Skip Navigation


International Journal of Transitional Justice Advance Access originally published online on January 21, 2009
International Journal of Transitional Justice 2009 3(1):135-149; doi:10.1093/ijtj/ijn039
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
3/1/135    most recent
ijn039v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Horn, R.
Right arrow Articles by Vahidy, S.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author (2009). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org.

Testifying in an International War Crimes Tribunal: The Experience of Witnesses in the Special Court for Sierra Leone

Rebecca Horn*, Simon Charters{dagger} and Saleem Vahidy**

* Formerly Psychologist, Witness and Victims Section, Special Court for Sierra Leone. Email: rebecca.r.horn{at}gmail.com
{dagger} Special Assistant to the Registrar, Special Court for Sierra Leone. Email: charters{at}un.org
** Chief of Section, Witness and Victims Section, Special Court for Sierra Leone. Email: vahidy{at}un.org

The research described in this article investigates the extent to which witnesses who testified in the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) report the experience as positive or negative. It also seeks to identify the factors that contribute to these evaluations. It reports the results of structured interviews conducted with 171 witnesses who testified in the SCSL. The finding that emerges most strongly is that the experience of testifying was positive for the majority of witnesses. The courtroom environment was experienced as supportive, and witnesses rated the experiences of both examination-in-chief and cross-examination as being more positive than negative, with examination-in-chief being the more positive of the two. The findings suggest that a positive testimony experience can be predicted when a witness does not feel worried at the prospect of testifying, feels respected by court staff and, to a lesser extent, has a positive experience of cross-examination.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.