Real Crime/Paranormal/Conspiracy Theories Book III

International Criminal Court (ICC[t]) Part I

The International Criminal Court(ICC or ICCt) is an intergovernmental organization and internationaltribunal that sits in The Hague, Netherlands. The ICC is the firstand only permanent international court with jurisdiction to prosecuteindividuals for the international crimes of genocide, crimes againsthumanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression. It is intended tocomplement existing national judicial systems, and it may, therefore,exercise its jurisdiction only when national courts are unwilling orunable to prosecute criminals. The ICC lacks universal territorialjurisdiction and may only investigate and prosecute crimes committedwithin member states, crimes committed by nationals of member states,or crimes in situations referred to the Court by the United NationsSecurity Council.

The ICC began operations on 1 July2002, upon the entry into force of the Rome Statute, a multilateraltreaty that serves as the court's foundational and governingdocument. States which become party to the Rome Statute becomemembers of the ICC, serving on the Assembly of States Parties, whichadministers the court. As of December 2020, there are 123 ICC memberstates; 42 states have neither signed nor become parties to the RomeStatute.

The ICC has four principal organs: thePresidency, the Judicial Divisions, the Office of the Prosecutor andthe Registry. The President is the most senior judge chosen by his orher peers in the Judicial Division, which hears cases before theCourt. The Office of the Prosecutor is headed by the Prosecutor whoinvestigates crimes and initiates criminal proceedings before theJudicial Division. The Registry is headed by the Registrar and ischarged with managing all the administrative functions of the ICC,including the headquarters, detention unit, and public defenseoffice.

The Office of the Prosecutor has openedtwelve official investigations and is also conducting an additionalnine preliminary examinations. Thus far, 45 individuals have beenindicted in the ICC, including Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony,former President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan, President Uhuru Kenyatta ofKenya, Libyan revolutionary Muammar Gaddafi, President Laurent Gbagboof Ivory Coast and former Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba of theDemocratic Republic of the Congo. The ICC has faced a number ofcriticisms from states and society, including objections about itsjurisdiction, accusations of bias, questioning of the fairness of itscase-selection and trial procedures, as well as doubts about itseffectiveness.

History

The establishment of an internationaltribunal to judge political leaders accused of international crimeswas first proposed during the Paris Peace Conference in 1919following the First World War by the Commission of Responsibilities. The issue was addressed again at a conference held in Geneva underthe auspices of the League of Nations in 1937, which resulted in theconclusion of the first convention stipulating the establishment of apermanent international court to try acts of international terrorism.The convention was signed by 13 states, but none ratified it and theconvention never entered into force.

Following the Second World War, theallied powers established two ad hoc tribunals to prosecute Axisleaders accused of war crimes. The International Military Tribunal,which sat in Nuremberg, prosecuted German leaders while theInternational Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo prosecutedJapanese leaders. In 1948 the United Nations General Assembly firstrecognized the need for a permanent international court to deal withatrocities of the kind prosecuted after the Second World War. At therequest of the General Assembly, the International Law Commission(ILC) drafted two statutes by the early 1950s but these were shelvedduring the Cold War, which made the establishment of an internationalcriminal court politically unrealistic.