The XIVth Congress of the International Society of Military Law and the Law of War, held in Athens in May 1997, adopted the following recommendation : "Disciplinary regulations should provide for a procedure allowing subordinates to exercise, with no prejudice to themselves and without breaching discipline, their right and duty not to obey orders whose execution would obviously lead to the commission of a war crime."

In the year 2000, the Belgian Seminar of Military Law and the Law of War set up a working group with the task of preparing a draft text that would give effect to this recommendation and could be incorporated in the Belgian army's disciplinary regulations.

Any international crime creates victims, often in a large number. Such victims may be asked to testify in court about what has happened: they become witnesses. This article examines the role that victims of international crimes currently play in international criminal proceedings and gives an account of the protection provided by international law to safeguard the rights of this especially vulnerable category of persons. Particular emphasis is placed on the jurisprudence of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda, respectively, and on the Draft Rules of Procedure and Evidence which will be applicable to proceedings before the International Criminal Court.