How worldwide outrage over atrocities in Ukraine is fueling a new push for international justice

A mass grave behind a church. Bodies of children and families buried under the rubble of a theater where they had been seeking refuge. Streets littered with bodies of civilians who were shot, hands tied behind their backs. Almost every day, the headlines bring news of new violations of international human rights norms and the rules of war in Ukraine, including attacks by the Russian army on hospitals, schools, residential buildings, and even water facilities. Those revelations have also launched daily accusations against Russian President Vladimir Putin and his military of war crimes and illegal aggression, and calls for international investigations and prosecutions. Now a group of Harvard Professors says that the war in Ukraine could be a watershed moment for the evolving notion of meaningful international justice. In a recent Op-Ed, Harvard Kennedy School Professor Kathryn Sikkink and Harvard Chan School of Public Health faculty members Patrick Vinck and Phuong Pham, say it is time for the countries of the world to invest both their geopolitical and financial capital in the International Criminal Court. Located in the Hague in the Netherlands, the ICC was established 20 years ago as the world’s first permanent international criminal court to pursuing prosecutions war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and, most recently, a new violation called the crime of aggression. Kathryn Sikkink has been researching the nexus of human rights and international justice since she first witnessed the Trial of the Juntas in Argentina as a PhD student in the mid-1980s. Patrick Vinck is the Research Director of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, and, with his partner and spouse Phong Pham, a pioneer in the field of data collection from conflict zones. Sikkink and Vinck say while there have been legitimate criticisms of the ICC for being ineffective or for focusing too much on certain regions such as Africa, critics are missing the bigger picture—and the remarkable story of how much traction the notion of international humanitarian justice has gained since the end of World War II. And even if Vladimir Putin never sees the inside of a courtroom, they say research shows that the mere act of identifying war crimes and pursuing prosecutions, can lower the rate at which those crimes occur. Episode Notes: Kathryn Sikkink is the Ryan Family Professor of Human Rights Policy at Harvard Kennedy School. Sikkink works on international norms and institutions, transnational advocacy networks, the impact of human rights law and policies, and transitional justice (an approach to systematic or massive violations of human rights that both provides redress to victims and creates or enhances opportunities for the transformation of the political systems). Her publications include “The Hidden Face of Rights: Toward a Politics of Responsibilies,” “Evidence for Hope: Making Human Rights Work in the 21st Century,” and “The Justice Cascade: How Human Rights Prosecutions are Changing World Politics (awarded the Robert F. Kennedy Center Book Award). She is a member of the American Philosophical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Council on Foreign Relations, and is a member of the editorial board of the American Political Science Review. She holds both an M.A. and a Ph.D. from Columbia University and has been a Guggenheim fellow and a Fulbright Scholar in Argentina. Patrick Vinck is Research Director of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Global Health and Population at the Harvard School of Public Health and the Department of Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School. With his partner and spouse, Harvard Medical School Assistant Professor Phuong Pham, Vinck leads a team conducting research on resilience, peacebuilding, and social cohesion in contexts of mass violence, conflicts and natural disasters, with support from the MacArthur Foundation, UNDP, and UNICEF, among others. He is also the co-founder and director of KoBoToolbox, a digital data collection platform used worldwide in conflict and crisis zones, and the Data-Pop Alliance, a Big Data partnership with MIT and the Overseas Development Initiative. Vinck serves as a regular advisor and evaluation consultant to the United Nations and other agencies, and has served on the Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He holds a degree in engineering in applied biological sciences from Gembloux Agricultural University (Belgium) and a Ph.D. in International Development from Tulane University. Ralph Ranalli is the Host, Producer, and Editor of HKS PolicyCast. He is a senior writer at the HKS Office of Public Affairs and Communications, as well as a former journalist, public television producer, and entrepreneur. The co-producer of PolicyCast is Susan Hughes. Design and graphics support is provided by Lydia Rosenberg, Delane Meadows and the OCPA Design Team. Social media promotion and support is provided by Natalie Montaner and the OCPA Digital Team.