Campaigners against ecocide are calling for it to become an international crime.
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Criminalising ecocide means its victims will be able to receive reparations, helping to rebuild destroyed ecosystems and communities.
Reckless policies are to blame for Brazil’s high death toll.
Evaristo Sa/AFP via Getty Image
More than 600,000 Brazilians have died of COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. A new report says the policies of President Jair Bolsonaro are responsible for around half.
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The value of the rule of law is to challenge and constrain power. In this sense, the legacy of Habré’s trial and conviction is mixed.
Consulting with the communities that have suffered the most harm from past acts of mass violence is a key part of a successful reparations process.
Steven Senne/AP
From Germany to Georgetown, the Global North has a lot to learn about reckoning successfully with past human rights wrongs.
Protesters chant “Stop the genocide in Tigray!” during a demonstration against Ethiopia’s war against Tigray regional forces on May 07, 2021 in Berlin, Germany.
Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images
Establishing whether a genocide is happening in Ethiopia requires an independent and objective investigation – which probably won’t happen.
Hatem Moussa/AP
Despite the International Criminal Court opening an investigation into potential war crimes dating back to 2014, legal accountability will likely remain elusive.
Victims of forced sterilizations protest in Lima, Peru, in 2014. Public hearings to uncover this dark chapter of the Fujimori dictatorship began in January.
Erneseto Benavides/AFP via Getty Images
Forced sterilization of Indigenous women was a covert part of ‘family planning’ under Fujimori. Over 200,000 Peruvians underwent tubal ligations between 1996 and 2001 – many without their consent.
Picture dated 12 June 1994 showing an Interahamwe Hutu militiaman holding a machete in Gitarama, center Rwanda.
Alexander Joe/AFP
Between 1992 and 1994, the former regime is said to have imported 581 tonnes of machetes into Rwanda. This figure appears to establish that the genocide was planned. But is this number accurate?
Jean-Pierre Bemba during his trial at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, The Netherlands.
EPA-EFE/Michael Kooren
The court’s decision has wider implications for international criminal law.
The date of arrest and a red cross marked on the face of Felicien Kabuga on a wanted poster at the Genocide Fugitive Tracking Unit office in Kigali, Rwanda, on May 19, 2020.
(Photo by Simon Wohlfahrt/ AFP via Getty Images)
Given the contested success of transitional justice in Rwanda, the arrest showcases the mixed record of international justice.
Iraqi policemen get haircuts at a checkpoint in Mosul in April.
Ammar Salih/EPA
There is no responsibility to protect people from pandemics – but the world must still safeguard those at risk of mass atrocities.
War crime allegations cast a shadow over Afghanistan’s future.
Scott Nelson/Getty Images
There are many hurdles to a successful prosecution of individuals accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity. But trying to seek justice is not a futile exercise.
Sudanese protestors celebrate a deal with the ruling generals on a new governing body, in the capital Khartoum, recently.
Ashraf Shazly/AFP via Getty Images)
The African Union’s staunch support for al-Bashir, cloaked in criticism of the International Criminal Court, denied justice to the millions affected by the conflict in Sudan.
Sudanese protesting against the conflict in Darfur.
Marwan Ali/EPA-EFE
Ousted president Omar al-Bashir could face the International Criminal Court for his role in Sudan’s clampdown on the non-Arab people of Darfur.
Former South African President FW De Klerk at the opening of parliament recently. The Economic Freedom Fighters objected to his presence.
EFE-EPA/Reuters Pool
It seems that former president FW De Klerk continues to find it hard to accept that apartheid was a crime against humanity.
Evert Elzinga/EPA
With the ICC facing intense criticism and scrutiny, its member states have met to create a plan to improve the court’s standing and performance.
EsHanPhot/Shutterstock
Scientific advances are allowing forensic archaeologists to shed light on mysteries long thought unsolvable.
A protestor dresses as Jair Bolsonaro on Amazon Day in Rio de Janeiro, September 5 2019.
EPA-EFE/MARCELO SAYAO
Destroying the Amazon rainforest will accelerate climate change, harming millions. Can those responsible be prosecuted?
Congolese Bosco Ntaganda in the courtroom during the closing statements of his trial in The Hague.
EPA-EFE/Bas Czerwinski
Ntaganda’s conviction represents real progress, and an actual significant victory, for the ICC.
The International Criminal Court has renewed calls for the arrest of former Sudan leader Omar al-Bashir.
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Cooperation with the Sudanese government to try al-Bashir could amount to legitimising those who themselves have been implicated in genocide