The Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL): International Justice Dissected | Ifi Working Paper

Working Paper | September 2012
The Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL): International Justice Dissected by Omar Nashabe
The Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) was created by the UN Security Council in 2007 to prosecute those responsible for the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and others in 2005. It has been controversial since its inception, with supporters claiming its very creation would ensure impunity. This paper offers a critique of the history, structure and procedures of the international criminal investigation and the establishment of the STL. Its central arguments are that: (1) launching an international criminal investigation in the Hariri case was politicized and highly selective in light of the history of political assassinations in Lebanon; (2) the establishment of the STL does not comply with the Lebanon’s Constitution, undermining Lebanon’s sovereignty; and (3) the professional standards of the international criminal investigation and the STL are questionable. It concludes that while these problems have thus undermined the original calls for justice and the ending of impunity in Lebanon, even leading to further division and violence, there are still steps that can be taken to serve the cause of international justice for Hariri while also protecting state institutions and the political process in Lebanon.