• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Saturday, May 24, 2025
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home Featured

International Criminal Justice Is Not Dead Yet

Kevin D. Reyes by Kevin D. Reyes
07/25/17
in Featured, Opinion
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

While at work this weekend, I stumbled upon a book that’s been on my reading list for some time: An International Criminal Court, A Step Toward World Peace: A Documentary History and Analysis.

This book traces the history of proposals in the twentieth century that aimed to create a permanent international criminal court. You’d think this is a recent book; it’s actually from 1980. Its author is Benjamin Ferencz, who was a 27-year-old chief prosecutor for the U.S. against Nazi war criminals at Nuremberg in 1947. Seven decades later, he is now 97 years old and the world’s last living Nuremberg prosecutor.

I was fascinated by the preface to the 2-volume book. In it Mr. Ferencz wrote:

                  “The fact that it may take many lifetimes or longer to achieve a goal is no reason for despair. On the contrary that is all the more reason why the efforts and the dreams of the past must not be allowed to die…. I have noted all of the arguments, the failures and the disappointments. I can therefore fully appreciate the feelings of frustration and hopelessness that might well be felt by those who regard themselves as ‘realists.’ Should they consider mine as ‘an optomism verging on wishfulness,’ [sic] I would respect their judgment. But I would respectfully disagree.”

Nearly four decades since the book was published, the chimera Mr. Ferencz had been hoping for now celebrates 15 years since it opened its doors in The Hague in July 2002. The International Criminal Court’s (ICC) mandate, as the Rome Statute lays out, is to try “the most serious crimes of international concern”—the atrocities known as genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, with the near-future inclusion of the crime of aggression. The Rome Statute was adopted on July 17, 1998, and celebrated its 19th anniversary on July 17 — also known since 2010 as the Day of International Criminal Justice.

Even with these celebrations, recent developments in global disorder are cause for despair—what Mr. Ferencz so carefully warned us of in 1980.

The lack of effective international intervention and pursuit of accountability in Syria continues. Other conflict-like situations like those in Mexico are causing confusion on their proper crisis assessment. Nations in Africa threaten to pull out of the Rome Statute. President Donald J. Trump entertains the candidacy of harsh ICC critics like John Bolton, who has regarded the ICC as a “threat” to American interests, for high-level positions.

As global security risks escalate, the efforts of global justice become frustrated. Instead, the feelings of Mr. Ferencz’s realists become much more seductive. As someone who works in international justice, I have heard the realist hopelessness from several friends and advisors over the years. I still remember being told two years ago that I was wasting my time working on advocacy for approaching Mexico’s enforced disappearances as crimes against humanity.

Like Mr. Ferencz, I respectfully disagree. The world is not entirely in disarray.

In fact, last year proved quite successful for international criminal justice. In March 2016, the ICC convicted Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo, former vice president of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Days later, the former Bosnian Serb president of Republica Srpska Radovan Karadžić was convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) after two decades since his indictment.

In May, the Extraordinary African Chambers in Senegal convicted Hissène Habré, former president of Chad, for war crimes, torture, and crimes against humanity, including sexual violence, during his rule in the 1980s. (The decision in the Habré case was recently upheld in April, albeit with a “partial acquittal” for a rape charge.) Gains continue to be made.

Today, my colleagues in the field “pore over” seemingly endless amounts of online photos and videos to verify alleged atrocities around the world using groundbreaking open-source intelligence (OSINT) methods. One such initiative includes advancing the collection of the Syrian Archive, a project that aims to document and preserve evidence of violations of human rights and international criminal law in the hopeful event that a tribunal such as the ICC pursues accountability.

To the realists, the Syrian Archive will only be a repository for historical study and Mexico will never see a Guatemala-like anti-impunity commission. Again, this is appealing but too hopeless. Perhaps it is time we read through Ben Ferencz’s words again.

