A/Prof. Cecilia Jacob1
1The Australian National University, Australia
Biography:
Cecilia Jacob is an associate professor in the Department of International Relations, Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, The Australian National University.
Abstract:
A transformation in international criminal justice is underway, whereby conflicts today are primarily seen through an ‘atrocity’ lens. The cases of genocide brought by the Gambia against Myanmar, and by South Africa against Israel respectively to the international court of justice illustrate this trend which has a significant bearing on global politics. This paper examines the historical evolution of the anti-atrocity norm through its association with various manifestations of violence over time to study the work that it performs in global politics. Historically, the anti-atrocity norm was associated with the act of aggression, confirmed by the Nuremberg model of prosecuting individual atrocities in the context of interstate conflict. The post-Cold War period saw the delinking of the anti-atrocity norm from interstate armed conflict, compelling the rise of a human-rights oriented regime of atrocity prevention and protection. In recent years, international human rights mechanisms and criminal justice proceedings have foregrounded atrocities, with actors turning to legal accountability to address civilian suffering during periods of repression and violent conflict. This historical tracing of the anti-atrocity norm shows how diverse actors – including post-colonial and non-aligned states, and transnational networks of lawyers and NGOs have employed strategies of norm linking and delinking the reshape the global politics of protection. At times, these political strategies have engendered unintended logics in the application of internation law, as shown through the debate around the criminalisation of human rights and its potential dangers to the human rights regime.