II. APPLICABLE LAW, TRIAL MANAGEMENT AND DUE PROCESS A. Legal strategy To succeed, prosecutorial initiatives must demonstrate a clear understanding of applicable law. The main framework for conducting these trials will usually be international law insofar as it has been incorporated into domestic law. The duty to prosecute certain crimes is a complex legal topic. In brief, such a duty may derive from several sources: • F rom international treaties such as the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. These conventions usually contain obligations to investigate and prosecute (or extradite). For the Geneva Conventions, this treaty-based duty applies only to crimes that constitute “grave breaches”, as specified in the Conventions. • From international human rights law, pursuant to several conventions such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms or the American Convention on Human Rights, victims of gross violations of human rights are entitled to an effective remedy for the breaches they have suffered. The Human Rights Committee and the European and the Inter-American Courts of Human Rights have interpreted this to encompass investigation and prosecution. • F rom customary international law, in the case of crimes against humanity (tried at Nuremberg and other trials after the Second World War, and since expanded to include the crimes now listed in the Rome Statute) or war crimes when committed in internal armed conflict (contained in common article 3 of the Geneva Conventions). This depends in part on the state of customary international law at the time the crimes were committed, and on the status of customary international law in the domestic laws of the particular jurisdiction concerned. All States parties to the Rome Statute must incorporate the crimes encompassed in its article 5 (genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes) into their domestic law. However, as mentioned previously, individuals cannot be prosecuted retroactively for violations occurring before July 2002. 21