His work in the ‘70s and ‘80s to gain support for an international criminal court seemed unrealistic at the time. For years, many victims of atrocities and their advocates thought the Congolese warlord Bemba, “Butcher of Bosnia” Karadžić, or the U.S.-enabled Habré would never be serving jail time for their abuses.

Just like today, the work done to one day bring accountability to Syria, Mexico, and other places around the world seems ludicrous. The work of international criminal justice is long and messy, so I understand the defeatism from the realists when they are told that accountability may take decades to be realized, especially when they see justice delayed as justice denied.

On this Day of International Criminal Justice—15 years since the ICC entered into force and 70 years since a young Ferencz prosecuted Nazi criminals—I respectfully disagree. The work of international criminal justice continues to get done despite worsening global situations and the siren song of despair. Just take Ben Ferencz’s word for it.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of The Globe Post.
ShareTweet
Kevin D. Reyes

Kevin D. Reyes

Independent scholar on national security issues based in Washington, D.C.

Related Posts

Palestine war, Gaza
Middle East

Israel Refuses to Work With ICC on War Crimes Probe, Says ‘No Authority’

by Staff Writer
April 8, 2021
The body of a woman shot dead near her house in Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico on Aug. 1, 2018
Opinion

Atrocities and Impunity in Mexico: Too Hot to Handle for the ICC?

by Javier Eskauriatza
November 1, 2019
A Myanmar border guard
Featured

ICC Prosecutor Seeks Full Myanmar Atrocities Probe

by Staff Writer
June 26, 2019
U.N. Special Rapporteur to Myanmar Yanghee Lee genocide rohingya
World

UN Rapporteur Says Little Chance Myanmar Will be Tried at ICC Over Rohingya

by Staff Writer
July 8, 2018
Rodrigo Duterte
Featured

Int’l Criminal Court Probes Crimes in Philippines, Venezuela

by Staff Writer
February 8, 2018
A US Army Chinook helicopter on patrol in Kandahar province in Afghanistan
Featured

ICC Probe Could Hold US Accountable for Torture in Afghanistan

by Michael Hughes
November 10, 2017
Next Post
cumhuriyet journalists trial gazeteciler yargilaniyor turkey

Turkey’s Critical Journalists Face Trial On Terrorism Charges

palestine jerusalem

In Jerusalem, Palestinian Quest For Justice Never Fades

Please login to join discussion

Recommended

harvard

Trump Admin Revokes Harvard’s Right to Enroll Foreign Students

May 23, 2025
Deforestation in the Amazon rainforest

‘Red Alert’: Fires Drive Tropical Forest Loss to Record High

May 21, 2025
Men pass a young girl to safety over rubble in Jabalia Refugee Camp, Gaza Strip, on May 18, 2025. Search and rescue teams rescue a Palestinian girl from under the rubble after the Israeli army attacked a building at the Jabalia Refugee Camp

WHO Chief Says 2 Million ‘Starving’ in Gaza

May 20, 2025
Calais, successful crossing of migrants to England

UK PM Says in Talks Over Third Country ‘Return Hubs’ for Migrants

May 16, 2025
AI chatbot applications.

Meta Faces Row Over Plan to Use European Data for AI

May 14, 2025
A photo taken with a drone over Cape Town, South Africa. Photo: Johnny Miller/Millefoto

White S. Africans Due for US Resettlement to Leave Sunday: Govt

May 12, 2025

Opinion

A Black Lives Matter mural in New York City.

Fuhgeddaboudit! America’s Erasure of History

April 2, 2025
Bust of Deputy Rubens Paiva in the Chamber of Deputies

Democratic Brazilians Are Still Here

March 18, 2025
A woman from Guatemala

Dispatch From Central America

January 28, 2025
US President Donald Trump

Dear Trump Supporters: Is This the America You Wanted?

January 28, 2025
Putin talks to Trump in Hamburg

From Roosevelt to Trump: The Complicated Legacy of Personal Diplomacy

November 15, 2024
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman

Can the UN Human Rights Council Protect Rights While Abusers Sit at the Table?

October 28, 2024
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post