Summer Collection – What about U.S.?

This episode was first released in January 2023, which is not that long ago, but things change quite rapidly! Still, with the upcoming Presidential election, we thought it would be good to listen to this one again. Janet and Stephanie talked to friend of the pod Beth van Schaack to give them a clearer idea of the state of the United States’ relationship with the ICC. Beth is serving as the United States Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice and she gave the AH-team a 360-degree view of her work with the ICC, in Ukraine, and in other situations worth monitoring. Van Schaak was a lawyer at the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and Yugoslavia in The Hague and has written countless articles and papers on international human rights and justice issues.

On the ICC front, Beth hoped to see a new commitment from the US to diplomatic support, information sharing, and donations to the trust fund for victims. Victims’ support and witnesses’ protection were some of her priorities.

The Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine was also topic of discussion. As a consequence of the war in Ukraine, Congress has made it possible to prosecute perpetrators of war crimes who are not citizens but find themselves on US soil.

There’s a lot to think about and lots of food for future conversations, as Beth shared her thoughts and work on justice for Liberia, Ethiopia, El Salvador, Central African Republic, The Gambia, and South Sudan. But Stephanie, Janet and Beth also looked to the past when they talked about the Tadić appeal at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, and how that helped shape the justice ecosystem we live in now. 

Book recommendations included a familiar choice:  Reed Brody’s excellent book To Catch a Dictator, which Beth gave as a Christmas present to her whole team. Reed will feature in the next episode of this year’s Summer Collection.