Global Justice Challenged in Darfur
September 9, 2008
(Boston Globe, August 29, 2008) In the article, "Global Justice Challenged in Darfur," Eric Reeves talks about the dilemmas facing the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court: should they charge Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir with genocide and crimes against humanity?
Discussion Questions:
- Reeves states, "Increasingly confident that it will not be held accountable by its neighbors in the Arab and African worlds, Khartoum has now declared in effect, ‘don't allow an ICC arrest warrant to be issued or we will undermine security for the UN in Darfur.'" According to Reeves, how would issuing an arrest warrant change the security of Darfur? What course of action should the ICC take to protect the people in Darfur?
- Reeves comments, "If the world backs down on the matter of justice and accountability, international efforts to end impunity in Darfur will have been crushed- and by the vicious demands of the very men who have so relentlessly orchestrated ethnically targeted human destruction." Do you agree with his statement? Why or why not? How should prosecutors balance securing concerns with legal accountability?
- Whose responsibility is it to intervene when a government is killing its own citizens while the killing is occurring? What role can a court play in stopping it?
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