History
From 2006, Alette Smeulers has been instrumental in setting up the research line on studying international crimes from an interdisciplinary perspective at the VU. She set up the Amsterdam Centre of International Crimes, which since 2012 continued its activities as the Center for International Criminal Justice.
Mission and objectives
The CICJ carries out interdisciplinary research and promotes transparent debate on conflict-related crimes and international criminal law and justice. The Center seeks to contribute to the improvement of the current approaches and processes of dealing with conflict-related crimes both at the international and domestic level, with an eye to the legal and policy dynamics between the two. This translates to a focus on:
(i) developing tailored and practice-oriented solutions to the problems of achieving accountability at all levels of enforcement;
(ii) providing coherent (both empirical and normative) answers to foundational queries and meta-questions raised by international criminality, prevention, and accountability; and;
(iii) formulating and testing fundamental critiques of conflict-related crimes and international criminal justice, including the various aspects of legitimacy, coherence, and effectiveness.
Profile and niche
The CICJ is an independent non-partisan university center dedicated to interdisciplinary academic research and education, policy analysis and debate on conflict-related crimes, international and transitional justice, as well as conceptual and institutional responses to mass atrocity. The Center’s members are specialized in different fields of study, including international law, criminal law, criminology, (legal) psychology and anthropology, and in methods of social sciences research. The Center has a wide network of individuals and partner institutions based in and outside the Netherlands.
Due to its unique combination of expertise, the CICJ serves as a forum for an open and inclusive exchange of ideas and perspectives on international crimes and justice across disciplinary and professional boundaries. In pursuing its mission, the Center seeks to upgrade the current discourse on international crimes and international criminal justice from a multidisciplinary conversation to a fully integrated interdisciplinary research on respective subjects.