Limits to Prosecutorial Discretion: The ICC Prosecutor’s Deprioritisation Decision in Afghanistan
[Nada Kiswanson has represented Afghan victims in proceedings before the International Criminal Court in the Situation in Afghanistan since 2019.] On 27 September 2021, Prosecutor Karim A. Khan decided to focus “investigations in Afghanistan on crimes allegedly committed by the Taliban and the Islamic State – Khorasan Province ("IS-K") and to deprioritise other aspects of this investigation” (“Deprioritisation Decision”). Extraordinarily, he did not identify the “other...