A Joint Event by FAU CHREN and the International Nuremberg Principles Academy

The FAU Research Center for Human Rights Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU CHREN) and the International Nuremberg Principles Academy (INPA) cordially invite you to a public evening lecture by Harvard professor and FAU honorary doctor Kathryn Sikkink.

Is the Justice Cascade Over? Accountability in an Era of Impunity.

Evening Lecture by Kathryn Sikkink, Ryan Family Professor of Human Rights Policy at Harvard Kennedy School and FAU honorary doctor

Date: 24 June 2025, 18:00-19:30
Venue: FAU CHREN, Andreij-Sacharow-Platz 1, 90403 Nürnberg. Lecture Hall, 4^th floor.

The emergence of individual criminal accountability for war crimes, mass atrocities, and the violation of human rights is among the most dramatic normative developments in international politics over the past half-century. Nevertheless, in this article, we document a sharp global decline in prosecutions for these crimes since 2010 and develop a theory on the demand for and supply of justice to explain this trend. We show that the global shift is driven by a reduction of prosecutions in domestic courts and that the interaction of a state’s level of liberal democracy and its legacy of past human rights abuse is strongly predictive of domestic trial initiation. While past legacies of repression and violence were addressed in openings created by democratic transitions, contemporary democratic backsliding risks denying today’s victims justice in the future.

Introduction: Katrin Kinzelbach
Discussant: Christoph Safferling