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The International Criminal Court (ICC) could indeed become a key institution for
the prosecution of crimes against humanity without the annex of ‘crimes against
Englishmen.’ However, the interpretation of the ICC charter and the relationship to the UN
Security Council are still too vague to be certain about the ICC’s impact. In order to fill the
gaps left by third country prosecution, the ICC would need to take cases not merely
selectively and symbolically. Rather, it would need to pay special attention to cases that did
not capture international attention and solidarity. After all, the lesson of international
criminal law should not be: ‘don’t kill foreigners from countries that practice international
human rights litigation.’ Most victims of crimes against humanity were brutalized by their
own government, so they often do not have a state they can turn to for justice. In order to
secure justice for those who cannot rely on citizenship or nationality in addition to their
humanity, international institutions are needed. The decentralized approach to universal
jurisdiction as exemplified in the third country trials has not failed completely, but has fallen
short of reasonable expectations of equity.
Convention