Book review: Christoph Safferling Gurgen Petrossian Victims Before the International Criminal Court: Definition, Participation, Reparation
| Author | Michelle Coleman |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/02697580221127436 |
| Published date | 01 January 2023 |
| Date | 01 January 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Book reviews |
International Review of Victimology
2023, Vol. 29(1) 146 –149
© The Author(s) 2022
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Book reviews
Christoph Safferling
Gurgen Petrossian
Victims Before the International Criminal Court: Definition, Participation,
Reparation
Springer: Switzerland, 2021, 390 pp.: hardcover: ISBN: 978-3-030-80176-2; e-book: ISBN: 978-3-
030-80177-9
Reviewed by: Michelle Coleman , Swansea University School of Law, UK
DOI: 10.1177/02697580221127436
In Victims Before the International Criminal Court, Christoph Safferling and Gurgen Petrossian
conduct a comprehensive examination of the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) framework for
dealing with victim participation and evaluate how effective that framework is in practice. While
victims’ right to participate in criminal trials is an ongoing debate in national and international
jurisdictions, Safferling and Petrossian’s book reminds us that victims’ ability to actively partici-
pate in international criminal law is newly established. The framework and rules for real participa-
tion in criminal proceedings (beyond mere witnesses or sentencing hearings) at the international
level began with the ICC. Published 19 years after the Rome Statute came into force, the authors
conduct a thorough and detailed analysis of this framework. The book argues that while the frame-
work developed at the ICC was established with the genuine goal of allowing victim participation,
the mechanism put in place greatly limits the effectiveness and meaningfulness of such
participation.
The book aims to understand and analyse victim participation within the ICC’s framework, how
this framework is interpreted through the relevant judicial decisions, and what this means in practi-
cal terms. To capture a complete understanding of victim participation, the book looks beyond lit-
eral participation in the court’s proceedings to three pillars – definition, participation, and
reparation. After a very brief introduction, the book is divided into three chapters each of which
thoroughly tackles one of these pillars.
Chapter 2 focuses on definition, pointing out that in order for victim status to be recognized, the
relevant victims must be identified. The chapter finds that the most challenging issue in identifying
victims is the Rome Statute’s requirement that the victims be specifically connected to the charged
crimes. Because of this connection, many actual victims of the overall situation will not be recog-
nized by the Court and will be excluded from participation. The authors rightly find that this
requirement severely limits victim participation, and to overcome this challenge, they argue for a
more collective approach to defining and identifying victims of atrocity crimes.
Chapter 3 examines the right to participate in proceedings and questions whether the Rome
Statute is effective in permitting meaningful victim participation. Article 68(3) is discussed in
1127436IRV0010.1177/02697580221127436International Review of VictimologyBook reviews
book-review2022
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