The International Criminal Court is an intergovernmental organization and international tribunal seated in The Hague,Netherlands. It 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. The ICC is distinct from the International Court of Justice,an organ of the United Nations that hears disputes between states.
Elizabeth Odio Benito is a lawyer and politician from Costa Rica. She served as President in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights from 2018 to 2020. She was a Vice-President of the International Criminal Court. She previously served as a judge on the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia,and in her home country of Costa Rica was twice appointed Justice Minister,later becoming Vice-President of the Republic. Her background is as an academic lawyer,specialising in the administration of justice and human rights,in particular the rights of women.
International criminal law (ICL) is a body of public international law designed to prohibit certain categories of conduct commonly viewed as serious atrocities and to make perpetrators of such conduct criminally accountable for their perpetration. The core crimes under international law are genocide,war crimes,crimes against humanity,and the crime of aggression.
Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo is a politician in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). After he served as Deputy Prime Minister of Defense 2023 to 2024,he was moved to the Deputy Prime Minister of Transportation. He was previously one of four vice-presidents in the transitional government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 17 July 2003 to December 2006. He led the Movement for the Liberation of the Congo (MLC),a rebel group turned political party. He received the second-highest number of votes in the 2006 presidential election. In January 2007,he was elected to the Senate.
Thomas Lubanga Dyilo is a convicted war criminal from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the first person ever convicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC). He founded and led the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC) and was a key player in the Ituri conflict (1999–2007). Rebels under his command have been accused of massive human rights violations,including ethnic massacres,murder,torture,rape,mutilation,and forcibly conscripting child soldiers.
The International Criminal Court has opened investigations in Afghanistan,the Central African Republic,Côte d'Ivoire,Darfur in Sudan,the Democratic Republic of the Congo,Kenya,Libya,Uganda,Bangladesh/Myanmar,Palestine,the Philippines,and Venezuela. Additionally,the Office of the Prosecutor conducted preliminary examinations in situations in Bolivia,Colombia,Guinea,Iraq / the United Kingdom,Nigeria,Georgia,Honduras,South Korea,Ukraine and Venezuela. Preliminary investigations were closed in Gabon;Honduras;registered vessels of Comoros,Greece,and Cambodia;South Korea;and Colombia on events since 1 July 2002.
Dominic Ongwen is a Ugandan former child soldier and former commander of one of the brigades of the Ugandan guerrilla group Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).
Christine,Baroness Van den Wyngaert is a Belgian jurist and judge. She served as international and comparative criminal law expert from 2009 to 2018 as a judge on the International Criminal Court. She served in the Trial Division Chamber. On 8 July 2013,Van den Wyngaert was ennobled by King Albert II of Belgium as a baroness for her services as a judge. From 2003 to 2005 she was a Judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia,and from 2000 to 2002 an ad hoc judge on the International Court of Justice.
Marc Perrin de Brichambaut is a French career judge and diplomat. From 2011 to 2015 he was the Secretary General of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe,and from 2015 to 2024 he was a judge at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.
Germain Katanga,also known as Simba,is a former leader of the Patriotic Resistance Force in Ituri (FRPI),an armed group in the Ituri Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). On 17 October 2007,the Congolese authorities surrendered him to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to stand trial on six counts of war crimes and three counts of crimes against humanity. The charges include murder,sexual slavery,rape,destruction of property,pillaging,willful killing,and directing crimes against civilians.
Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui is a colonel in the Congolese army and a former senior commander of the National Integrationist Front (FNI) and the Patriotic Resistance Force in Ituri (FRPI).
Bosco Ntaganda is a convicted war criminal and the former military chief of staff of the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP),an armed militia group operating in the North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). He is a former member of the Rwandan Patriotic Army and allegedly a former Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Patriotic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (FPLC),the military wing of the Union of Congolese Patriots.
Ekaterina Trendafilova is a Bulgarian lawyer and judge with international and domestic experience. She is currently serving as the first President of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers –a position to which she was appointed in December 2016 for a four-year term and took her office on 12 January 2017.
The International Criminal Court investigation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo or the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is an ongoing investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC) into crimes committed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) during the Second Congo War and its aftermath,including the Ituri and Kivu conflicts. The war started in 1998 and despite a peace agreement between combatants in 2003,conflict continued in the eastern parts of the country for several years. In April 2004 the government of the DRC formally referred the situation in the Congo to the International Criminal Court,and in June 2004,prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo,formally opened an investigation. To date,arrest warrants have been issued for:
Olga Venecia Herrera Carbuccia is a Dominican jurist who served as a judge of the International Criminal Court (ICC) from 2012 to 2021.
Antoine Kesia-Mbe Mindua is a Congolese lawyer who is currently a judge of the International Criminal Court. He was previously a judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
Chung Chang-ho is a South Korean judge who has been serving as a judge of the International Criminal Court (ICC) since 2015. His nine-year term ended in March 2024,but he is continuing in office pursuant to Article 36 (10) of the Rome Statute to complete the trial of Alfred Yekatom and Patrice-Edouard Ngaïssona. He is the second South Korean to serve on the Court,following former president Song Sang-hyun.
International and national courts outside Syria have begun the prosecution of Syrian civil war criminals. War crimes perpetrated by the Syrian government or rebel groups include extermination,murder,rape or other forms of sexual violence,torture and imprisonment. "[A]ccountability for serious violations of international humanitarian law and human rights is central to achieving and maintaining durable peace in Syria",stated UN Under-Secretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo.
The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC),Fatou Bensouda,on 20 December 2019 announced an investigation into war crimes allegedly committed in Palestine by members of the Israeli military or Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups since 13 June 2014.
