Conceptualizing Famine as a Subject of International Criminal Justice: Towards a Modality-Based Approach
75 Pages Posted: 2 Jun 2016 Last revised: 25 Aug 2018
Date Written: 2017
Abstract
Since the inception of modern international criminal law (ICL), scholars have considered the issue of potential ICL accountability predicated on mass famine situations. Despite this interest, the subject of famine has remained mostly outside the scope of ICL practice to date. This article revisits the question of potential intersections between ICL and modern famines. In doing so, recent real-world famines in Cambodia, North Korea, Somalia and Darfur, along with the current threat of famine amidst the ongoing civil war in Syria are referenced as examples of potential situations warranting the pursuit of ICL accountability. These and other examples of modern famine demonstrate that the creation, enforcement or perpetuation of famine represents a modality of harm causation through which various international crimes may be committed. Depending on the circumstances such crimes may take the form of genocide, war crimes and/or crimes against humanity. After providing an overview of promising ICL entry points for the pursuit of famine accountability, this article suggests that famine harms have been largely excluded from the purview of ICL primarily because of persistent outdated understandings of the dynamics of famine causation, and the fact that famine situations fail to conform to preconceived notions of what constitutes an atrocity event. In order to push back against such preconceptions, this article suggests that famine is better conceptualized as a means or modality through which atrocities may be committed, rather than trying to describe the condition of famine itself as amounting to an international crime.
Keywords: Famine; International Criminal Justice; Starvation; International Criminal Law; The Right to Food
JEL Classification: K14; K23
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation