EXPLAIN THE SIGNIFICANT DEVELOPMENT OF THE ROLE OF THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT POST WORLD WAR 2

OVERVIEW OF THE ICC

Entered into force July 1st, 2002 122 parties

HISTORY

The Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals were established in the wake

of the Second World War. In 1948, when the Convention on the

Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was

adopted, the United Nations General Assembly recognized the

need for a permanent international court to deal with the kinds of

atrocities which had just been perpetrated.

However, while negotiations on the ICC Statute were underway at

the United Nations, the world was witnessing the commission of

heinous crimes in the territory of the former Yugoslavia and in

Rwanda. In response to these atrocities, the United Nations

Security Council established an ad hoc tribunal for each of these

situations.

These events undoubtedly had a most significant impact on

the decision to convene the conference which established the

ICC in Rome in the summer of 1998.

Crimes

Crimes

SeriousCrimes

Crimes

SeriousCrimes

InternationalCrimes

Crimes

SeriousCrimes

Inter-nationalCrimesGenocide

Crimes

SeriousCrimes

Inter-nationalCrimesCrimes Against

Humanity

Crimes

SeriousCrimes

Inter-nationalCrimes

War Crimes

Crimes

SeriousCrimes

Inter-nationalCrimes

Crimes of Aggression

Crimes

SeriousCrimes

Inter-nationalCrimes

The Crime of

Genocide

Crimes AgainstHumanity

War CrimesCrimes of Aggression

Exercise of Jurisdiction

ICC CASE CHECKLIST

ICC trial

Is the domestic court unable or unwilling to prosecute?

Was the case properly referred?

Is there temporal jurisdiction?

Is the crime under ICC jurisdiction? Art. 5

Art. 11

Art. 13

Art. 17

THE NEED FOR ICC

1. Attain Fairness For All.

Kofi Annan, UN Secretary : to charge

and punish accused person for crimes

such as genocide.

Assumption that the incident of the

World War II will not be repeated,

however, it happened in Cambodia and

Bosnia.

Man’s capacity for evilness has no

limits, therefore, ICC is needed to be

establish

2. End Impunity

when government incapable to act

Nuremberg Tribunal : ‘crimes against

international law are committed by men and

it can imposed by punishing individuals who

commit such crime.

Draft Code of Crimes against the Peace and

Security of Mankind : applied equally and

without exclusion to any individual

throughout the governmental organization

3. Restrictions Of The Ad Hoc Tribunals

limited to specific locations or place.

respond mainly to the incidents in

the previous

Costly and delays

capability to punish offenders of

international crimes and to deter

future offenders has been restricted

4. Deter Future War Criminals

aware of the international

tribunal before they infringe the

laws of war or humanitarian law

in past, most offenders of war

crimes and crimes against

humanity escaped from criminal

liability

THE FEATURES OF THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT

INTRODUCTION Procedure of the ICC is

administered by its Statute, and the Rules of Procedure and Evidence (RPE)

There are 18 judges in the ICC Rome Statute : All the

individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty which is beyond reasonable doubt

ICC

Presidency

Judicial

Division

Office of the

Prosecutor

Registry

PRESIDENCY 6/18 judges, respectively

serve 3 year period. The President - Utmost

senior judge who sits in the Appeals Division, together with four additional judges

JUDICIAL DIVISION

18 judges in ICC The Appeals Division, Trial

Division, Pre Trial Division

OFFICE OF THE PROSECUTOR

Duty : Accountable in carrying out investigations

and trials

Obtains referrals for cases and material on

offences

The Office contains of the Deputy Prosecutor,

the Investigations Division, and the Jurisdiction,

Complementarity and Cooperation Division.

As of June 2012, Prosecutor is Fatou Bensouda

of Gambia; designated for 9 years

REGISTRY Led by the Registrar

Chosen by the judges to a 5 years period

Accountable for the non-judicial sides of the

management and servicing of the Court of entire

divisions of the ICC; management of legal aid

issues, court management, sufferers and witnesses

issues, defence counsel, custody unit etc

Current Registrar is Herman von Hebel, who was

chosen on 8th March 2013.

