. @Kiphale offers a useful reminder that critics of the ICC's performance should not themselves be beyond scrutiny. But I strongly disagree with much of this piece.

A small thread https://justiceinconflict.org/2020/05/27/time-to-look-in-the-mirror-a-response-to-icc-critics/ via @MarkKersten

When I arrived at the court in 2009, war was raging at the ICC. Not a war against impunity. It was an epic war of the OTP vs. the Registry. The Presidency, where I worked, was stuck in the middle. And over in Chambers, a good majority of the judges thought they were demigods.

The place was like the Lord of the Flies. Arrogance and misplaced priorities abounded. Many staff tried to make the institution work despite itself. There were very many people there for the right reasons, trying to avoid conscription into the War Between the Organs.

Friendly civil society organizations knew by then of the dysfunction. They murmured about it behind closed doors and expressed concern at the NGO Briefings. But publicly, they pulled their punches. Yes, this includes @OSFJustice.

At the time, the Court had just endured the hostile Bush administration, and its abhorrent political attacks. Some of the biggest CSOs working on ICC issues are based in the US, and thus especially sensitive to US policy on the ICC.

However, the failure of friendly CSOs to adequately critique an institution in the throes of managerial dysfunction and toxicity did the ICC and the project of international criminal justice no favors. Quite the contrary.

We now know that in the very years that LMO poured an insane amount of energy into such disputes as "the role of the Registry in external relations", his Kenya investigations were crumbling. If CSOs had expressed alarm about the internal fighting, would that have helped? Maybe.

What I do know is that there were people in every organ working for change. The failure of external allies to hold the court accountable only undermined the efforts of internal reformers.

Today things at the ICC are considerably calmer than the circus I experienced. But major problems remain, and it remains true that when we bite our tongues about them, we undermine those on the inside who struggle to advance the ICC's mission despite the institution's flaws.