier, Cuban author *Charles Cobb, American journalist and field secretary of the

SNCC The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and later, the Student National Coordinating Committee (SNCC, pronounced ) was the principal channel of student commitment in the United States to the civil rights movement during the 1960s. Emer ...

* Julius Lester, American author and civil rights activist *Fujio Yamazaki, Japanese scientist, Professor of Agriculture *Makato Kandachi, Japanese scientist * Joe Neilands, American scientist * Malcolm Caldwell, British journalist and academic *Do Van Ngoc, 9-year-old Vietnamese napalm bombing survivor *Ngo Thi Nga, Vietnamese teacher *Martin Birnstingl, British surgeon During the Second Tribunal Session in Roskilde, testimony and evidence was produced by the following witnesses (incomplete list): *Peter Martinsen, American veteran, 541st Military Intelligence Detachment * Donald Duncan, American veteran, Army Special Forces *David Kenneth Tuck, American veteran, 25th Infantry Division * Wilfred Burchett, Australian journalist *Erich Wulff, German M.D. *Masahiro Hashimoto, Japanese M.D. *Gilbert Dreyfus, French M.D., Professor of Biochemistry * Alexandre Minkowski, M.D., Professor of Pediatrics * Madelaine Riffaud, French journalist *Roger Pic, French photo journalist *Pham Thi Yen, Vietnamese pharmacist, former political prisoner *Thai Binh Danh, Vietnamese farmworker, napalm bombing survivor *Edgar Ledeer, French scientist *Stanley Faulkner, American civil rights attorney * Yves Jouffa, French jurist and activist

Conclusions and verdicts

The Tribunal stated that its conclusions were: :# ''Has the Government of the United States committed acts of aggression against Vietnam under the terms of international law?''
Yes (unanimously). :# ''Has there been, and if so, on what scale, bombardment of purely civilian targets, for example, hospitals, schools, medical establishments, dams, etc?''
Yes (unanimously).

We find the government and armed forces of the United States are guilty of the deliberate, systematic and large-scale bombardment of civilian targets, including civilian populations, dwellings, villages, dams, dikes, medical establishments, leper colonies, schools, churches, pagodas, historical and cultural monuments. We also find unanimously, with one abstention, that the government of the United States of America is guilty of repeated violations of the sovereignty, neutrality and territorial integrity of Cambodia, that it is guilty of attacks against the civilian population of a certain number of Cambodian towns and villages.

:# ''Have the governments of Australia, New Zealand and South Korea been accomplices of the United States in the aggression against Vietnam in violation of international law?''
Yes (unanimously).

The question also arises as to whether or not the governments of Thailand and other countries have become accomplices to acts of aggression or other crimes against Vietnam and its populations. We have not been able to study this question during the present session. We intend to examine at the next session legal aspects of the problem and to seek proofs of any incriminating facts.

:# ''Is the Government of Thailand guilty of complicity in the aggression committed by the United States Government against Vietnam? ''
Yes (unanimously). :# ''Is the Government of the Philippines guilty of complicity in the aggression committed by the United States Government against Vietnam?''
Yes (unanimously). :# ''Is the Government of Japan guilty of complicity in the aggression committed by the United States Government against Vietnam? ''
Yes, (by 8 Votes to 3).

The three Tribunal members who voted against agree that the Japanese Government gives considerable aid to the Government of the United States, but do not agree on its complicity in the crime of aggression.

:# ''Has the United States Government committed aggression against the people of Laos, according to the definition provided by international law?''
Yes (unanimously). :# ''Have the armed forces of the United States used or experimented with weapons prohibited by the laws of war?
Yes (unanimously). :# ''Have prisoners of war captured by the armed forces of the United States been subjected to treatment prohibited by the laws of war?''
Yes (unanimously). :# ''Have the armed forces of the United States subjected the civilian population to inhuman treatment prohibited by international law?''
Yes (unanimously). :# ''Is the United States Government guilty of genocide against the people of Vietnam?''
Yes (unanimously). Prompted in part by the My Lai Massacre, in 1969 the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation organised Citizens Commissions of Inquiry (CCI) to hold hearings intended to document testimony of war crimes in Indochina. These hearings were held in several American cities, and would eventually form the foundation of two national investigations: the National Veterans Inquiry sponsored by the CCI, and the Winter Soldier Investigation sponsored by the Vietnam Veterans Against the War.

