International Criminal Law as One Response to World Suffering: General Observations and the Case of Darfur

In the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries some actions that caused mass violence have been redefined from heroic deeds to criminal acts, including war crimes and genocide. This essay outlines dimensions of mass violence in recent history and describes how new institutions such as the International Criminal Court (ICC) and Amnesty International have sought to define actions producing mass violence as criminal acts. Special attention and research detail are given to recent events in Darfur, derived in large part from the author’s research on inter-national media content over the course of the Darfur conflict. The author concludes with some cautionary notes about the extent to which this historical interjection of criminal law and criminal sanctions into international conflicts will have lasting effects in future instances of mass violence. To the extent that relevant institutional changes persist, we can be optimistic about being on a path that relieves some kinds of world suffering.