Improving inter-state cooperation for the national prosecution of international crimes: towards a new treaty?

In April 2013, several states proposed in the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Vienna to open negotiations on a multilateral treaty on mutual legal assistance for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes (core crimes). This Insight describes the current lack of detailed treaty provisions regarding mutual legal assistance for the core crimes, how this gap has often hindered national prosecutions of these crimes, and how the recent initiative proposes to fill this gap.