International Criminal Law: Historical Perspectives in: Mohammad Shahabuddin (ed), Bangladesh and International Law (Routledge, 2021)

Abstract

Although Bangladesh's involvement with ICL is generally considered to be limited to the domestic trials of 1971 atrocity crimes and recent ICC investigation on the Rohingya situation, its involvement is in fact much deeper. This chapter examines Bangladesh's association in the development of ICL with reference to three periods. The first part reflects on events and individuals associated with Bengal and their contribution to the development of ICL before the independence of Bangladesh. The second part deals with Bangladesh's efforts to prosecute the Pakistani perpetrators and their local collaborators immediately after the inde-pendence in 1971, and also the more recent efforts to prosecute the collaborators at the International Crimes Tribunal, Bangladesh (ICTB). The third part analyses Bangladesh's role in different international forums, including Rome Conference, the ICC, and so on, in relation to ICL. The final part of this chapter identifies some specific areas related to ICL that require rigorous attention, and offers some recommendations in that regard.

Keywords: Bangladesh, History, International Crimes Tribunals Bangladesh, ICTBD, Rohingya, ICC, Radhabinod Pal