Antonio Cassese, President of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), recently presented the First Annual Report on the operation and activities of the Tribunal during the period from 1 March 2009 to 28 February 2010. With its remit to investigate the 14 February 2005 Beirut bombing that killed former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri and 22 others, the international Tribunal has been busy. The year has been spent "establishing the basic structure of the institution" and gathering "evidence against both the direct perpetrators of the crimes, as well as the 'perpetrators behind the perpetrators' - i.e. those senior political, military and paramilitary leaders who - although physically, geographically or temporally removed from the crimes - in fact bear the greatest responsibility." 

Cassese notes the "obvious discipline and sophistication of those behind the attack." He explores at length the theoretical ethos of the work being undertaken, a step he terms "indispensable." He concludes that:

"All the organs of the STL are not unmindful of the host of hurdles they will have to face, both at present and when they begin to discharge their judicial mandate fully. But they are prepared to surmount those hurdles with intrepidity. After all, the undertakings of anybody struggling for the realization of human rights, and in this case, for the vindication of the rights of the victims and the punishment of the authors of very serious misdeeds, is a labour of Sisyphus."

Intrepid as they may be, however, it must be remembered what the tale of Sisyphus has come to symbolise: a task that accomplishes nothing beyond its own futile implementation. The mythological figure, you will recall, was subject to the eternal punishment of pushing a boulder up a hill, waiting for it to roll back down, and then pushing it up again and again.