The Witnesses: APSA's Best Book in Human Rights for 2005

University of Pennsylvania Press is pleased to announce that The Witnesses: War Crimes and the Promise of Justice in The Hague by Eric Stover has just received the Best Book in Human Rights Award from the American Political Science Association.
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The APSA's Human Rights committee’s citation follows:

Eric Stover’s study constitutes an important contribution to the growing literature on international justice and accountability. Written by a scholar with considerable field experience, The Witnesses examines a relatively neglected area of the international judicial process: the role of victims and witnesses who have testified before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Drawing vividly on their testimony, Stover adeptly reveals a hidden side of international tribunals. The Witnesses also challenges conventional wisdom about truth-telling and justice, suggesting that politics always mediates this complex relationship. In addition, the book raises many other critical issues, in particular questions relating to the rights and entitlements of witnesses, as well as to the nature and extent of the obligations of international and hybrid tribunals towards them. In his concluding remarks, the author offers a series of sensible suggestions on ways to ensure that the needs of prosecution and defense witnesses, before these tribunals, are better met. This is a timely and provocative book, a prime example of how analytically informed human rights scholarship can capture the humanity of its subjects, while being attentive to power considerations. In recognition of this achievement, the Human Rights Section of the American Political Science Association is both pleased and honored to select The Witnesses as the Best Book in Human Rights for 2005.

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BUY The Witnesses at www.pennpress.org.

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