Pious Hope or Realist Instrument? Challenges from the Pursuit of International Criminal Justice

In the half-century since the Nuremberg trials of the Nazi leadership, the United Nations has established numerous other international criminal tribunals in response to a variety of conflicts globally, including in Yugoslavia, Rwanda, East Timor, Cambodia and Sierra Leone. ² The Prosecutor of the fledgling International Criminal Court – which, unlike its predecessors, was established as a permanent institution with aspirations of global reach – has also since opened investigations into the situations in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and Darfur, Sudan. ³