Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3128436 The Prospects, Problems and Proliferation of Recent UN Investigations of International LawViolations Zachary D. Kaufman  Abstract Atrocity crimes rage today in Iraq, Syria, Myanmar, Burundi andYemen. Given their potential to establish facts and promote accountability, recently opened United Nations investigations of international law violations in each of these states are thus a welcome, even if belated, development. However, these initiatives prompt questions about their de- signs, both in isolation and relative to each other. This article describes the investigations into alleged violations in these five states, examines their respective sponsors and scopes, and presents a wide range of questions about the investigations and their impli- cations, including their coordination with each other and their use of evidence in domes- tic, foreign, hybrid and international courts (such as the International Criminal Court). The article concludes that, while seeking accountability for international law violations is certainly laudatory, these particular investigations raise significant questions about achieving that goal amidst rampant human rights abuses in these five states and beyond. International lawyers, atrocity crime survivors and other observers thus await answers before assessing whether these investigations will truly promote justice. 1. Introduction Atrocity crimes rage today in Iraq, Syria, Myanmar, Burundi and Yemen. Given their potential to establish facts and promote accountability, 1 recently opened  Lecturer in Law and Fellow, Stanford Law School; Senior Fellow, Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy; and Visiting Scholar, Hoover Institution. This article is current as of 12 December 2017. The author wishes to thank the following individuals for their comments on an earlier draft: Jana Everett, Tom Ewing, Chris Griffin, Elizabeth Katz, Howard Kaufman, Beth Van Schaack, and Alex Whiting. Any errors are the author’s alone. [zachary.kaufman@aya.yale.edu] 1 See T. Piccone, U.N. Human Rights Commissions of Inquiry: The Quest for Accountability , Brookings Institution, December 2017, available online at https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/ 2017/12/fp_20171208_un_human_rights_commisions_inquiry.pdf (visited 12 December 2017), at 1. ............................................................................ Journal of International Criminal Justice (2018), 1 of 20 doi:10.1093/jicj/mqy001 ß The Author(s) (2018). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.