Starvation and the International Criminal Court

Abstract

This research explores the challenges of prosecuting starvation at the International Criminal Court (“ICC”). The Rome Statute has criminalized the use of starvation as a method of warfare during international armed conflict (“IAC”). The research question of the thesis: what are the challenges of prosecuting starvation under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court? Despite the prevalence of non-international armed conflict (“NIAC”) the amendment to the Rome Statute criminalized the use of starvation as a method of warfare during NIAC is not widely ratified, thus accountability gaps remain for prosecuting starvation, which is identified as one of the challenges. Another challenge is the difficulty of proving the link between the accused’s actions and civilian starvation. The case study points out the possibility that while Israel was laying siege to the Gaza Strip, the war crime of the use of starvation of the civilian population as a method of warfare.