Episode 34 – Distant Diplomacy with Milena Sterio and Maria Elena Vignoli

Stephanie (top left) and Janet (top right) speak with Maria-Elena Vignoli (bottom left) and Milena Sterio (bottom right). In the middle is our intern Dimitra Karapanagiotou who edited this episode

It’s Groundhog Day, as the Annual Meeting of the states parties to the International Criminal Court meet again and again – and they still haven’t finished.

We look back at how weird it all was online. We ask what was decided on the budget; no change especially considering Covid demands. And what about new judges; states were still horse-trading. And ask how the prosecutor election is going; not well, was the general conclusion.

Do check out our special prosecutor files section for interviews with some of the candidates and indepth discussion of what ‘high moral character’ may mean.

Our contributors, US law professor Milena Sterio and human rights researcher Maria Elena Vignoli picked two classic books for lockdown pleasurable reading: Beloved by Toni Morrison, and Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe.

This podcast has been produced as part of a partnership with JusticeInfo.net, an independent website in French and English covering justice initiatives in countries dealing with serious violence. It is a media outlet of Fondation Hirondelle, based in Lausanne, Switzerland.