Reasoning for verdicts

Verdict 11: Genocide

John Gerassi was an investigator for the Tribunal and documented that the United States was bombing hospitals, schools and other civilian targets in Vietnam. He offers first hand and documentary evidence about US war crimes.Gerassi, John (1968) ''North Vietnam: A Documentary,'' London : Allen & Unwin His book provides many details of US atrocities and shows the larger motivation for the Tribunal on the accusation of genocide rests from the clear need to expose documented atrocities against civilians rather than an actual ongoing genocide.

bases his argument for genocide on several reasons, but part of it rests on statements and declarations from US leaders and ''intention'' rather than conduc

"In particular, we must try to understand whether there is an ''intention of genocide'' in the war that the American government is fighting against Vietnam. Article 2 of the Convention of 1948 defines genocide on the basis of intention." And that "Recently,

Dean Rusk David Dean Rusk (February 9, 1909December 20, 1994) was the United States secretary of state from 1961 to 1969 under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, the second-longest serving secretary of state after Cordell Hull from the ...

has declared: 'We are defending ourselves ... It is the ''United States'' that is in danger in Saigon. This means that their first aim is military: it is to encircle Communist China, the major obstacle to their expansionism. Thus, they will not let south-east Asia escape. America has put men in power in Thailand, it controls part of Laos and threatens to invade Cambodia. But these conquests will be useless if the US has to face a free Vietnam with thirty-one million united people." Furthermore that "At this point in our discussion, three facts emerge: (1) the US government wants a base and an example; (2) this can be achieved, without any greater obstacle than the resistance of the Vietnamese people themselves, by liquidating an entire people and establishing a Pax Americana on a Vietnamese desert; (3) to attain the second, the US ''must'' achieve, at least partially, this extermination."

Subsequent tribunals

Additional tribunals using the same model and the denomination ''Russell Tribunal'' have been held. The Second Russell Tribunal on Latin America was held over three sessions that spanned three years and focused on human rights violations during the military dictatorships in Argentina and Brazil (Rome, 1974), on Chile's military coup d'état (Rome, 1974–76), the third tribunal focused on the situation of Human Rights in Germany (1978), the fourth tribunal focused on the rights of the Indians of the Americas (Rotterdam 1980), subsequent tribunals forcused on the Threat of Indigenous Peoples of America (1982), on Human Rights in Psychiatry (Berlin, 2001), on Iraq (Brussels, 2004), and on Palestine (Barcelona, 2009–12). The tribunal was criticised by some historians and activists who argue against its lack of standing. At the closing session of the Russell Tribunal the creation of three new institutions was announced: the International Foundation for the Rights and Liberations of Peoples, and the International League for the Rights and Liberations of Peoples, and the Permanent Peoples' Tribunal. The Permanents People's Tribunal was established in

Bologna Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...

on 23 June 1979. Between its founding and April 1984, the tribunal pronounced two advisory opinions on

Western Sahara Western Sahara is a territorial dispute, disputed territory in Maghreb, North-western Africa. It has a surface area of . Approximately 30% of the territory () is controlled by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR); the remaining 70% is ...

and

Eritrea Eritrea, officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa, with its capital and largest city being Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia in the Eritrea–Ethiopia border, south, Sudan in the west, and Dj ...

and held eight sessions (

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

El Salvador El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is S ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

I and II,

East Timor Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor, officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is a country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the coastal exclave of Oecusse in the island's northwest, and ...

Zaire Zaire, officially the Republic of Zaire, was the name of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1971 to 18 May 1997. Located in Central Africa, it was, by area, the third-largest country in Africa after Sudan and Algeria, and the 11th-la ...

and

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

). The latter was concluded in January 1983 in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

. A special hearing was conducted in Paris on 13–16 April 1984 to investigate the

Armenian genocide The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was implemented primarily t ...

. The Tribunal's 35-member panel included three Nobel Prize winners—

Seán MacBride Seán MacBride (26 January 1904 – 15 January 1988) was an Irish Republican activist, politician, and diplomat who served as Minister for External Affairs from 1948 to 1951, Leader of Clann na Poblachta from 1946 to 1965 and Chief of Staff o ...

, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel and Professor George Wald— and ten eminent jurist, theologians, academics and political figures. The tribunal concluded that genocide was already prohibited by law at the time the Armenian Genocide took place - that though not explicitly banned by written rules it was not legally tolerated - thus the 1948 International Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was formally expressing an already existing prohibition. The tribunal concluded that the massacres of Armenians between 1915 and 1917 revealed the intention of the systematic extermination of the Armenian people, intent as specified in article II of the 1948 convention, and that it was undoubtedly a genocide, the manifestation of a policy that had emerged in the Ottoman Empire in the 1890s. The tribunal criticised as unacceptable the denial (''il diniego abusive'' "the abusive refusal") of the genocide by Turkish governments since the establishment of the Kemalist republic. More than three decades later, the Russell Tribunal model was followed by the World Tribunal on Iraq, which was held to make a similar analysis of the

Project for the New American Century The Project for the New American Century (PNAC) was a neoconservative *"The PNAC's 33 leaders were highly connected with the American state – displaying 115 such connections: 27 with the Department of Defense, 13 with State, 12 with the Whit ...

