Steve Crawshaw

Journalist and human rights campaigner Steve Crawshaw asks whether powerful leaders such as Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu could ever be put in a dock and charged for crimes.

Crawshaw looks at recent stories from Ukraine, Israel and Palestine and the International Criminal Court at The Hague.  He describes encounters with war criminals such as Slobodan Milošević and tells the stories of those who have demanded protection for citizens and accountability for the powerful. Crawshaw says that if survivors are to get justice for the crimes against them, governments must abandon double standards and have the courage to support prosecutions of those who commit atrocities, whether they are allies or not.

‘A magnificent account of a noble obsession – the determination to make war criminals, and the people behind them, pay for what they have done.’ John Simpson, BBC world affairs editor

Crawshaw is a former journalist at Granada TV and on the Independent and has worked in the field of human rights for more than 30 years. He has worked in senior roles at Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Freedom from Torture and is author of books including Goodbye to the USSR and Street Spirit: The Power of Protest and Mischief.