Page 59 - The CoESPU Magazine N 1 - 2018

THE International Criminal COURT

In the past ten years or so, several documentaries on international criminal justice have been
produced and used for advocacy and educational purposes. On some occasions, artists,
humanitarian
organizations, and the
Office of the Prosecutor
of the International
Criminal Court (ICC)
have worked closely
together in the
production of
documentary films.
Documentaries have
thus become important
tools for education and
the spread of imageries
of international criminal
justice. In this regard,
among the most recent
influential documentaries, we focused our attention on “The International Criminal Court” movie
(“The Court” in short).
Shot in the style of a legal thriller, the documentary “The International Criminal Court” relates how
the first internationally legitimated criminal court was founded in 2002, and how it investigates
appalling crimes committed
by some of the world's most
ruthless war criminals.
To many, if not most, the ICC
still looms like an
impenetrable institution
where the decisions made and
actions taken in The Hague
subsequently reverberate
around the world. This isn’t
to say that it’s a murky world
but rather that it remains a
rare and privileged
opportunity to glimpse how
decisions at the Court are
made, what life in the halls of
the world’s first permanent

57