Methods of the International Criminal Court and the Role of Social Media Stefanie Kunze Northern Arizona University Flagstaff, AZ
[email protected] April 2014 Introduction In the 20th century crimes against humanity and crimes of war have become more present in our conscience and awareness. The reasons are that they have become more methodical, more devastating, and also better documented. The 20th century has seen a development from international awareness of international crime and human rights violations, to the establishment of international criminal tribunals and ultimately the establishment of the International Criminal Court, and an undeniable influence of social media on the international discourse. Genocide is one of these crimes against humanity, and arguably the gravest one. With ad-hoc international and national criminal tribunals, special and hybrid courts, as well as the permanent International Criminal Court (ICC), big steps have been taken towards justice in the wake of genocide and crimes against humanity. Genocide is hardly a novel crime; it is the name that was newly coined in the mid-1900s. In fact, mass killings and possible genocide have occurred for centuries. The mass killing under Russian leader Stalin1 (Appendix A) occurred before the height of the Nazi Holocaust. Even before then, mass atrocities were committed over time, though not well documented. For instance the Armenian genocide under the Ottoman Empire, has been widely accepted as a “true” genocide, with roughly one-and-a-half-million dead.2 To this day Turkey denies these numbers.3 With the end of World War II and the end of the Nazi regime, the first international tribunals in history were held, prosecuting top-level perpetrators.