Geoffrey Robertson: The case for international justice
The Interview
BBC
4.3 • 537 Ratings
🗓️ 3 April 2023
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Stephen Sackur speaks to the renowned lawyer and author Geoffrey Robertson KC, who has long experience as an international human rights defender and a war crimes trial judge. Is the fact that President Vladimir Putin faces war crimes charges while still sitting in the Kremlin a sign of how far we’ve come, or how far we have to go when it comes to global justice?
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Sacker. My guest today is one of the best known, widely travelled and experienced human rights lawyers in the world. |
| 0:11.4 | Geoffrey Robertson was born and raised in Australia, but made his home in London after studying at Oxford University. |
| 0:17.7 | He trained as a barrister and has represented high-profile clients like |
| 0:23.0 | Salman Rushdie, Julian Assange, and President Lula of Brazil, whilst also immersing himself in the |
| 0:29.9 | international effort to bring notorious human rights abusers to justice. He was the first president of the |
| 0:37.0 | UN Special Court investigating atrocities in Sierra Leone, |
| 0:40.6 | which put former Liberian president Charles Taylor behind bars. He's written a host of books, |
| 0:46.8 | which have made the case for an international approach to the protection of human rights and free speech. |
| 0:52.7 | But for all of his passionate advocacy, and despite |
| 0:55.8 | the powerful symbolism of the recent charges filed against Vladimir Putin by the international |
| 1:01.5 | criminal court, the prevailing global trend seems to be in the direction of more authoritarianism, |
| 1:08.7 | more nationalism, and less of a commitment to multilateral cooperation |
| 1:13.9 | on issues of rights and justice. So is the global justice movement in retreat? Well, Jeffrey |
| 1:21.5 | Robertson joins me now. Welcome to Hard Talk. How big a deal is the ICC's decision to charge Vladimir Putin with war crimes and issue an arrest warrant? |
| 1:34.1 | It's very important because it has removed a credibility that he would otherwise have had. |
| 1:40.7 | He is banned now from 123 countries. In addition, he may well end up in the Hague, |
| 1:50.5 | not soon, of course, but in years to come there may be a coup, and he may, like Milosevic, be handed |
| 1:58.3 | over to ease sanctions. He may, in time, he's only 69, be stumbling into the |
| 2:05.7 | dock like some old Nazis are at the moment in Germany. So it is not without significant. |
| 2:13.4 | I'm imagining people listening to you in Moscow and giving a look of complete disdain to what they have just heard. |
| 2:21.0 | The fact is Vladimir Putin is still President of Russia, comfortable in the Kremlin. |
| 2:25.3 | You say he can't travel. |
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