CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY: THE STRUGGLE FOR GLOBAL JUSTICE

Abstract

Geoffrey Robertson (3rd ed, Penguin Books, London 2006) Paperback, pp 627, ISBN 10: 0 141 02463 1, £14.99Crimes Against Humanity: The Struggle for Global Justice (“CAH”) is a political, moral, legal and polemical work: as such, it is a comprehensive attempt to address the evils that, in the broadest sense of the concept, constitute crimes against humanity. The book is wide ranging, illuminating and entertaining. It is written in a lively and accessible style. Robertson is not afraid to make his position clear, often with a hard-hitting adjective or caustic aside, which gives the work a refreshing honesty that a more measured or academic approach might avoid. The moral, though not economic or pragmatic, case Robertson makes for the universal, coherent, consistent and systematic protection of human rights across the globe is compelling, and the broad-brush strokes of his argument, and much of its detail, is hard to disagree with. Generally speaking, I am therefore in agreement with Robertson’s objectives as set out in CAH, and the methodology he wishes to see used in order to achieve those objectives. There is much to praise in CAH, and it is a valuable contribution to the global promotion and protection of human rights and humanitarian values.