In the past decades, great strides have been made to ensure that crimes against humanity and state-sponsored organized violence are not committed with impunity. Alongside states, large international organizations such as the United Nations and forums such as the International Criminal Court, 'de facto international prosecutors' have emerged to address these crimes. Acting as investigators and evidence-gathers to identify individuals and officials engaged in serious human rights violations, these 'private' non-state actors, and state legal 'officials' in a foreign court, pursue criminal accountability for those most responsible for core international crimes. They do so when local options to investigate fail and an international criminal tribunal remains unavailable. This study outlines three case studies of witnesses and victims who pursue those most responsible, including former heads of state. It examines their practices and strategies, and shows how witnesses and victims of core crimes emerge as key leaders in the accountability process.

'Melinda Rankin supplies the answer to those who fear that we are in the end times of human rights: atrocity crime survivors allied with experienced investigators, building successful prosecutions against the perpetrators in foreign courts based on a body of law increasingly recognised as binding on all the world.'

Stephen J. Rapp - Former US Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice (2009-2015)

'A timely book, enhancing our understanding of how the international criminal justice process can sometimes overcome considerable structural barriers in a global society. Not only conceptually innovative, but gripping and eye-opening in its case studies.'

Mattias Kumm - Inge Rennert Professor of Law at New York University Law School, and Professor of Global Public Law at Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB)

‘This one-of-a-kind book is a gem. Based on rich biographical inquiry, it sheds light on how international justice can emerge bottom-up from the actions of victims and witnesses of crimes against humanity. Self-organized as communities of practice, these informal actors learned from precedents, adopted legal practices, and played the role of 'de-facto international prosecutors,' thus driving perpetrators of international crimes to become accountable in foreign courts. Rankin’s With My Own Eyes should be required reading for anyone interested in international criminal law, human rights, legal history, global governance, and International Relations theory, particularly international practice theory.’

Emanuel Adler - Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Bronfman Chair of Israeli Studies, Emeritus,University of Toronto

‘The story of international criminal justice is typically told as a very public one. But behind the scenes, prosecutions languish or come to life often thanks to the solitary quests of ‘private prosecutors’. Melinda Rankin’s book tells a formidably intriguing story, one in which victims and witnesses are not merely the beneficiaries of international criminal justice but, in fact, its backbone. It reinstates the power of the biographical in highlighting the larger than life trajectories without which international criminal justice would flounder. Compelling reading for political scientists and international lawyers alike, ‘de facto international prosecutors’ breaks new ground at every turn.’

Frédéric Mégret - Professor of Law at McGill University, Co-director of the Centre for Human Rights, and Legal Pluralism William Dawson Scholar