This event, organised by SPUI25, addresses the contemporary challenges facing international criminal justice and examines whether justice for mass violence, war crimes and genocide can be achieved through approaches that extend beyond punishment and retribution. Against a backdrop of growing criticism of international criminal institutions, the discussion explores the possibilities and limits of criminal law as a framework for responding to large-scale atrocities.

Adopting an abolitionist perspective, the panel considers alternative conceptions of justice centred on repair, restitution and structural transformation. Particular attention will be paid to the extent to which international criminal law can address the broader conditions that enable mass violence, including forms of international complicity, and to the political and social practices that may be required alongside legal accountability. The programme also features the work of Combatants for Peace, an Israeli-Palestinian movement committed to non-violent resistance and reconciliation.

Speakers include Marta Pinto da Cruz, PhD researcher at the University of Amsterdam, whose work critically examines the centrality of punishment in international criminal law, and Lysan Boshuyzen, director of Netherlands Friends of Combatants for Peace and specialist in peacebuilding, trauma and psycho­social support in conflict settings.