In its March 2021 Ntaganda reparations order, the ICC Trial Chamber mentioned “victims’ needs” 26 times, repeatedly emphasising their importance. Despite this, the Court’s use of the term was never defined (nor has it ever been). This is not unusual: one regularly encounters ambiguous talk of “victims’ needs” in the international criminal & transitional justice milieux. Need has become something of a new buzzterm. However, the concept of need is poorly understood, not only by practitioners in these fields but also by scholars of atrocity criminology & victimology.
I suggest that this is due, in large part, to the popular influence of competing ontologies of need: the subjectivist and political visions, which are influenced by psychology and political philosophy respectively. This presentation will summarise some of the key features of my own approach, which critiques aspects of these visions and outlines a theory of atrocity victims’ needs. I will clarify my ontological understanding of need, which centres the dynamism of victims’ real-world needs, and emphasise the important political role that the concept of need can play, i.e., as a normative principle that can guide the design and implementation of redress and criminal justice mechanisms.
Biography
James Rischbieth is a PhD Fellow (Fundamental Research) with the Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek – Vlaanderen (FWO, Research Foundation Flanders); a doctoral researcher at Faculty of Law and Criminology, KU Leuven, Belgium; and an editor of the Leuven Transitional Justice Blog. His main research topic focuses on the concept and reality of victims’ needs in the post atrocity-crime context. He also has a broader interest in transitional justice, especially redress and reparations theory and practice. He brings an interdisciplinary approach to his research and holds a Master in Criminology (M.Sc, cum laude), from KU Leuven; a Master of Laws (LL.M, cum laude) in International and European Law, from KU Leuven; and a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B, Honours), from the University of Adelaide. He is affiliated with the Leuven Institute of Criminology and the Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies.