Tough Road Ahead for New Hague Court Boss

On February 12, 2021, after months of struggling to reach consensus on who should be the International Criminal Court's (ICC) next chief prosecutor, members of the ICC's Assembly of States Parties finally elected British lawyer Karim Khan by secret ballot. Khan's election was the first time that ICC member states didn't reach a unanimous decision on who should lead the court's prosecution arm. His biggest tasks are to assert his office's independence and remedy public perceptions of the ICC. To do this, Khan will need to build on the work - sometimes slow and arduous,  as most of the trials before the courts has shown- of his predecessors. He must also improve the prosecution's performance and grapple with the politics of international justice. Recommendations from the independent expert review of the court's operations, completed in 2020, can provide a useful guide writes Ottilia Anna Maunganidze for the Institute for Security Studies.

View of typical courtroom at International Criminal Court (ICC).

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