Related Research Articles
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.
The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court is the treaty that established the International Criminal Court (ICC). It was adopted at a diplomatic conference in Rome, Italy on 17 July 1998 and it entered into force on 1 July 2002. As of November 2019, 123 states are party to the statute. Among other things, the statute establishes the court's functions, jurisdiction and structure.
Field Marshal Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir is a Sudanese former military officer, politician, and war criminal who served as the seventh head of state of Sudan under various titles from 1989 to 2019, when he was deposed in a coup d'état. He was subsequently incarcerated, tried and convicted on multiple corruption charges. He came to power in 1989 when, as a brigadier general in the Sudanese Army, he led a group of officers in a military coup that ousted the democratically elected government of prime minister Sadiq al-Mahdi after it began negotiations with rebels in the south. He was elected three times as President in elections that have been under scrutiny for electoral fraud. In 1992, al-Bashir founded the National Congress Party, which remained the dominant political party in the country until 2019. In March 2009, al-Bashir became the first sitting head of state to be indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), for allegedly directing a campaign of mass killing, rape, and pillage against civilians in Darfur. On 11 February 2020, the Sudanese government announced that it had agreed to hand over al-Bashir to the ICC for trial.
A war of aggression, sometimes also war of conquest, is a military conflict waged without the justification of self-defense, usually for territorial gain and subjugation.
International criminal law 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. This article also discusses crimes against international law, which may not be part of the body of international criminal law.
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.
So far, the International Criminal Court opened investigations in the Central African Republic, Côte d'Ivoire, Darfur, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya; Libya, Uganda, Bangladesh/Myanmar and Palestine. Additionally, the Office of the Prosecutor conducted preliminary examinations in ten situations in Afghanistan, Colombia, Guinea, Iraq / the United Kingdom, Nigeria, Georgia, Honduras, South Korea and Venezuela. Preliminary investigations were closed in Gabon, Honduras, registered vessels of Comoros, Greece, and Cambodia, South Korea, and Venezuela on events since 1 July 2002.
The United States is not a State Party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which founded the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2002 as a permanent international criminal court to "bring to justice the perpetrators of the worst crimes known to humankind – war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide", when national courts are unable or unwilling to do so.
Okot Odhiambo was a senior leader of the Lord's Resistance Army, a Ugandan rebel group which operates from Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Odhiambo was one of five people for whom the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued its first ever arrest warrants in 2005, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. In 2009, he announced his intention to defect from the LRA and return to Uganda if the government would agree not to surrender him to the ICC.
The states parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court are those sovereign states that have ratified, or have otherwise become party to, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The Rome Statute is the treaty that established the International Criminal Court, an international court that has jurisdiction over certain international crimes, including genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes that are committed by nationals of states parties or within the territory of states parties. States parties are legally obligated to co-operate with the Court when it requires, such as in arresting and transferring indicted persons or providing access to evidence and witnesses. States parties are entitled to participate and vote in proceedings of the Assembly of States Parties, which is the Court's governing body. Such proceedings include the election of such officials as judges and the Prosecutor, the approval of the Court's budget, and the adoption of amendments to the Rome Statute.
A crime of aggression is a specific type of crime where a person plans, initiates, or executes an act of aggression using state military force that violates the Charter of the United Nations. The act is judged as a violation based on its character, gravity, and scale.
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.
Fatou Bom Bensouda is a Gambian lawyer and has been a prosecutor of cases under international criminal law.
Hans-Peter Kaul was a German international law scholar and former diplomat and international judge. From 11 March 2003 until 1 July 2014, he served as Judge at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. At the ICC, Judge Kaul was President of the Pre-Trial Division from 2004 until March 2009 and again in 2014, and he was the Court's Vice-President from 2009 to 2012. In 2014, he resigned from the ICC for health reasons but his condition became worse and he died on 21 July 2014.
Luis Moreno Ocampo is an Argentine lawyer and the former first Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) (2003–2012). Previously, he played a major role in Argentina's democratic transition (1983–1991).
Amendments to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court must be proposed, adopted, and ratified in accordance with articles 121 and 122 of the Statute. Any state party to the Statute can propose an amendment. The proposed amendment can be adopted by a two-thirds majority vote in either a meeting of the Assembly of States Parties or a review conference called by the Assembly. An amendment comes into force for all states parties one year after it is ratified by seven-eighths of the states parties. However, any amendment to articles 5, 6, 7, or 8 of the Statute only enters into force for states parties that have ratified the amendment. A state party which ratifies an amendment to articles 5, 6, 7, or 8 is subject to that amendment one year after ratifying it, regardless of how many other states parties have also ratified it. For an article 5, 6, 7, or 8 amendment, the Statute itself is amended after the amendment comes into force for the first state party to ratify it. Amendments of a purely institutional nature enter into force six months after they are approved by a two-thirds majority vote in either a meeting of the Assembly of States Parties or a review conference.
The Cinema for Peace Foundation is a registered, non-profit organization based in Berlin, Germany. It supports film-based projects dealing with global humanitarian and environmental issues, and coordinates the Cinema for Peace awards.
Six judges of the International Criminal Court were elected during the 10th session of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court in New York between 12 and 21 December 2011. The judges elected, Anthony Carmona of Trinidad and Tobago, Miriam Defensor Santiago of the Philippines, Chile Eboe-Osuji of Nigeria, Robert Fremr of the Czech Republic, Olga Venecia Herrera Carbuccia of the Dominican Republic and Howard Morrison of the United Kingdom, took office on 11 March 2012.
Solome Balungi Bossa, , is a Ugandan judge on the International Criminal Court (ICC). Immediately prior to her election to the ICC, she was a member of the Court of Appeal of Uganda, which also doubles as the Constitutional Court, in the Judiciary of Uganda. She was elected to a nine-year term on 5 December 2017. She was sworn in on the court on Friday 9 March 2018. Previously she was appointed to a six-year term on the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights in 2014.
Susan Okalany is a Ugandan lawyer and judge who sits on the High Court of Uganda. Before she was appointed to the bench, she was a principal state attorney in the Directorate of Public Prosecutions.
References
- ↑ http://www.icc-cpi.int/iccdocs/asp_docs/Resolutions/RC-Decl.1-ENG.pdf Kampala Declaration, ICC-ASP/RC/Decl.1 (1 June 2010), p. 24.
