![Cases of unofficial (private) persecution in Czechoslovakia](/api/image/getbookcoverimage?id=document_cover-page-image_541774.jpg)
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It is a tremendous honour for me to be here today in the presence of the Czech prime minister. I can thank him for one very important thing. You are well aware that when we met before two years ago, we put together the Prague Declaration. I would like to thank the tens of thousands of signatories who have signed the declaration up to now. I would also like to thank the parliaments who have signed up to it. The European Parliament’s European Conscience and Totalitarianism resolution arose out of this declaration. And it was at the last meeting of the General Council of the European Union under the Czech Presidency (which was already under the patronage of the prime minister) that the Council of Ministers of the European Union adopted and supported the European Parliament resolution. And ensuing from the European Conscience and Totalitarianism, it also made a commitment in this sense of the word that this history is a common European history, that communism was not some exotic eastern deviation, that it is a common horrific European legacy, and that we must also recognise it in the future and attempt to pass judgement on it. These conclusions from July’s Council of the Czech presidency were already established under the patronage of our Czech prime minister. And so far it is actually the most important legal proof that we have; it is a European Union document; and it is a European Union decision. This document has also given rise to the creation of a Platform of institutions dealing with the history, studying and passing judgement on communist and totalitarian regimes throughout Europe. And I hope that it will be the Czech government which will take this commitment further and actively support the establishment of the Platform so that it does not simply remain as a Council of Europe decision, but that we are actually able to accomplish this together as active Europeans, from the north, south, east and west.
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A society in a moral crisis, whose origins lie in an authoritarian, totalitarian regime from the recent past, cannot be healed unless it holds a mirror up to itself. Above all it must ask itself what relationship it actually has with the past. Consequently, it is not enough for it to be about documents based on the opinion of specialists and professional analysts such as intellectuals. The opinion of the majority should ensue from a relatively sophisticated survey of public opinion, which would distinguish what direct participants in the period of national history that is being examined think and how young people are informed about it. Naturally, information on the standard of history teaching at primary and secondary schools should also be added to this. Only then is it possible to effectively influence the convictions of society with a view to restoring the values that were destroyed by the previous regime.
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Dear conference participants, It is not easy for the speaker to make the presentation before such an overwhelmingly important and prestigious audience. Moreover, it is quite certain that most of the issues treated in the presentation itself are to be debated fundamentally in previous contributions. (At the time of the presentation, on Friday – 26 February, this will be a “fait accomplit”). When, between July and December 1999, I experienced international justice for the first time (and still the last time, at present), being close to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, little did I imagine that ten years after I would officially link this close encounter to one of the most dramatic and painful efforts of my own people in the course of its history: the fight against communism.
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The paper tries to estimate a women's share of criminality in Poiand and their position in the world of professional criminals. The author focuses on the big cities of the Polish kingdom: Krakow, Poznan, Lwow, Gdansk, Lublin and Warsaw. The paper is divided into several parts that deal with various specific types of crime. Rather unusual crime category for women was the one where crimes such as conspiracy, rebellion and treason were included. Violation of regulations was more frequent. Robbing corpses that were victims of epidemics were usual charges brought against women. Women were also members of vagrant and beggar groups, which participated in various street-disturbances and misdemeanours. In the category of religious misdemeanours, women were found guilty mainly of prohibited activities such as witchcraft and magic. It was in the end of the 17th and the first half of the 18th centuries that Poland was most affected with the prosecution of witches. There were 115 women under the investigation and 78 out of them were taken to court during 150 years in the abovementioned cities. Murders committed by women were rare. Research has shown that only 40 women were charged with murder in these five big Polish cities from the end of the 16th until the 18th century. The city of Gdansk is a special case, because women formed as many as 40 % of all the murderers. Murder was punished by capital punishment without exception. On the other hand, women predominated in cases of infanticide. Among offences against marriage, we can find prostitution, procuration, adultery and bigamy. Women, especially prostitutes, were often accused of several offences simultaneously. Prostitutes came from various social strata. About 20 % of them came to a city from the countryside, the others came from artisan urban families. Exceptionally, even noble women who were hard up tried to earn some extra money by prostituting. Prostitutes were predominantly single women. Ten percent of prostitutes operated in brothels that were run by executioners. Official brothels in charge of executioners could be found almost in all the above-mentioned cities. The employees of the brothel were usually some shady prostitutes who came under surveillance of a town executioner following their public punishment. It was on the peripheries of a city that illegal brothels run by procurers and procuresses were to be found. Town magistrates knew about them, but tolerated their activities. A brothel of such kind employed about 3-5 prostitutes, sometimes as many as 10. However, among places were prostitutes operated were also public houses, inns, public baths, flats of clients and rented rooms. Street prostitutes represented the lowest rank of the hierarchy and offered their services in bushes or directly in the street. Again, it was women who dominated in the procuration business. Over 70 % of the accused of adultery were married women, who abandoned their husbands and lived in an illicet relationship. Thefts formed majority of town courts agenda. Majority of female thieves were artisans' daughters. Apart from them, there were daily labourers, peasants from nearby villages and wives and daughters of city servants for whom stealing was a chance to improve their circumstances. The main object of interest for female thieves were buildings and rent house, but also streets and market areas. Street thieves were usually specialised, some were shoplifters stealing from small stalls, other were pickpockets and cutpurses. Thefts occurred also in winebars, inns, churches and brothels. Many women were involved in theft-boot, handling stolen goods and profiteering. The age, family status, long time contact with a city and contacts to the underworld were other important determinants of criminal activities of women. It was not only young single girls from the poor families, who commited crimes, but also married women with children, for whom these activities formed additional income.
