Righting a Wrong or Prolonging the Agony? The Work of the Claims Resolution Tribunal for Dormant Accounts in Switzerland

Abstract

Little is known about the work of the Claims Resolution Tribunal for Dormant Accounts in Switzerland. Once the existence of dormant Holocaust era bank accounts was publicly acknowledged by the Swiss banks in 1997, the problem required resolution. This Tribunal was therefore created to establish ownership of the dormant accounts. The Claims Resolution Tribunal operates very much behind closed doors and its decisions have not been open to academic scrutiny and are unlikely to be available until the entire process is completed. Whilst justice may never be done for those carrying the monstrous legacy of the Holocaust, it is important to examine whether the Claims Resolution Tribunal is in fact righting the wrong done in respect of those who have struggled with the Swiss banks for many years to claim what is rightfully theirs. This article seeks to do this by scrutinising the inner workings of the Claims Resolution Tribunal and the various steps which a claimant must go through before his claim, is, if at all, accepted as valid. The experience of the Claims Resolution Tribunal in relation to Holocaust accounts and its role in the context of the various Holocaust era processes currently in the international arena is also examined in order to appraise its effectiveness as a means of belatedly doing justice.