Deterrence: a Difficult Challenge for the International Criminal Court

This paper addresses the question of whether the international criminal court can deter future violations of human rights. The author argues that this endeavor, while promising, is still in an incipient stage and that the general expectation that human rights violations will be deterred through the mere establishment of the court is ill founded. Neutralization—that is, depriving perpetrators of the power to commit more violations—is a precondition for deterrence, and developing an effective capacity to neutralize violations should be the court’s foremost purpose.