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The position of women was under the strong cultural influence. One of the factors that to a large extent determined lives of many women was the law. The law, however, reflected the division of society into classes or estates. There are obvious differences between legal position of men and women in the Roman, German, Slavic and that means also in Czech law. The fact that women had restricted rights was a consequence of the exercise of the rights of her father, husband or guardian and did not stem from the fact that she was a woman. The canon law was another factor that strongly influenced the life of a woman. According to the canon law the man was the head of the family who decided about children and was legally responsible for crimes committed by his wife and children. It was out of question that a woman should hold an office. The Czech law recognised three forms of guardianships: 1) natural (a relative or a guardian by statute), 2) appointed by the father and recorded in land registers or in authorisation Setter, 3) commissioned by the king. Restricted legal competence of women was most obvious in the sphere of contracting marriages. A woman or a girl, unless she was a widow, could not make a choice of her future husband, but fully depended on the decision of her relatives, mainly father, brothers or her male guardians. Property rights in Czech lands were based on an old institution of the indivisible part of patrimonial property. The father of the family was in charge of this indivisible part. The only situation when a woman could be in the same position was when there was a lack of male relatives. There were, however, differences in the rights of sons and daughters to this indivisible part of patrimonial property. Once married, a woman did not loose her legal competence, nevertheless her property rights were restricted and subordinated to her husband. Originally the entire woman's possession that she brought to the matrimonial home became her husband's property, but she could allot herself some part of it as her own. She had at her disposal three kinds of property: 1) dowry (dos), trousseau, a gift from her husband after the wedding night (dotalicium) - these were given to her as her share of patrimonial property and as a portion that she was entitled to in case of her husband's death, 2) other property that she was either given or inherited and 3) property that her husband allotted to her. The legal limits for women were the most striking in the area of hereditary rights. It was not so much discrimination as the old family tradition in the old Czech law, i.e. to maintain the indivisible patrimonial property in the family. It was necessary to restrict a woman's birthright after she married to avoid reduction of the family property. Single woman or a widow could act in front of court independently as accuser or accused without a guardian. Procedural competence of a married woman was limited and she was considered 'a prisoner of her husband'. She could not administer the property and therefore was not able to sue anybody. There were several rights that women in the Czech kingdom were not denied and according to the law they could use them in the same way as men. Moreover, in some instances their position was more advantageous than that of men. It was the result of the general attitude to women as 'the weaker sex' and their supposed lack of experience and ignorance. Some of these rights, however, were granted to women just theoretically, either because they could be exercised only under exceptional circumstances or because women were not aware of their rights or did not dare to lodge their claims.
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Based on the adopted international standards which are part of numerous documents of universal and regional international organizations (Council of Europe, European Union) by adopting new criminal regulation in 2005 and its updating in 2009 and 2011 respectively, Republic of Serbia has prescribed family violence as a separate criminal offence. Providing criminal responsibility and punishability for the most severe forms of violence among relatives Serbia approached in this way numerous other legal and social systems. The paper analyses the international standards of the European regional organizations and their implementation in the criminal legislation of Serbia from the theoretical and practical aspects.
