Historic Monuments and Religious Buildings as Victims in Prosecutor v Al Mahdi at the International Criminal Court

Journal article

In this article, we combine anthropological and legal approaches to interrogate the position and status of “victims” during Prosecutor v Al Mahdi at the International Criminal Court (ICC). Anthropological work on ontology and distributed agency provides a potential model for a broader reading of the category of victim. We then consider the war crime committed and propose an adapted application of international law sources on victimhood in order to develop a new legal-doctrinal approach that considers material objects and heritage as “direct victims” of violence and expands the range of possible “secondary victims” in ICC proceedings.

Authors: Perez-Leon-Acevedo, J; Joy, C

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Journal: Journal of African Law
• Pages: 1-19
• Publication date: 2025-12-11
• Acceptance date: 2025-08-07
• DOI: 10.1017/s0021855325100880
• EISSN: 1464-3731
• ISSN: 0021-8553
• Language: English
• Keywords: Al Mahdi; International Criminal Court; historic monuments and buildings dedicated to religion; victims