Longlisted for the Moore Prize for Human Rights Writing 2026.
We are, today, exposed to evidence of thousands of war crimes. Residential buildings bombed and burning in Ukraine, dead children being dug out of the rubble in Gaza, civilians beaten and starved by armies in Sudan, hospitals and refugee camps deliberately targeted and a mounting number of aid workers, journalists and innocent civilians murdered by soldiers. The evidence proves guilt beyond reasonable doubt, but we know there will be few, if any, prosecutions.
Newspapers and television reports do not identify them as war crimes, and diplomats and politicians are reluctant to label them as such. In consequence, soldiers hardly ever hesitate to commit them and generals have no moral qualms about issuing the orders.
This book explains, simply and without resort to legalistic analysis, what amounts to a war crime today. It will alert soldiers to the orders they should not obey (and their rights of conscientious objection) and warn officers what will make them criminals when they are tried in years to come. It will give journalists and diplomats the confidence to describe war crimes. NGOs will have the power to refute government or military denials. Students of politics, law and international affairs will better understand this increasingly important subject within their discipline.
Most importantly, citizens will learn how to identify and stigmatise the illegal actions of military forces in their own and other countries and become better informed about the legality of exporting arms to forces that may use them to commit war crimes.
The need for this book is underlined by the fact that there is no equivalent in circulation; military manuals are tedious to read and publication is restricted, while books on war law are lengthy and academic. This work by Geoffrey Robertson KC makes the issues comprehensible in an authoritative and unbiased way.