This week, the judges of the ICC authorized a formal investigation of Kenya’s post-election violence, raising the prospect that political leaders from the East African nation might face trial at the court. The Prosecutor asked judges last November to approve an investigation into the 2007-08 violence and whether Kenyan political leaders organized and financed attacks against civilians. In this 5-minute mini-documentary, leading figures in the field of international justice discuss the possibility of an ICC case in Kenya in light of the controversy over the fact that all of the ICC’s current cases are also in Africa.

Social media, through the democratization of technology, turns content readers into content generators and publishers. The proliferation of blogs, forums, podcasts, wikis, uploaded videos and photos show the enormous willingness of people to create and consume social media. Non-profits working in international justice and human rights can capture this energy…

It was day one of the defense’s case. I was in Chicago. I had planned to wake up at 2:30 AM and watch over the Internet as Charles Taylor’s defense team laid out their case in The Hague at the Special Court for Sierra Leone. But I had overslept. When I woke up around 9:00 AM I ran to my computer, but the lawyer had wrapped up for the day. I read some news articles online and learned the basics: Defense would argue over the next months that Taylor, the former president of Liberia, was a peacemaker for Sierra Leone, and that the prosecution had not proved his criminal responsibility for aiding Sierra Leonean rebel groups that committed…

For some, the international aid industry is a form of international social justice. On a grand scale, its aim is to attain social equality through alleviating poverty and mitigating the effects of conflict. Aid/development workers attempt to empower communities by supporting health clinics, organizing community elections, and providing management & financial support to local non-profits. For others, particularly some non-expatriate staff, the aid industry itself is perceived as unjust. These staff members point to significant discrepancies in salaries between expatriate and national staff even when it seems that both do similar work…

GI-NET’s founders believed that private contributions in support of peacekeepers in Darfur, Sudan, the site of the twenty-first century’s first genocide, could strengthen the protection of civilians and inspire policymakers to take action. With the help of endorsers, GI-NET established a landmark program which allows average Americans to have a direct impact on the ground where genocide is occurring…

While the main function of the Security Council is the maintenance of international peace and security, in accordance with Article 24 of the UN Charter, the Council has played an important role with regard to the advancement of international justice. Other than the establishment by the Security Council of ad hoc Tribunals to prosecute crimes against humanity in specific conflict situations such as Rwanda and the former Yugolavia, the establishment of the Special Tribunal on Lebanon, along with the passage of resolution 1595 mandating the withdrawal of the remaining Syrian troops from Lebanon, was a landmark achievement…

In an effort to build a comprehensive understanding of the challenges facing the system of international criminal justice, the Hauser Center interviewed Tyler Moselle, Program Manager and Interim Executive Director at Harvard Kennedy School’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy on the conflicts in Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as addressing the broader issue of the connection between national security and international justice.