From the Nuremberg trials to the arrest of General Pinochet to the prosecution of barbarians of the Balkans, we have crafted a global human rights law to punish crimes against humanity. And yet today it is rarely applied: the International Criminal Court has faltered, populist governments refuse to cooperate, the UN Security Council is pole-axed and liberal democracy is on the defensive. When faced with the torture of Sergei Magnitsky, the murder of Jamal Khashoggi and the repression of the Uighurs, what recourse do we have? Distinguished human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson argues that our most powerful weapon is Magnitsky laws, by which not only perpetrators but their accomplices - lickspittle judges, doctors who assist in torture, corporations that profit from slave labour - are named, shamed and blamed. Though the UK and the EU have passed nascent Magnitsky laws, they are not deploying them effectively. It is only by developing a full-blooded system of coordinated sanctions - banning human rights violators from entering democratic countries to funnel their ill-gotten gains through Western banks and take advantage of our schools and hospitals - that we can fight back against cruelty and corruption. Bad People sets out a Plan B for human rights, offering a new blueprint for global justice in a post-pandemic world.

About the Author
GEOFFREY ROBERTSON QC has had a distinguished career as a trial and appellate counsel in Britain and in international courts, and as a UN appeal judge, the first president of its war crimes court in Sierra Leone. He is founder and joint head of Doughty Street Chambers, Europe's largest human rights practice, a master of the Middle Temple and a former trustee of the Institute of Contemporary Arts. His book Crimes Against Humanity: The Struggle for Global Justice has been an inspiration for the global justice movement, and in 2011 he received the New York Bar Association's Award for Distinction in International Law and Affairs. In 2018, he was awarded the Order of Australia for services to human rights. His autobiography, Rather His Own Man: In Court with Tyrants, Tarts and Troublemakers, was published by Biteback (UK) and Penguin Random House (Australia) in 2018.

Reviews
"This inspiring book is a call to arms - a demand that governments use their new powers to target sanctions on the perpetrators of human rights abuses. Geoffrey Robertson powerfully argues that a post-pandemic world should refuse to tolerate cruel and corrupt foreigners who currently have access to their banks and universities and their hospitals and casinos. It should become a mission for the human rights movement." - Helena Kennedy "Geoffrey Robertson has been at the forefront to introduce Magnitsky laws ... This timely book shows how democracies with similar laws can send a strong message to officials everywhere." - Kenneth Roth, Human Rights Watch "Bad People deftly illuminates a bright line from Nuremberg to Magnitsky, and what good people can and must do to fight evil in all its modern forms." - Garry Kasparov, chairman, Human Rights Foundation



Book Information
ISBN 9781785906640
Author Geoffrey Robertson
Format Hardback
Page Count 272
Imprint Biteback Publishing
Publisher Biteback Publishing