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Perpetrators of extreme crime often suffer from brain diseases which do not exclude legal sanity – schizophrenia and alcoholic disease. Traditional judicial practice regards them as mitigating circumstances which prevent the imposition of the gravest penalty prescribed. However, after the introduction of life imprisonment (1996) and life imprisonment without commutation (1998) judicial approaches deviate from that concept thus establishing conflicting solutions. The article argues that traditional concepts should be restored. The article is based on a case-law study and an in-depth analysis of a selection of cases.
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Under the Bulgarian Criminal law the court may impose probation as punishment or impose a probation measure during the testing period in the case of suspended sentence and early release. Once imposed they become part of the probation regime during test period and any failure to observe them triggers consequences unfavorable for the sentenced person. The adhesion of our country to the European Union in 2007 and the free movement of persons and services faced criminal justice science with new challenges. In 2012 Bulgaria transposed Council Framework Decision 2008/947/JHA dealing with the transfer of probation measures and the application of the principle of mutual recognition of probation decisions and alternative sanctions. The basic principles and aims of the Decision are implemented in the national legislation through the Act on the recognition, execution and forwarding of judgments and probation decisions for the purposes of supervision of the probation measures and alternative sanctions.
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Perpetrators of extreme crime usually suffer from mental health damages which do not qualify as legal insanity. The most common among them is the mental/personality disorder. Judicial approaches towards it differ from concept that it is a sufficient condition to deny the imposition of the gravest penalty to a belief that it is a sufficient ground for imposing it as it is directly related to the perpetrator’s dangerousness. The article argues that personality disorder is a mitigating circumstance which prevents courts from choosing the gravest penalty. The article is based on a case-law study and analyses in depth a selection of cases.
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Pravna regulacija i definiranje pojma silovanja razlikuju se u većini država svijeta. Silovanjem se uglavnom smatra prisiljavanje, prinuđivanje ili upuštanje u seksualni odnos s drugom osobom bez njenog jasnog i svojevoljnog pristanka. Pri tome, seksualni odnos ne mora nužno podrazumijevati penetraciju, već se silovanjem smatra bilo koja vrsta seksualnog odnosa (oralni, upotrebom nekog predmeta, vaginalni, analni spolni odnos, te druge seksualne radnje učinjene bez pristanka žrtve) u koju se počinitelj upustio bez da utvrdi da žrtva na njega svojevoljno pristaje.
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Some of the elements of a sustainable restorative justice politics will be presented – at the intersection of jurisdiction, law, education, social work, local governance, etc. An analysis of these will be suggested with the aim of a realistic planning of the change and of preserving its core values.
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Tužilac Međunarodnog krivičnog suda za bivšu Jugoslaviju, u skladu sa svojim ovlašćenjima iz člana 18 Statuta Međunarodnog krivičnog suda za bivšu Jugoslaviju (u daljem tekstu: Statut Međunarodnog suda), optužuje: Vojislava Šešelja za zločine protiv čovečnosti i kršenja zakona i običaja ratovanja, kako sledi: …
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Početak suđenja Vojislavu Šešelju u Haškom tribunalu (7. novembar 2007), u većini medija u Srbiji najavljivan je i iščekivan pre svega kao prvorazredni medijski događaj, spektakl, odličan performans u kome glavnu ulogu ima 'naš čovek" , uz to pravnik, i koji će, sasvim izvesno, uspešno da "privede pravdi" haške tužitelje. Šešelj je optužen za zločine nad Muslimanima i Hrvatima u Hrvatskoj, Vojvodini i BiH 1991-93, koji su počinjeni u okviru "zajedničkog zločinačkog poduhvata" čiji je cilj bilo trajno uklanjanje nesrba i stvaranje proširene srpske države. Adrenalin Šešelja, oslobođen nakon 4,5 godina iščekivanja suđenja i potom usmeren koliko na hašku sudnicu, toliko i na srpsku javnost, naišao je, sa retkim izuzecima, na dobrodošlicu medija u Srbiji koji su se (posebno tabloidi) nadmetali u variranju Šešeljevih "dosetki" i divljenju njegovoj "retorici". Suđenje Šešelju jeste, po svojoj prirodi, veliki medijski događaj i nije nerazumljivo što mu je dat veliki publicitet, ili što je na samom početku tog suđenja drugi program RTS-a bio najgledaniji (čak gledaniji od rialiti šoa "Veliki brat"), što su svi mediji zabeležili. Obaveza medija jeste da informiše javnost, ali je problem u tome što je izveštaje sa suđenja Šešelju, veliki deo štampe u Srbiji prenosila ili "ravno", bez objašnjenja i ograda od kvalifikacija koje je on iznosio na suđenju i bez podsećanja na ideologiju optuženog i njegove stranke (SRS), ili senzacionalistički, uz opremanje izveštaja tako da se sugeriše nadmoć Šešelja i inferiornost Tribunala. U domišljanju naslova, tabloidi su često koristili sportsku terminologiju u kojoj je Šešelj, naravno, pobednik.
