Defending human rights has its price

A native of Rwanda is on trial in the Finnish city of Porvoo on charges of genocide. Critics deplore the high costs that the questioning of witnesses in Africa will incur. Writing in the daily Helsingin Sanomat jurist Minna Kimpimäki defends the high cost of the trial: "Simply by opening the trial Finland became part of the international community that tries to prevent people who have been implicated in the worst international crimes from going unpunished. The trial has its price, but on the other hand it promotes a good cause on which you can't put a price tag. As Carla del Ponte, former chief prosecutor of the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia [at The Hague] said, you can't compare the application of international law with a fast food chain; it's neither fast nor cheap. This is also true for the trial in progress in Finland now. Defending human rights has its price."

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