War Crimes Studies Center

About Us

War Crimes Studies Center

Established in 2000 at UC Berkeley, the War Crimes Studies Center (WCSC) is a university based research organization dedicated to promoting the rule of law, accountability, and human rights around the world, particularly in post-conflict societies. The War Crimes Studies Center pursues its mission through work in four areas:

• Trial Monitoring and Research
• Archival Resource Development
• Education and Civic Outreach
• Justice Sector Capacity Building

Through independent trial monitoring, professional consultation, and substantive training workshops for justice sector personnel, the WCSC supports and helps improve the work of domestic courts, international tribunals and human rights commissions in Asia, Africa, and Europe. The Center is further committed to increasing awareness and raising the level of discourse around new developments in the fields of human rights and international humanitarian law. The WCSC is becoming a major public resource center for the study of war crimes trials, where students, scholars, and legal practitioners can take advantage of new technologies to access unique archival resources from World War II through contemporary international criminal trials.

Relying on a small core staff of lawyers, scholars, student interns, and volunteers, the Center concentrates its resources where it can make a real difference in post-conflict societies seeking to come to terms with their violent past and provide their citizens with justice and accountability. T he WCSC seeks to identify needs in the under-served and too often ignored post-conflict justice processes in countries like East Timor, Indonesia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Cambodia. We work to assist the courts and other transitional justice mechanisms in meeting their challenges , and to provide national and international audiences with objective information and analysis about the activities and performance of these newly developing institutions.

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