Victims as a Third Party

This chapter explores and challenges the promise of victim participation before the International Criminal Court (ICC). Victims are a key reason for international criminal trials. Indeed, trials are said to be held because of the great numbers of victims the crimes have created. Perpetrators are prosecuted so victims can see justice being done. Yet when it comes to victims who want to claim their own rights before international criminal courts, the picture is less clear. International courts have struggled with how to deal with victims. Responses to victims’ participation in criminal trials have ranged from outright opposition, to reluctant acceptance, to apparent embrace. Even when there seems to be embrace, though, under the surface victims struggle to have their suffering and damage recognized. Victims are merely third-parties in the criminal trial. The charges are not their charges; they may not fit their damage. What is more, courts deal with victims collectively, denying them the individual attention their claims may demand. To make things worse, rather than applying the legal principle of accountability to victims' claims for damage, courts have a tendency to address victims' damage as a humanitarian problem that can be solved through humanitarian assistance.