International Criminal Justice and the Empowerment or Disempowerment of Victims
(NOTE: This is a pre-print of a chapter to be published in an edited volume tentativley titled Power in International Criminal Justice: Towards a Sociology of International Justice, from TOAEP). This chapter investigates victims' empowerment or disempowerment by international criminal justice processes Critical scholars often argue that these processes de-politicize, render passive, or otherwise disempower victims as agents of justice. Concerns about the powerlessness or disempowerment of victims are central to debates about whether international criminal justice does in fact advance ‘justice for victims.’ Based on focus group discussions and interviews with survivors of conflict and international crimes in Kenya and Uganda, I argue that neither the laudatory nor critical positions in this debate capture the very complex and variegated effects of international criminal justice processes on victims. Instead, tribunals are selective about who receives victim status, they channel people’s agency in particular ways, and their impact is highly context-dependent. As a result, victim status is not simply empowering or disempowering—it enhances the agency of some people in some contexts to pursue some justice aims, but it can also pose serious risks and constraints. This framework has implications for understanding the power of international criminal justice, and for evaluating the capacity of international criminal tribunals to advance justice for survivors of conflict and mass rights abuses.