How worldwide outrage over atrocities in Ukraine is fueling a new push for international justice

International outrage over Russia's war on Ukraine could be a watershed moment for the advance of international justice and accountability, say Harvard Kennedy School Professor Kathryn Sikkink and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Assistant Professor Patrick Vinck. With the eyes of the world focused on atrocities in places like Bucha and Mariupol, Sikkink and Vinck say it is time for countries to invest both their geopolitical and financial capital in the International Criminal Court or the ICC. Established 20 years ago in The Hague, Netherlands, the ICC was the world’s first permanent international criminal court tasked with pursuing prosecutions for war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and illegal aggression—charges the ICC is now pursuing against Russia.  Sikkink and Vinck say while there have been legitimate past criticisms of the ICC for being ineffective and for focusing too much on certain regions such as Africa, critics are missing the bigger picture—the remarkable story of how much traction the push for international humanitarian justice has gained since the end of World War II. And even if Russian President Vladimir Putin never sees the inside of a courtroom, they say, research shows that the act of identifying war crimes and pursuing prosecutions itself can lower the rate at which those crimes occur. Sikkink has been researching the nexus of human rights and international justice since she first witnessed the Trial of the Juntas in Argentina as a PhD student in the mid-1980s. Vinck is the Research Director of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative and a pioneer in the field of data collection from conflict and crisis zones.