Bringing a Dictator to Justice.

In May 2015, the former Chadian dictator Hisse'ne Habre¤ is scheduled to face trial for brutality against his own people before a special chamber in the Senegalese courts established in 2013. Habre¤'s trial will mark the first time in history that the courts of one country try the former leader of another country for human rights crimes. The advent of the trial, 25 years after Habre¤'s fall, is entirely due to the perseverance of Habre¤'s victims and their non-governmental organization (NGO) allies. The launch of proceedings before the Extraordinary African Chambers has also spurred justice efforts back in Chad, where former agents of Habre¤'s political police now stand trial for torture and murder and the president has finally promised compensation to Habre¤'s victims. The Habre¤ case shows that it is possible for a victim/ NGO coalition, with tenacity and imagination, to create the political conditions for a successful universal jurisdiction prosecution, even against a former head of state. It also highlights many of the practical problems of litigating crimes far away from the territorial state without the complete cooperation of that state's government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]