ABSTRACT

This chapter explores how the International Criminal Court is constructed as the judicial arm of humanitarian intervention measures and the enforcer of human rights on a global scale. It explores how criminal justice investigations and prosecutions conducted by the ICC are operationalized alongside military interventions using the case study of Libya. The responsibility to protect norms seeks to prevent or stop international crimes and human rights abuses by invoking a range of tools including economic sanctions, military intervention, and mediation. The development of international norms, courts and justification for military intervention in state conflict gives greater power to the international community to enforce human rights standards. The need for support and the use of the ICC as a tool explains why the ICC is often used in conjunction with military intervention, making the ICC the judicial arm of the emerging norm of the responsibility to protect human rights around the world.