The Reckoning: The Battle for the International Criminal Court, a new public television documentary, gives an overview of the workings of the court and its roots. In presenting interviews with people from John Bolton to former child soldiers, The Reckoning does what motion picture documentaries do best, allow personal narratives and visual evidence to inform complex political questions.
If you've seen The Reckoning (which is available for online viewing) and would like more detailed information about the history, anthropology, and politics behind the stories, here are some good books to start with:
Child Soldiers in Africa by Alcinda Honwana
Human Rights in Latin America: A Politics of Terror and Hope by Sonia Cardenas
The Dynamics of Violence in Central Africa by René Lemarchand
Universal Jurisdiction:
National Courts and the Prosecution of Serious Crimes Under International Law edited by Stephen Macedo
Inherent Human Rights: Philosophical Roots of the Universal Declaration by Johannes Morsink
The Pinochet Effect: Transnational Justice in the Age of Human Rights by Naomi Roht-Arriaza
Political Violence and Trauma in Argentina by Antonius C. G. M. Robben
The Witnesses: War Crimes and the Promise of Justice in The Hague by Eric Stover
Check out these books and other publications in our Pennsylvania Studies in Human Rights,
National and Ethnic Conflict in the 21st Century, The Ethnography of Political Violence series for a thorough grounding in the issues presented in The Reckoning.