, the 2003 Invasion of Iraq and subsequent occupation of Iraq, and the links between these.

1974–76: On Repression in Brazil, Chile, and Latin America (Rome, Brussels)

After Russell's death in 1970, Senator Lelio Basso began organizing a second tribunal in 1973 initially focused on human rights violations in Brazil, which then expanded to include Chile in the wake of the military coup in that country, and then to all of Latin America. The official name chosen by the constituents was "Russel Tribunal II on the Repression in Brazil, Chile and in Latin America" and was held in three sessions from 1974 to 1976 in Rome and Brussels. Basso presided over the tribunal and writer

Gabriel García Márquez Gabriel José García Márquez (; 6 March 1927 – 17 April 2014) was a Colombian writer and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo () or Gabito () throughout Latin America. Considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th centur ...

, historians Vladimir Dedijer and Albert Soboul, and professor of law François Rigaux served as vice-presidents.

2001: On Human Rights in Psychiatry (Berlin)

In 2001,

Thomas Szasz Thomas Stephen Szasz ( ; ; 15 April 1920 – 8 September 2012) was a Hungarian-American academic and psychiatrist. He served for most of his career as professor of psychiatry at the State University of New York Upstate Medical University. A dis ...

and others took part in a Russell Tribunal on Human Rights in Psychiatry held in Berlin between 30 June and 2 July. The Tribunal brought in the two following verdicts: the majority verdict claimed that there was "serious abuse of human rights in psychiatry" and that psychiatry was "guilty of the combination of force and unaccountability"; the minority verdict, signed by the Israeli Law Professor Alon Harel and Brazilian novelist

Paulo Coelho Paulo Coelho de Souza ( , ; born 24 August 1947) is a Brazilian lyricist and novelist and a member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters since 2002. His 1988 novel '' The Alchemist'' became an international best-seller. Early life Paulo Coelho ...

, called for "public critical examination of the role of psychiatry."

2004: On Iraq (Brussels)

In 2004 the " BRussells Tribunal" took place in Brussels as a continuation of the tradition of the Russell Tribunal as part of the World Tribunal on Iraq. Philosopher

Jacques Derrida Jacques Derrida (; ; born Jackie Élie Derrida;Peeters (2013), pp. 12–13. See also 15 July 1930 – 9 October 2004) was a French Algerian philosopher. He developed the philosophy of deconstruction, which he utilized in a number of his texts, ...

praised this event, stating that "to resuscitate the tradition of a Russell Tribunal is symbolically an important and necessary thing to do today."

2009–2014: On Palestine (Barcelona, London, Cape Town, New York, Brussels)

The Russell Tribunal on

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

(RToP) was created in March 2009. In April 2011, the association converted to a non-profit organisation, with legal status in Brussels, by , Jacques Michiels, Jacques Debatty, Nadia Farkh, Henri Eisendrath and Roseline Sonet. The former non-elected PS senator, Galand, was appointed president of the association. The first session of the Tribunal took place in

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

in March 2010 This session's objective was to consider the complicities and omissions of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

and its member states in the Palestinian-Israel conflict. The second international session of the RToP took place in London in November 2010. It examined international corporate issues in Israel and human rights law. The third international session of the RToP took place in

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

in November 2011. It asked the question: "Are Israeli practices against the Palestinian people in breach of the prohibition on

apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

under international law?" Pierre Galand pointed out that the Cape Town session of the tribunal had a budget of €190,000; €100,000 was donated by Editions Indigene, the publisher of the book ''Time for an outrage''. More than €15,000 was raised at a 24 September 2011 fundraising event by the Belgian support committee of the Russell Tribunal. The Caipirinha Foundation lists the RToP as a grant receiver, but does not disclose the amount or the year of its grant. A fourth international session of the RToP took place in New York on 6–7 October 2012. A fifth session met in Brussels on 16–17 March 2013. An extraordinary session was held in Brussels on 24 September 2014 in response to Israel's Operation Protective Edge launched in the

Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip, also known simply as Gaza, is a small territory located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea; it is the smaller of the two Palestinian territories, the other being the West Bank, that make up the State of Palestine. I ...

on 8 July 2014.

2021: On Kashmir (Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina)

The Russell Tribunal on Kashmir was launched in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Hercegovina, and took place on 17–19 December 2021. It was organized by Canadian NGO Kashmir Civitas whose Secretary-General is Canadian academic Farhan Mujahid Chak, and attended by

Richard Falk Richard Anderson Falk (born November 13, 1930) is an American professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University, and Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor's Chairman of the Board of Trustees. In 2004, he was listed as the autho ...

