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.

Over 120 countries have united to form the International Criminal Court—the first permanent court created to prosecute perpetrators, no matter how powerful, of crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide. The Reckoning follows dynamic ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo and his team for three years across four continents as he issues arrest warrants for Lord’s Resistance Army leaders in Uganda, puts Congolese warlords on trial, shakes up the Colombian justice system, and charges Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir with genocide in Darfur. The Reckoning keeps you on the edge of your seat.

As a joint public-policy and law student, I took Professor Chris Stone’s “Workshop on Crime and Criminal Justice Reform in Global Context” during the Spring of 2009. Harvard’s criminal justice program connects research closely with the world of practice, so as fieldwork for this class, I spent spring break in the Hague with justice and human rights NGOs from all over the world, leaders from the International Criminal Court, and staff from Harvard’s Hauser Center. On this trip the group I was a part of was tasked with beginning to understand and describe the ‘network’ of the ICC within the larger international criminal justice system.

In preparation for the Consultative Conference on International Criminal Justice to be held in September at the United Nations in New York, a planning meeting was held in May 2009 in which Hauser Center staff interviewed Jonathan F. Fanton, President of the MacArthur Foundation, on the role of the foundation in supporting the advancement of human rights and justice globally, and the importance of the September 2009 session.

For over 30 years, the MacArthur Foundation has championed human rights and international justice through support to over 600 organizations worldwide…

Universities and research centers are an important segment of the nonprofit sector. Students, teachers, and researchers at these NGOs provide unique resources, expertise and mobilization support for many human rights and justice efforts. Strengthening relationships with these groups is a key priority for the ICC’s Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) over the next three years.

In preparation for the Consultative Conference on International Criminal Justice to be held in September at the United Nations in New York, a planning meeting was held in May 2009 in which Hauser Center staff interviewed Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the Prosecutor of the ICC and two graduate students at Harvard University on student engagement, the preparatory session, and the September conference.

In preparation for the Consultative Conference on International Criminal Justice to be held in September at the United Nations in New York, a planning meeting was held in May 2009 in which Hauser Center staff interviewed Silvana Arbia, Registrar of the International Criminal Court, and Giovanni Bassu, Special Advisor on External Relations and Cooperation in the Office of the Registrar, on the role of the Registrar, NGOs and Civil Society.