Historic monuments and religious buildings per se as victims in the Al Mahdi case at the International Criminal Court (ICC): revisiting victimhood

In this paper, we combine anthropological and legal approaches to interrogate the position and status of “victims” during the Al Mahdi case at the International Criminal Court (ICC). Anthropological work on ontology and distributed agency provides a potential model for a broader reading of the category of victim. We then consider the war crime committed and propose an adapted application of international law sources on victimhood in order to develop a new legal-doctrinal approach that considers material objects and heritage as “direct victims” of violence and expands the range of possible “secondary victims” in ICC proceedings. (Al Mahdi, International Criminal Court, victims, historic monuments and buildings dedicated to religion).