The World in 2008 according to Angelina Jolie: “A year for Accountability”

The Economist published in “The World in 2008” its analytical forecast of the world’s political, economical and cultural trends in the year ahead, pondering on coming events such as America’s presidential election and the summer Olympic games in Beijing... As well as focusing attention on climate change. “If 2007 was the year when [climate change] rose to the top of the global agenda, writes Daniel Franklin, Editor, in 2008 people will expect action.”

As a way to wish my friends and readers a Happy New Year for 2008, I chose to report here an attractive piece of forecast that caught my eye, Angelina Jolie’s hopes for bringing war criminals to justice in 2008 and this Goodwill Ambassador to UNHCR’s belief that 2008 “can be the year in which we begin seeking true accountability and demanding justice for the victims in Darfur and elsewhere. Through accountability we can begin the process of righting past wrongs, and even change the behaviour of some of the world’s worst criminals.”

This piece of hope caught my eye especially because the subject matter had been something of great interest to my country and to my fellow countrymen in 2007 as the Special Tribunal for Lebanon came to see the light of day on 30 May (see the note I wrote here last June). My conviction way back then was that with the setting up of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, we, Lebanese, had reached a historical moment wherefrom we could start hoping to see, maybe for the first time in the history of the Middle East, criminals arrested, tried and convicted for their crimes against humanity.

My wavering conviction, after months of legal inaction and political bypasses, finds new comfort in Angelina Jolie’s own conviction that “the existence of these trials alone changes behaviour,” and “checks aggression by those who are used to acting with impunity.” Angelina then goes on Luis Moreno-Ocampo’s say,[1] that even genocide is not a crime of passion; it is a calculated decision. “He is right. Common sense tells us that when risks are weighed, decisions are made differently. When crimes against humanity are punished consistently and severely, the killers’ calculus will change.”

Angelina Jolie’s conclusion and wishes: “Despite the horror I have seen in my travels, the hopeful lesson I take is that we can begin to put an end to the cycle of violence and retribution that gives rise to war criminals and sets forth floods of refugees. Let 2008 be the year in which we see the principle of accountability put into action.”

My own wishes for 2008: Let 2008 be the year in which we see the principle of accountability put into action in Lebanon.