Richard Dicker Discusses Challenges and Opportunities: The International Criminal Court and Today’s International Landscape
The ICC, created to be the centerpiece of the emerging system of justice for egregious crimes, has been in operation for more than twenty years. Today the Court is striving to implement its unprecedented mandate on an international landscape that is much different than the one on which it was created. The current global terrain poses both challenges and opportunities for the Court’s standing.What are the outstanding challenges? The opportunities? Often criticized for its lengthy proceedings, what, if any, headway have Court officials made in assisting it to become more efficient? To what extent has the Court made its proceedings accessible in the communities most affected by the crimes within its jurisdiction?
Richard Dicker, Founding Director of Human Rights Watch’s International Justice Program, followed the Court’s creation and workings for nearly 30 years. He is currently Senior Legal Adviser for Advocacy at HRW and teaches as a lecturer-in-law at UCLA and Columbia Law Schools.