Prosecuting the Powerful: War Crimes and the Battle for Justice

by Steve Crawshaw

Getting a head of state in the dock was once unthinkable but as journalist and human rights advocate Steve Crawshaw uncovers in PROSECUTING THE POWERFUL - a blend of on-the-ground reportage and intellectual history - it is a real possibility. In recent years rogue dictators from Serbia's Slobodan Miloševic - whom Steve interviewed -- to Liberia's Charles Taylor and Sudan's Omar al-Bashir have all ended up behind bars. Could Putin be next?

Starting with reporting on crimes Ukraine, Crawshaw delves into the heroic history of how in the early 20th-century Raphael Lemkin (a native of Lviv) coined the term "genocide", and the lesser-known story of how the PM of Trinidad & Tobago was instrumental in setting up the International Criminal Court. Along the way we see how a brave whistleblower in Syria smuggled out pictures of Assad's torture prisons and how the US passed a law giving it the freedom to storm the Hague and rescue any of its soldiers put on trial there.


PROSECUTING THE POWERFUL tells a hopeful story of the long march towards justice for victims of state warfare.

Genres: Politics

416 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2025

About the author

Steve Crawshaw is Director of the Office of the Secretary General at Amnesty International, which he joined as international advocacy director in 2010. From 2002 to 2010, he was UK director and UN advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. He joined the Independent at launch in 1986, where he reported on the eastern European revolutions, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Balkan wars.

He is co-author with John Jackson of Small Acts of Resistance: How Courage, Tenacity and Ingenuity Can Change the World, preface by Václav Havel (Jon Snow: ‘brilliant’). His previous books were Easier Fatherland: Germany and the Twenty-First Century (John le Carré: ‘rare and long overdue’) and Goodbye to the USSR: The Collapse of Soviet Power (Ryszard Kapuściński: ‘fascinating and vivid, should be read’).

He studied Russian and German at the universities of Oxford and Leningrad (St Petersburg), and lived in Poland from 1978 to 1981.

Reviews

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Chechnya
Rwanda
Bosnia
Yugoslavia
Northern Ireland
Guatemala
Jakarta
Kenya
Namibia
Algeria
Vietnam
Sudan
Libya
Cambodia
Chile
Syria

The language, culture, history, and location of these countries differ substantially, but they all share the dubious honour of being silent witness to mass killings, to civilians being dehumanised and reduced to spoils of war and collateral damage. In the not so distant past the only way to punish those responsible for such atrocities would have been to gun them down in the streets. This is no longer the case.

To fill this void, the International Criminal Court (ICC) was established in The Hague in 2002. First proposed as far back as 1872 by Gustave Moynier and preceded by war tribunals, such as those in Nuremberg and Tokyo, it was no easy feat, and gave rise to knee jerk reactions, for example President Bush signing the American Service-Member’s Protection Act, authorising US forces to storm The Hague “…using all means necessary and appropriate…” to free any American citizen detained or prosecuted by this court. (127)

The history of the ICC, intended to serve as an international body with universal jurisdiction to ensure both protection and accountability, is narrated in this book by a well-known author-activist. It is important to note, at the onset, that the ICC must be distinguished from the inter-governmental International Court of Justice. Both are war courts able to function in absentia of the accused in The Hague, but the latter, the UN’s highest court, calls out the crimes of states, not individuals, whilst the ICC can prosecute individuals, including presidents and prime ministers.

The book is a blend of international history (legal, military, and political), eyewitness accounts, and interviews narrating the breadcrumbs leading to the transformation of justice required to putting a country’s leader, even if democratically elected, on trial. Those discussed in some detail include Sadam Hussein, Charles Taylor, Pol Pot, Augusta Pinochet, Omar al-Bashir, and Slobodan Miloševiċ.

As is apparent from the dates in the second paragraph, global justice cannot be established overnight: “Even after words are agreed upon, we find them to mean different things.” (37). The Geneva Conventions, the brainchild of Swiss businessman, Henry (Henri) Dunant, regarded as a global shorthand for the rules of war, was established in 1864. The term ‘genocide’ only came into existence in 1944, but the creator thereof, Raphael Lemkin, did not see the general acceptance thereof in his lifetime. The definition was later extended to include libricide and ecocide, in terms of which cultures and environments are exterminated.

A work of this nature will be incomplete without reference to the present, namely the Russia/Ukraine and Israel/Palestine conflicts. At the time of printing, Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu have both been identified as perpetrators of genocide by the ICC.

The age of the internet gave rise to the critical examination of investigate tools provided by digital technology, such as open-source investigations, Operation Belliecat (2014) and the Berkeley Protocol (2020) and the relevance thereof in respect of the execution of international justice is examined at length.

A valid argument can be made out that the necessity of a body like the ICC is an indication of the failure of domestic justice, but the closing comment in this regard belongs to Hebrew University professor, Yuval Shany: “Justice, including the prosecution of those responsible for the worst war crimes, is not an answer to everything. It can, however, be an ingredient in seeking future stability.” (310)

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[Roland Glotzer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This timely book written by Steve Crawshaw is informative, upsetting and touching. It shows how the prosecuting countries of the Nuremberg trials and Tokyo trials after WW2 were focused on atrocities committed by Germany and Japan but made sure to leave out crimes against civilian populations of which the Allied forces were also responsible (bombing of Dresden, Hamburg and Berlin in Germany and of Tokyo in Japan and of course the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki). These countries claimed to fight crimes against humanity but protected themselves from prosecutions despite being guilty as well. Examples include the UK in their fight against Kenyan independence, France in their fight against Algerians, the US in Vietnam and later in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, etc.. The book shows how some thought they could kill, torture and rape with full impunity but were eventually convicted (Milosevic in Serbia, Pinochet in Chile). It also shows how some war criminals were protected (e.g the US protected Saddam Hussein’s barbaric regime prior to the invasion of Kuwait because he was fighting Iran and consequently on the side of the US).
It finally shows the double standards being applied by powerful nations (primarily the US) criticising Putin for his invasion of Ukraine but leaving Israel off the hook for their actions in Gaza.
The author has however hope for the future as progress is being made albeit slower than it should be. Putin was indicted for crimes against humanity in 2023 and as I read this book so was Netanyahu for genocide against the Gazan population. As Helena Kennedy commented this book is a brilliant call for justice.

[Steven Clarke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Steve Crawshaw's Prosecuting the Powerful is a seminal work that exposes the tireless fight for justice against the world's most entrenched oppressors.

Through gripping case studies and incisive analysis, Crawshaw demonstrates how once-untouchable leaders have been held to account, proving that impunity is not inevitable.

In an era of rising authoritarianism and global indifference to human rights abuses, his work is both timely and essential, offering a roadmap for those who refuse to accept injustice as the status quo. This is not just a book-it is a call to action, making it required reading for anyone who believes in the power of accountability.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sound overview and critique of the history of international proceedings related to international law, genocide and the International Criminal Court. Easy to follow and well structured in terms of examining what each conflict and case has changed or questioned about our international legal principles.

[Joe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Informative read on the ICC and background on many conflicts across the world (Bosnia, Ukraine, etc.). The section on the Israel-Palestine conflict felt far from balanced and seemed to ignore much of the history and important nuance that must be considered.

[Kaylin Zaal · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVEDDD IT
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