Il Tribunale delle donne in Sarajevo Una prospettiva giuridica internazionale tra democrazia e memoria collettiva

Starting from the experience of the Women’s Court for the Former Yugoslavia, the article aims to analyse the practice of Peoples’ Tribunals, with specific regard to Women’s tribunals, from an international law perspective. Peoples’ Tribunals are seldom considered by international lawyers, since they are not established by States and do not render binding judgments. However, we will argue that these bodies created by civil society play an important role in the international legal system. First, they represent the process of popular participation which is one of the expressions of democracy. For this purpose, we will also briefly focus on the controversial concept of democracy under international law. Secondly, they represent the collective memory of a group (in this case women) which has been partly or never heard. They hence contribute to fight silence and impunity in cases where neither the International Court of Justice or any other international court has jurisdiction over the States principally involved.