On 12 July 2024, the Research Centre in International Justice and Maynooth University Social Sciences Institute at Maynooth University, hosted workshop on ‘The Contribution of the United Nations War Crimes Commission to International Criminal Law. This event was to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the United Nations War Crimes Commission (UNWCC).
The UNWCC operated from 1943-48, was a UN agency that supported localised prosecutions of international crimes committed during the Second World War. The Commission was composed of representatives from 17 Allied States and through its work war crimes and crimes against humanity were prosecuted in tribunals located in Europe and the Far East. Over the course of its lifetime, more than 2000 trials took place. The work of the UNWCC gives an insight into substantive and procedural international criminal law in the post war period. Since 2017, the UNWCC Archives have been made available to the public online. However, analysis of the UNWCC and its work and its contribution to international criminal law, is often overlooked and under explored.
The event brought together UNWCC experts and new scholars to explore the contribution of the work of the UNWCC to contemporary international criminal law. The keynote presenters were: Professor Dan Plesch (SOAS, University of London), Professor Andrew Williams (University of Warwick, UK) and Dr Dominika Uckiewicz (Pilecki Institute, Warsaw).
Other speakers included: Dr Amina Adanan (Maynooth University), Stefan Radojčić (Law Faculty of the University of Novi Sad, Serbia), Dr Miguel Lemos (Faculty of Law, University of Coimbra, Portugal), Dr Clare Frances Moran (University of Aberdeen), Dr. Dawn Sedman (Nottingham Law School), Dr Chid Nmaju (SOAS) and Dr Federico Freydell Mesa (Universidad del Rosario, Colombia).
This event was organised by Dr Amina Adanan and was funded by the Maynooth University Social Sciences Institute and the School of Law and Criminology in Maynooth University.
Dr Amina Adanan is a Lecturer/ Assistant Professor in Law in the School of Law and Criminology and Co-Director of the Research Centre for International Justice. She lectures in International Criminal Law on the postgraduate courses in Maynooth University.
For more information on this event please see here.