Human rights and international criminal justice

One might expect the opening chapter of this Cambridge Companion to International Criminal Law to suggest that human rights came first and slowly developed a criminal law arm in order to prosecute the worst offenders. Indeed, a well-established account presents the process as passing from a preliminary enunciation of values stage through to declarations, prescription, enforcement, and finally criminalisation. But the relationship between human rights and international criminal law is more complicated and, today, produces not only tension but also confrontation. This chapter will highlight tension over harmony, and suggest that the articulation of the relationship between these two branches of law remains very much ‘work in progress’. Although many scholars and activists are involved in both branches, at certain points the dynamics diverge and the thirst for the prosecution of international crimes may not always take fully on board the human rights implications of such processes.