Social Science Research Council
On Monday 14 July, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno Ocampo, will ask the Court to indict a very senior official of the Sudan Government—most probably President Omar al Bashir himself.
Moreno Ocampo is taking a bold and momentous step for global human rights and for Sudan. It is also controversial and [...]
Indicting Bashir would be a risky move to be sure. One gamble, well articulated in this forum, is that it will have negative consequences for peacemaking and for Sudan’s politics. According to this prediction, we must regrettably put off concerns over achieving justice for now – or at least find less radical means of obtaining [...]
Read the rest of A long-term, much needed shift in norms weighed against short-term uncertainty.Should the ICC next week indict Sudanese President al-Bashir for war crimes it will make history. But it will not be unprecedented. In May 1999 the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
(ICTY) was the first international tribunal to indict a sitting head of state. The ICTY charged Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and four other [...]