Nazi hunting and comfort women.

In its 8th Annual Status Report on the Worldwide Investigation and Prosecution of Nazi War Criminals, which covers the period from April 1, 2008 until March 31, 2009, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre and the ´nazi hunter´ Dr Efraim Zuroff affirmed that since January 2001, there have been 76 convictions against Nazi war criminals, and at least 48 new indictments. The trial of Demjanjuk, which started today in Munich, is proof that while Nazi convictions in Germany have tended to give ridiculously low sentences, there is still political will to put these wrongs right and to bring Nazis who committed crimes against humanity to justice. Of course, none of this is shocking since Nuremberg is often cited as constituting the birth of international justice, crimes against humanity (or crimes against jewish peoples) and genocide (although it was not charged at such during the Nuremberg Trials).

What the indictments and investigations also demonstrate is that the defects of the sister Tribunal - the international military tribunal for the far east - have yet to be seriously addressed. Perpetrators of sexual slavery and other horrific fundamental rights abuses suffered by comfort women have not been brought to justice. Coming up to ten years after the people´s tribunal in Tokyo in Prosecutor v Hirohito, there remains impunity and no reparation for what these women suffered. This direct comparison with the nazi investigations, demonstrates that legal mechanisms such as universal jurisdiction exist to hold these persons to account. Let´s hope that a decade after the people´s tribunal, accountability will finally be ensured for these women.