The ICC at ten

My take on the 10th anniversary of the International Criminal Court is up on the mainpage. Elsewhere on FP, Human Rights Watch’s Richard Dicker offers a slightly more sanguine perspective: Despite serious performance problems and the ebb and flow of support from governments, the court has made significant initial headway, giving rise to enormous expectations ...

By , a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies.

My take on the 10th anniversary of the International Criminal Court is up on the mainpage. Elsewhere on FP, Human Rights Watch's Richard Dicker offers a slightly more sanguine perspective:

My take on the 10th anniversary of the International Criminal Court is up on the mainpage. Elsewhere on FP, Human Rights Watch’s Richard Dicker offers a slightly more sanguine perspective:

Despite serious performance problems and the ebb and flow of support from governments, the court has made significant initial headway, giving rise to enormous expectations wherever the world’s worst crimes occur — as poignantly demonstrated by the Syrian protesters’ signs last month that read "Assad to The Hague." Today, the International Criminal Court is the address for international criminal accountability.

Clinton administration war crimes ambassador David Scheffer argues here that the U.S. reconciliation with the court may be the pivotal development of the court’s first ten years:

The US has become a de facto member of the International Criminal Court (ICC). That reality may surprise those who view the advent of the court’s second decade as reason either to reiterate their objections to Washington joining the tribunal or to advocate for US ratification of the court’s constitutional document, the Rome Statute….

In recent years the Obama administration has engaged the International Criminal Court on so many levels that the days of Washington seeking to undermine the ICC are over. Both sides in the long-running debate over any US participation in the court should recognize that there is a common bond between them, one that can protect national interests and revive American leadership in international criminal justice.

David Bosco is a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. He is the author of The Poseidon Project: The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans. Twitter: @multilateralist

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