ICC’S FINANCIAL DIVISIONAids from the states’ partiesSum allocated by each state party is

confirmed using the identical technique as the United Nations: each state's support is complying on the country's capability to pay, which redirects elements such as a national profits and population

WAYS TO EXAMINE A SITUATION IN ICC

a State Party of the Rome Statute refers a circumstance to the Prosecutor

UN Security Council to demand an examination of a circumstance in any State that is a member of the UN

on the Office of the Prosecutor's personal initiative.

Encouraging Support from the U.N. Security Council, covering universal jurisdiction to Human Rights Courts

There were numerous cases :

20th December 2014, the Presidency of the (ICC)

August 2014, ICC prosecutor condemned accelerating violence in Libya

25th July 2014, ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda issued a statement concerning news on accelerating military’s attacks in Libya.

The tension between peace and justice will continue to bedevil the ICC but that presently we have a very poor understanding of how it plays out.

In the face of all these difficulties, there is renewed attention to the Court’s role in encouraging domestic prosecutions.-

Neither Sudan, nor Uganda, nor Kenya, nor Libya, for example, has

seriously pursued domestic accountability efforts even as they have sought to discredit, ignore, or slide out from scrutiny by the ICC

the process of ratifying the Rome Statute has led dozens of countries to rewrite their criminal laws

the Court’s critics should reflect - If one believes in international criminal justice, surely the task must be through patient effort to make this Court succeed.

*refrain from insisting that the ICC take on more unwinnable cases. (  ICC Prosecutor has brought only 21 cases (involving some 30 defendants); only one of these cases has definitively concluded)  *the most powerful leaders could be punished for crimes of state

THE FUTURE OF ICC

1. S t a t e s c a n n o t b e r e l i e d u p o n t o b e t h e s o l e d i s p e n s e r s o f r i g h t s a n d p r o t e c t o r s o f i n d i v i d u a l s .

2. T h e i n t e r n a t i o n a l c r i m i n a l c o u r t i s t h u s t h e i d e a l v e h i c l e t o a c h i e v e t h e j u s t i c e r e q u i r e d t o a ffi r m t h e p r i d e o f a l l i n d i v i d u a l s , r e g a r d l e s s o f w h e r e t h e y m ay l i v e i n t h e w o r l d .

3. I t h a s t h e p o t e n t i a l t o e n f o r c e t h e n o r m s a n d t h u s c o n t r i b u t e t o t h e s t a b i l i t y o f t h e w o r l d b y fi l l i n g t h e v a c u u m c r e a t e d b y w e a k , f a i l i n g a n d f a i l e d s t a t e s .

4. The International Criminal Court has never tried or

convicted a State official and the majority of its cases concern those who are in charge or part of

rebel groupings.

5. The investigation by the International Criminal Court in a number of situations concerning non-state actors indicates that this trend will continue for a sustained period of time: it represents the new paradigm, rather than an exceptional circumstance.

6. The provision in the Rome Statute for such prosecutions is key, but not as central as the initial judgments of the Court, which offer a novel opportunity to use the jurisprudence of the Court to inform and guide future decisions.

7. This can be attributed to the change in focus of the Court, and of the discipline of international criminal law as a whole.

8. This focus on non-state actors demonstrates the potential for a future of enhanced protection against those who choose to act aggressively against civilian populations regardless of whether or not they are linked to a State.

9. It also demonstrates the Court’s increasing harmony with the provisions of international humanitarian law and international human rights law.

10.The work of the previous international criminal tribunals, prosecuting serious violations of the laws of war, has come to fruition through the prosecutorial policy of the International Criminal Court.

11.International criminal law as a discipline has continued to expand and its expansion inspires a greater focus on individual rights. The most interesting part of this expansion is the realisation that protection trumps the discipline.

CRITICISM OF THE ICC

Lack of oversight, checks & balances Selectivity Sovereignty concerns Makes peace process more difficult

CONCLUSION

What checks are there on the ICC’s power? Is the ICC biased against Africa? Does the ICC infringe on sovereignty? Is the ICC doing its job deterring int’l crimes?