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Suđenje Vojislavu Šešelju je počelo dvodnevnom razmenom uvodnih reči tužiteljke Kristine Dal i optuženog. Ovi višesatni monolozi, čija je funkcija da najave tok procesa, naznače pozicije strana i osvetle njihove strategije, prikazani su naposletku na Drugom programu RTS-a. Prvog dana snimak je pratilo, kažu, pola miliona ljudi, drugog nešto manje od četiri stotine hiljada. Ukoliko su ove procene tačne, biće da je suđenje pred ekrane privuklo četiri puta više građana Srbije nego što je potpisalo zahtev za njegovo direktno prenošenje. Teško je reći koliko su gledaoci zaista bili zakovani za televizore, a gotovo je nemoguće proceniti šta su pri tom mislili, osećali i saznali. Izvesno je, međutim, da je Vojislav Šešelj, osokoljen ovom publikom, nastojao da odgovori njenim očekivanjima. "Ja se obraćam publici u Srbiji", eksplicirao je pred sam početak suđenja. "A Zapad me uopšte ne interesuje. Sa Zapada je kroz vekove samo zlo dolazilo Srbiji."
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Naš novinar Jovan Dulović ima dugačku historiju pomaganja Haškom tribunalu i Haškom tužilaštvu u njihovom traganju za istinom o krvavim ratnim godinama u bivšoj Jugoslaviji: Vukovar, Lovas, Zvornik... Prvi kontakt s haškim istražiteljima – na njihovu inicijativu – uspostavljen je još 1992. godine, kad još nitko nije optužen za zločine u Vukovaru i Lovasu (još se ne spominje ni "vukovarska trojka", ni Slobodan Milošević koji će još godinama nakon toga biti "garant mira i stabilnosti na Balkanu"), zahvaljujući izvještajima koje je Dulović pisao s vukovarskog ratišta i tome što se početkom te godine saznalo za strašni masakr 200 hrvatskih ratnih zarobljenika na Ovčari kod Vukovara.
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Domaći scenaristi i dramaturzi, dobri đaci uglednih profesora, Filipa Davida, Nebojše Pajkića i Nenada Prokića, imaju jako težak zadatak – kako da napišu nešto bolje i zanimljivije od haške tragikomedije koju tri puta nedeljno možemo gledati na drugom programu RTS-a. Scenario za najbolji šou na televiziji piše grupa talentovanih amatera okupljenih u udruženju koje se zvanično zove “Tužilaštvo Međunarodnog krivičnog suda za bivšu Jugoslaviju”. Istina, izuzetan kvalitet njihovog teksta – to nije neki “spontani” rijaliti-šou, nalik “Velikom bratu”, ne primer, već preskupa, godinama pisana i pripremana produkcija – dolazi do izražaja zahvaljujući i do sada neotkrivenom daru jednog drugog amatera u svetu zabave, Vojislava Šešelja.
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The biggest expectations, concerning an expected response from the state institutions to crimes and political violence, are related to trials. Since the trials, from the very moment when crimes were committed, have been recognized as the only adequate response of the state legal institutions, they have been followed in public with interest and tension. We are all aware of the fact that ending investigations and then raising indictments and holding trials are complicated by the fact that proceedings are being brought against direct perpetrators and commanders who were in power not only at the time when crimes were committed, but have remained powerful even today. After more than six decades since the first trials against defendants for war crimes and crimes against humanity were held before tribunals in Nuremberg and Tokyo, it has become clear that judgements, even when they were perceived as just by the legal professionals as well as by survivors and the public, have not always brought the expected satisfaction. Social expectations related to the work of the International Criminal Tribunal for War Crimes Committed in Former Yugoslavia, established by the UN Security Council in 1993, which is getting closer to the end of its most intensive part of work and starting of a residual mechanism, as well as expectations related to processing war crimes in post-Yugoslav countries, have been realized only partially. Public opinion polls, conducted in 2006, showed that the highest number of citizens preferred war crimes trials, as sanctions for committed crimes, but the courts’ work ranked relatively low. On the scale 1 to 5, the Hague tribunal ranked on average 2.3, while domestic courts ranked 2.5 (Kardov: 119).
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