Global Justice, Internal Investigation: Israeli Military Investigations and the Crisis of Accountability

世界各地的军队都对其部队的不法行为进行调查。这种调查的可靠性经常受到质疑，从而引起有关法律、司法和人权的问题。这些问题在世界各地被不同的社会行动者有力地提出，比如在“黑人的命也是命”运动的过程中，以及在《职责线》和《国土安全》等电视节目中。对这些调查持批评态度的人指出了使这种暴力成为可能的条件；经常使违法者逍遥法外的结构性因素；以及被官方视为违法者和非违法者之间有争议的区别。战争或占领时期的军事内部调查有国际准则（国际刑事法院2013年；红十字国际委员会2019年），但调查的可靠性经常受到批评。例如，对英国和美国驻伊拉克军队的调查就提出了这样的批评（Baldwin 2014; Shackle 2018; Stork & Abrahams 2004）。从他们自己的角度来看，不同国家的合法军事官员在他们对调查义务的理解上发现了共同点，并证明了类似的挑战（Cole, 2012）。以色列军事警察是一个负责调查士兵非法行为的单位，包括对巴勒斯坦人的暴力行为。其调查很少导致起诉，并被人权组织称为骗局（al - haq et al. 2020； B'Tselem 2016, 2019）。迄今为止，以色列宪兵在很大程度上回避了学术研究，其他地方对军事调查的研究也很少（Buehler et al, 2019）。一个关键障碍是这些机构的不透明性质，这限制了外部人士的进入。然而，迫切需要对调查进行研究，因为它们可以对社区的司法以及国际司法系统的运作产生至关重要的影响。考虑到军事调查的关键职能，它们可以阐明问责制和导致有罪不罚的机制。这一社会法律研究项目在与主要人权组织进行协商的基础上，将调查和澄清导致和再现调查系统缺陷的过程、结构和机制。拟议的研究通过采访隐形行为者（例如调查人员，军事和其他国家法律官员）开辟了新的领域，这些行为者很少被要求解释和解释他们的行为，决策和对法律的理解，以及档案工作和对尚未研究的材料的批判性分析。这项研究将以色列军事警察作为一个独特的案例研究，并作为研究当前全球问责制和有罪不罚问题的切入点。为了实现这一目标，该研究将探索以色列军事调查过程；机构和从业者的真理主张、理由和意义建构的实践（即叙事、机构文化）。审查调查在更广泛的国家背景下的作用，即它们如何影响国家的法律和政治结构和机制并受到其影响。探究军事调查、国家法律和政治机构与国际体系和机制（国际刑事法院、联合国相关机构、红十字国际委员会等）之间的关系，从而为国际法律和政治背景下国家提供的有罪不罚现象提供独特而急需的视角，为国际层面的分析、政策和实践提供新的途径。该项目将从对以色列的个案研究开始，并继续促进国际学术比较交流，讨论调查制度以及在各种国家情况和国际机构中的有罪不罚和问责问题及其相互影响。

Armies all over the world carry out investigations into alleged wrongdoing of their forces. The reliability of such investigations is often questioned, evoking questions on law, justice and human rights. These questions are powerfully raised around the world by different social actors, such as in the course of Black Lives Matter movements and in television productions such a Line of Duty and Homeland. Critics of these investigations point to the conditions which make this violence possible; the structural factors which often grant impunity to wrongdoers; and the disputed distinction between those who are seen and treated by official authorities as wrongdoers and those who are not. There are international guidelines for military internal investigations in times of war or occupation (ICC 2013; ICRC 2019), yet investigations' reliability is often criticised. Such critique has been made, for instance, on investigations by UK and US forces in Iraq (Baldwin 2014; Shackle 2018; Stork & Abrahams 2004). From their own perspective, legal military officials of different countries find commonalities in their understanding of the duty to investigate, and attest to similar challenges (Cole, 2012). Israel's Military Police is a unit charged with investigating unlawful conduct of soldiers, including violence towards Palestinians. Its investigations result in very few indictments, and have been labelled a sham by human rights organisations (Al-Haq et al. 2020; B'Tselem 2016, 2019). The Israeli Military Police has largely evaded academic study thus far, and research on military investigations elsewhere is scarce (Buehler et al, 2019). A key obstacle is the opaque nature of these institutions, which restricts the access of outsiders. Yet, studies into investigations are urgently needed, as they can have a crucial impact on justice for communities as well as on the operation of international justice systems. Considering their crucial functions, military investigations can shed light on accountability and on the mechanisms that produce impunity.This socio-legal research project, informed by consultations conducted with leading human rights organisations, will interrogate and clarify the processes, structures and mechanisms enabling and reproducing investigations' systemic failings. The proposed study breaks new ground through interviews of invisible actors (e.g. investigators, military and other state legal officials) who are rarely called upon to explain and account for their actions, decision making and understanding of law as well as archival work and critical analysis of materials which have not yet been studied. The study takes the Israeli Military Police both as a unique case study, and as an entry point into the study of current problems of accountability and impunity globally. To achieve this, the research will a. explore Israeli military investigation processes; institutional and practitioners' truth claims, justifications and practices of sense-making (i.e. narratives, institutional culture).b. examine the role of investigations in the broader national context, i.e. how they feed into and are impacted by the country's legal and political structures and mechanisms.c. interrogate the relationship between military investigations, national legal and political bodies, on one hand, and international systems and mechanisms (the ICC, relevant UN bodies, ICRC, etc.) on the other, thereby offering a unique and much-needed perspective on state-provided impunity in an international legal and political context, informing fresh avenues for analysis, policy and practice on an international level.The project will begin with the Israeli case study and continue to facilitate an international academic comparative exchange on investigation systems and questions of impunity and accountability in a range of national contexts as well as international institutions, and their mutual influence.