Objectives
AMICC is a coalition of non-governmental organizations committed to achieving full United States support for the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the earliest possible US ratification of the Court's Rome Statute.
The Coalition supports and promotes grassroots activity in support of the Court, including the formation of local alliances of individuals and organizations whose interests will be served and advanced by the ICC and by a positive US relationship with it. The member organizations include bar associations, women's groups, human rights organizations, religious organizations, veterans' groups, victims organizations, students and young adults, and others. These organizations may have sharply differing views on other political and social issues, but hold that the ICC expresses and implements values traditionally championed by the United States, including international justice and the rule of law. Together they work effectively to promote a Court which implements their common intense opposition to international atrocities and to holding accountable those most responsible for them.
The Faith and Ethics Network for the ICC
The United States Faith and Ethics Network for the International Criminal Court (US FENICC) is a coalition of religious and interfaith NGOs that examine the moral, ethical and religious considerations surrounding the Court. Religious organizations have a special role to play in raising awareness at the grassroots level and helping to shape the ICC. The Network promotes the ICC by disseminating information about the Court to respective religious, ecumenical, and ethical communities. To inform others about some of the moral, ethical and religious considerations involved in the ICC, the Network holds frequent group meetings and plans events that will bring these issues to the attention of a wider audience. The issues that the group raises and decides upon will impact the role the court will play and the way it is perceived around the world. The following issues are among those that have been and will be discussed by the working group in their meetings as well as in their open events and dialogues: moral, ethical and theological imperatives and the importance of the ICC as a powerful representation of these values; moral, political and ethical dimensions of impunity, reconciliation, and long term peace building; individual and collective healing in society; redressive justice relationships between confession, repentance, compensation and forgiveness issues of psychological and spiritual rehabilitation.
Current member organizations
- Al-Khoei Foundation
- American Humanist Association
- Baha'is of the United States
- Church World Service
- Conference of Major Superiors of Men
- Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
- Fellowship of Reconciliation
- Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights of the American Jewish Committee
- The Loretto Community
- Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns
- National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA
- National Service Conference of the American Ethical Union
- Presbyterian Church, USA
- Religious of the Sacred Heart
- Soka Gakkai International
- Temple of Understanding
- Unitarian Universalist Association
- General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church
- World Council of Churches
Human rights are moral principles or norms for certain standards of human behaviour and are regularly protected in municipal and international law. They are commonly understood as inalienable, fundamental rights "to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being" and which are "inherent in all human beings", regardless of their age, ethnic origin, location, language, religion, ethnicity, or any other status. They are applicable everywhere and at every time in the sense of being universal, and they are egalitarian in the sense of being the same for everyone. They are regarded as requiring empathy and the rule of law and imposing an obligation on persons to respect the human rights of others, and it is generally considered that they should not be taken away except as a result of due process based on specific circumstances.
The International Criminal Court is an intergovernmental organization and international tribunal that sits in The Hague, Netherlands. The ICC is the first and only permanent international court with jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for the international crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression. It is intended to complement existing national judicial systems, and it may, therefore, exercise its jurisdiction only when national courts are unwilling or unable to prosecute criminals. The ICC lacks universal territorial jurisdiction and may only investigate and prosecute crimes committed within member states, crimes committed by nationals of member states, or crimes in situations referred to the Court by the United Nations Security Council.
Secular humanism, often simply called humanism, is a philosophy or life stance that embraces human reason, secular ethics, and philosophical naturalism while specifically rejecting religious dogma, supernaturalism, and superstition as the basis of morality and decision making.
Ethical codes are adopted by organizations to assist members in understanding the difference between right and wrong and in applying that understanding to their decisions. An ethical code generally implies documents at three levels: codes of business ethics, codes of conduct for employees, and codes of professional practice.
Alliance for Justice(AFJ) is a progressive judicial advocacy group in the United States. Founded in 1979 by former president Nan Aron, AFJ monitors federal judicial appointments. AFJ represents a coalition of 100 politically liberal groups that have an interest in the federal judiciary. The Alliance for Justice presents a liberal viewpoint on legal issues.
Lyal S. Sunga is a well-known specialist on international human rights law, international humanitarian law and international criminal law.
Gregory H. Stanton is the former Research Professor in Genocide Studies and Prevention at the George Mason University in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. He is best known for his work in the area of genocide studies. He is the founder and president of Genocide Watch, the founder and director of the Cambodian Genocide Project, and the Chair of the Alliance Against Genocide. From 2007 to 2009 he was the President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars.
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, formerly called the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, is an umbrella group of American civil rights interest groups.
The Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC) is an international network of NGOs, with a membership of over 2,500 organizations worldwide advocating for a fair, effective and independent International Criminal Court (ICC). Coalition NGO members work in partnership to strengthen international cooperation with the ICC; ensure that the court is fair, effective and independent; make justice both visible and universal, and advance stronger national laws that deliver justice to victims of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. The CICC Secretariat is hosted by the World Federalist Movement-Institute for Global Policy (WFM-IGP) and has offices in New York City, near the United Nations (UN), and in The Hague, The Netherlands. Additionally, the CICC has regional offices in Belgium, and Peru.
José "Pepe" Zalaquett Daher was a Chilean lawyer, renowned for his work in the defence of human rights during the de facto regime that governed Chile under General Augusto Pinochet from 1973 to 1990.
William Anthony Schabas, OC is a Canadian academic specialising in international criminal and human rights law. He is professor of international law at Middlesex University in the United Kingdom, professor of international human law and human rights at Leiden University in the Netherlands, and an internationally respected expert on human rights law, genocide and the death penalty. Schabas has been described as "the world expert on the law of genocide and international law."
Fatou Bom Bensouda is a Gambian lawyer and former Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC). She served as Prosecutor from June 2012 to June 2021, after having served as a Deputy Prosecutor in charge of the Prosecutions Division of the ICC from 2004 to 2012. Before that she was Minister of Justice and Attorney General of The Gambia from 1998 to 2000. She has also held positions as a legal adviser and a trial attorney at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).
Felice D. Gaer is an American human rights defender and advocate. She has worked on human rights matters and was a longstanding member and the former chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. She is a member of the US National Commission to UNESCO.
John L. Washburn is the Convener for the American Non-Governmental Organizations Coalition for the International Criminal Court (AMICC) and Co-Chair of the Washington Working Group on the International Criminal Court (WICC). In addition, Washburn is an Adjunct Research Scholar for the International Criminal Court Program at the Columbia University Institute for the Study of Human Rights.
Leila Nadya Sadat is the James Carr Professor of International Criminal Law at Washington University School of Law and the former Director of the Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute. She has served as Special Advisor on Crimes Against Humanity to Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda of the International Criminal Court since December 12, 2012. Sadat is the Director of The Crimes Against Humanity Initiative, a multi-year project to study the problem of crimes against humanity and draft a comprehensive convention addressing their punishment and prevention. She has spearheaded the international effort to establish this new global convention. In 2012 Sadat was elected to membership in the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations, and in 2018 was elected as the President of the American Branch of the International Law Association for a two-year term in October 2018.
The Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute at Washington University School of Law, established in 2000 as the Institute for Global Legal Studies, serves as a center for instruction and research in international and comparative law.
