Once again, human connections are the answer: “There is a lot of calling around. You talk to one person, and they know somebody who knows somebody, who tells you ‘my wife’s cousin’s nephew used to be in that fighting faction’. If you are lucky enough to talk to that person, then maybe he will be an interesting witness,” says Thijs Berger. According to human rights consultant Hélène Legeay: “Families of victims are often willing to speak, but they only have second-hand information. The story of a direct victim is a lot more compelling, unfortunately it is a lot harder to find them and convince them to talk.” Often, the most unlikely sources provide the best information. Insiders – witnesses who may themselves have taken part in the crime – can provide valuable information on the internal organization of a criminal enterprise. Thijs Berger is all too aware of that, as he has seen a case crumble like a house of cards: “In a case relating to Afghanistan, we lacked insider witnesses who could make sense of a complicated military situation. We were able to establish that at least two fighting units were present on the crime scene. And the question was: which unit actually committed the crimes? We could not prove it in court. A crucial connection was lacking between the suspect and the crimes.” Unsurprisingly, insiders willing to collaborate are difficult to find, since they may end up incriminating themselves. Hunting down the suspects themselves In addition to all these investigative hurdles, there is also the tracking of the suspects themselves. The increasing permeability of frontiers has made movements easier and swifter than ever before for fleeing criminals. Locating them can be a needle-in-a-haystack task, as Eric Emeraux, Head of the French Central Office to fight crimes against humanity, genocides and war crimes, explains: “When we are looking for someone, we leave no stone unturned: we look at bank accounts, energy or telecommunications bills, interrogate hotels and hospitals in case the suspect checked in, search the database of airplane companies. We knock on every door, because one successful lead is all we need to get started.” Yet even the most organized prosecuting authorities cannot operate alone. Immigration services, diasporas, intelligence agencies, and – once again – NGOs, are all crucial channels of information. “We never work alone,” explains Eric Emeraux. “We are immersed in a galaxy of other actors including NGOs, Europol, Interpol, Eurojust, etc. It’s all about collaboration and trust.” The boom of social networks has also revolutionized this task. Joseph Breham is a French lawyer working on universal jurisdiction cases: “One of the suspects of a case we were working on had posted a picture of himself on Facebook, and the background buildings were looking remarkably like Paris. We had this picture authenticated to check whether he was indeed in the French capital.” A narrow window of opportunity Why is locating the suspect so crucial and delicate? Because in most cases,state authorities can only open a case when a suspect enters their territory. And sometimes, their passage can be limited to a simple transit through an airport: then speed is of essence. For NGOs, there is an additional hurdle: they do not have the power to open a case or arrest a suspect and must rely on national prosecuting authorities to do so. “In some instances, we find out that a perpetrator will only be in town 10 for a couple of days. In these cases, we work night and day in order to gather information and prepare a complaint up to standards that are necessary to trigger the opening of a criminal investigation,” says Benedict De Moerloose, Head of International Investigations and Litigation at TRIAL International. Eric Emeraux agrees that universal jurisdiction relies on momentum, which is often unpredictable: “A case is like a living thing: it stalls for a while, then something moves and suddenly everything is moving fast! When it happens, you have to be ready or you may miss your chance.” In the face of all these difficulties, it is permitted to ask: is it worth all the trouble? The answer from the legal world is an unequivocal yes. Firstly, because universal jurisdiction constitutes the only hope of justice for countless victims. And secondly, because tremendous successes – unimaginable just a few years ago – have been achieved. And every single case is not only a victory in itself: it also eases the way for many others, because it reinforces the belief that justice can – and must – triumph. “We owe it to the victims to do our utmost, but also to future generations,” concludes Eric Emeraux. “If impunity wins today, then sooner or later conflicts will re-emerge and new atrocities will be committed.”