, Sami al-Arian, Jonathan A.C. Brown, David Hearst, and Omar Suleiman The event had support/partnerships with the World Kashmir Awareness Forum, Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation, Permanent Peoples' Tribunal, Aljazeera Balkans, Nahla, Center for Advanced Studies in Sarajevo, and International University of Sarajevo. Decolonization, settler-colonialism, crimes against humanity, genocide and nuclear threats emerging from the disputed territory of Indian-Occupied Jammu and Kashmir were marked at an inaugural tribunal in Sarajevo that sought to draw global attention to the atrocities committed in the Muslim-majority region.

Criticisms

The tribunal did not investigate alleged war crimes by the

Viet Cong The Viet Cong (VC) was an epithet and umbrella term to refer to the communist-driven armed movement and united front organization in South Vietnam. It was formally organized as and led by the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam, and ...

; Ralph Schoenman commented: "Lord Russell would think no more of doing that than of trying the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto for their uprising against the Nazis." The Russell Tribunal was included by historian Guenter Lewy as part of a "veritable industry publicizing alleged war crimes", as increasing numbers of American servicemen were stepping forward with published accounts of their experiences with atrocities, and scholars and peace organisations were holding tribunals dealing with war crimes. Staughton Lynd, chairman of the 1965 "March on Washington", was asked by Russell to participate in the tribunal and rejected the invitation. Lynd's objections and criticism of the Tribunal were based on the fact that Russell planned to investigate only non-North Vietnamese and National Liberation Front conduct. Lynd wrote that "in conversation with the emissary who proffered the invitation, I urged that the alleged war crimes of any party to the conflict should come before the Tribunal. After all, I argued, a "crime" is an action that is wrong no matter who does it. Pressing my case, I asked, "What if it were shown that the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam tortures unarmed prisoners?" The answer, as I understood it, was, "Anything is justified that drives the imperialist aggressor into the sea." I declined the invitation to be a member of the Tribunal." David Horowitz, who did some work for the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation but didn't participate in the Tribunal, wrote 30 years later about the criticism that the Russell Tribunal would not also investigate alleged Communist atrocities. In his memoirs, Horowitz wrote that Jean-Paul Sartre said, "I refuse to place in the same category the actions of an organization of poor peasants ... and those of an immense army backed by a highly organized country ...". Horowitz interpreted Sartre's words to mean "the Communists were, by definition, incapable of committing

war crimes A war crime is a violation of the laws of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility for actions by combatants in action, such as intentionally killing civilians or intentionally killing prisoners of war, torture, taking hos ...

." Judge

Richard Goldstone Richard Joseph Goldstone (born 26 October 1938) is a South African retired judge who served in the Constitutional Court of South Africa from July 1994 to October 2003. He joined the bench as a judge of the Supreme Court of South Africa, first i ...

, writing in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' in October 2011, said of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine that "It is not a 'tribunal.' The 'evidence' is going to be one-sided and the members of the 'jury' are critics whose harsh views of Israel are well known. In Israel, there is no apartheid. Nothing there comes close to the definition of apartheid under the 1998

Rome Statute The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court is the treaty that established the International Criminal Court (ICC). It was adopted at a diplomatic conference in Rome, Italy on 17 July 1998Michael P. Scharf (August 1998)''Results of the R ...

." South African journalist and human rights activist Benjamin Pogrund, now living in Israel, described the Cape Town Session of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine as "It's theatre: the actors know their parts and the result is known before they start. Israel is to be dragged into the mud." After the Cape Town session, Israeli MK Otniel Schneller filed a complaint with the Knesset's Ethics Committee against MK Hanin Zoabi, who testified at the Tribunal that "Israel is an apartheid state". A group of Jewish South Africans protested against the court, and the organiser of the protest called it a "

Kangaroo Court Kangaroo court is an informal pejorative term for a court that ignores recognized standards of law or justice, carries little or no official standing in the territory within which it resides, and is typically convened ad hoc. A kangaroo court ma ...

References

Sources

* ''Against the Crime of Silence: Proceedings of the Russell International War Crimes Tribunal'', edited by J. Duffett, O'Hare Books, New York, 1968. * ''Radical Son: A Generational Odyssey'', by David Horowitz, Free Press, New York, 1997. * ''War Crimes in Vietnam'', by Bertrand Russell, 1967, see Postscript. * ''North Vietnam: A Documentary'', by John Gerassi, Allen & Unwin, London, 1968. *''Russelltribunalen''. Directed by Staffan Lamm. 2003/2004.

External links

Selections from the Russell Tribunal
*

Russell Tribunal on Palestine

Reviews of the Proceedings of the Russell International War Crimes Tribunal and Sartre's essay, On Genocide

War Crimes and Vietnam: The "Nuremberg Defense" and the Military Service Resister

Interview with Frank Barat of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine
{{Bertrand Russell (Navigational box), state=autocollapse International criminal law Vietnam War crimes Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War Bertrand Russell People's Tribunal