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

世界各地的军队都在调查其部队被指控的不法行为。这类调查的可靠性往往受到质疑，引起了法律、司法和人权方面的问题。这些问题在世界各地由不同的社会行为者有力地提出，例如在黑人生命物质运动的过程中，以及在诸如《责任线》和《祖国》之类的电视节目中。批评这些调查的人指出了使这种暴力成为可能的条件;往往使违法者逍遥法外的结构性因素;以及被官方当局视为和对待的违法者与非违法者之间有争议的区别。关于战争或占领时期的军事内部调查，有国际准则（ICC 2013; ICRC 2019），但调查的可靠性经常受到批评。例如，对英国和美国军队在伊拉克的调查进行了这样的批评（Baldwin 2014; Shackle 2018; Stork & Abrahams 2004）。不同国家的法律的军事官员从自己的角度出发，发现他们对调查义务的理解有共同之处，并证实了类似的挑战（科尔，2012年）。以色列宪兵是负责调查士兵非法行为，包括对巴勒斯坦人的暴力行为的单位。它的调查导致很少的起诉，并已被人权组织贴上了虚假的标签（Al-Haq et al. 2020; B 'Tselem 2016，2019）。到目前为止，以色列宪兵在很大程度上回避了学术研究，其他地方的军事调查研究很少（Buehler等人，2019）。一个关键的障碍是这些机构的不透明性，限制了外界的进入。然而，迫切需要对调查进行研究，因为调查可以对社区司法以及国际司法系统的运作产生重大影响。考虑到军事调查的重要作用，军事调查可以揭示责任和造成有罪不罚的机制，这一社会法律研究项目在与主要人权组织进行磋商的基础上，将询问和澄清促成和再现调查系统性缺陷的程序、结构和机制。拟议的研究通过采访很少被要求解释和说明其行动、决策和对法律的理解的无形行为者（例如调查人员、军事和其他国家法律的官员）以及档案工作和对尚未研究的材料的批判性分析，开辟了新的天地。这项研究将以色列宪兵作为一个独特的案例研究，并作为研究全球目前问责和有罪不罚问题的切入点。为了实现这一点，研究将A。探讨以色列的军事调查程序;机构和从业人员的真相主张、理由和制造意义的做法（即叙述、机构文化）。审查调查在更广泛的国家背景下的作用，即调查如何融入国家的法律的和政治结构和机制并受其影响。探讨军事调查、国家法律的和政治机构与国际系统和机制（国际刑事法院、联合国有关机构、红十字委员会等）之间的关系另一方面，从而为在国际法律的和政治背景下国家提供的有罪不罚现象提供了一个独特和急需的视角，为分析提供了新的途径，该项目将开始以以色列的案例研究为起点，并继续促进国际学术界就调查制度以及各国的有罪不罚和问责制问题进行比较交流以及它们之间的相互影响。

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.