The Hidden Costs of Strategic Communications for the International Criminal Court
2016; Routledge; Volume: 51; Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
0163-7479
Autores Tópico(s)International Arbitration and Investment Law
ResumoTABLE OF CONTENTSINTRODUCTION 282I. BACKGROUND 283II. CIVIL SOCIETY AND THE ICC 286III. LEGITIMACY AND ITS CHALLENGES 288IV. THE COSTS ASSOCIATED WITH ARTICLE 15 COMMUNICATIONS 291A. The Administrative Burden 291B. The Perception Costs of Article 15 Complaints 292C. Remedial Measures and the Office of the Prosecutor 296V. THE VATICAN-TARGETED COMMUNICATION: STRATEGIC OR GENUINE? . 298A. Certain Threshold Requirements for ICC Action 301B. Temporal Jurisdiction Problems? 302C. Substantive Jurisdiction Problems 303VI. THE PERCEPTION PROBLEMS CREATED BY IGNORING THE POLICY REQUIREMENT 306A. Decontextualizing Crimes Against Humanity 306B. Legitimacy Concerns 309C. Additional Costs 310VII. PERCEPTION PROBLEMS CREATED BY THE REJECTION OF THE COMMUNICATION 312A. The Belief that the ICC Will Not Target Western Leaders 312B. The Belief that the ICC Is Biased Against Africa 313C. The Belief that the ICC Ignores Crimes of Sexual Violence 315CONCLUSION 317INTRODUCTIONIn September 2011, a widely disseminated press release appeared with the headline Clergy Sex Victims File an International Criminal Court Complaint: Charges Vatican Officials with 'Crimes against Humanity.'1 Predictably, the release generated a flurry of media attention, including news coverage with equally eyecatching titles, such as Child abuse victims sue Pope for crimes against humanity2 and Case Against Pope Filed Before International Criminal Court.' In reality, however, there never was such a case. Rather, the International Criminal Court Prosecutor had simply been asked to consider the possibility of opening an investigation into the matter through a mechanism that is incredibly popular, available to anyone, and profoundly unlikely to result in an International Criminal Court prosecution. Indeed, provocative headlines notwithstanding, retired Pope Benedict XVI is not now, nor has he ever been, charged with crimes against humanity in any court.Nevertheless, by creating the impression of an ICC case, the Vatican-targeted campaign succeeded in attracting significant media attention and enhancing worldwide awareness of the horrific betrayal of the Catholic Church's most vulnerable members. As a result, the effort appears to be a masterful exercise in what this Article dubs strategic communications -highly publicized investigation requests aimed not at securing any ICC-related activity, but at obtaining some non-Court related advantage. What is more, the effort appears to have inspired a broader and generally overlooked trend towards publicizing ICC investigation requests. …
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