Möglichkeiten und Grenzen des Völkerstrafrechts als Instrument gegen die illegale Ausbeutung von natürlichen Ressourcen und Landraub

Abstract

In September 2016, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague announced that her Office intends to pay particular attention to prosecuting »crimes that are committed by means of, or that result in, inter alia, the destruction of the environment, the illegal exploitation of natural resources or the illegal dispossession of land.« Some reacted enthusiastically to this announcement while others criticised that the Chief Prosecutor would give the ICC a new pretext for exclusively dealing with the Global South. What should we make of this controversy and what implications might the announcement of the Prosecutor have for the role of international law in transitional justice more broadly? The author analyses the Prosecutor’s Policy Paper on Case Selection. She does so in light of recent research results suggesting that violations of economic, social and cultural human rights can overlap with the definitions of existing international crimes.