Abstract
Established as an intergovernmental organization, the International Criminal Court (the ICC or “the Court”) is specifically designed to deal with the international crimes that are thought to be most severe and serious. It has generally been observed that the commissions of those crimes had gone unpunished, making the impunity of the perpetrators a usual and ordinary practice in international relations. Although the idea that a permanent international criminal court is strongly needed, and therefore, should be created, lingered for a very long time, the realization of that idea has become quite recently.
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Notes
- 1.
The United Nations Diplomatic Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court), Rome, Italy, June 15–July 17, 1998.
- 2.
Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, U.N. Doc. A/CONF.183/9. (hereinafter “the Rome Statute”).
- 3.
William R. Pace, “A Victory for Peace,” The ICC Monitor, Issue: 21, June 2002, p. 1.
- 4.
For the list of States Parties and signatories to the Rome Statute, see, the latest issue of The ICC Monitor, available at the NGO Coalition for an ICC website: http://www.iccnow.org.
- 5.
Pace, “A Victory for Peace,” p. 1.
- 6.
Ten states concurrently deposited their accession instruments with the United Nations on April 11, 2002, increasing the number of ratifications of the Rome Statute of the ICC to 66. These ten countries are Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ireland, Jordan, Mongolia, Niger, Romania and Slovakia.
- 7.
It appears that the DRC Government officials were required to refer the situation in the country to the Court. It is claimed that the referral is “the result of the Prosecutor’s July 2003 announcement of his intention to follow closely the situation in the DRC.” The Prosecutor previously informed the Assembly of States Parties that he had the intention to seek authorization from a Pre-Trial Chamber to start an investigation in accordance with his power under the Rome Statute. Jennifer Schense, “Prosecutor Receives DRC Referral,” The ICC Monitor, Issue 27, June 2004, p. 3.
- 8.
Article 5(1) of the Rome Statute. However, the ICC will be unable to exercise its jurisdiction over the crime of aggression until a definition of that crime is adopted. Article 5(2) states, “The Court shall exercise jurisdiction over the crime of aggression once a provision is adopted in accordance with articles 121 and 123 defining the crime and setting out the conditions under which the Court shall exercise jurisdiction with respect to this crime.”
- 9.
For example, “the Rome Statute explicitly codifies for the first time many crimes of sexual and gender violence as war crimes and crimes against humanity.” Spees, supra, “Women’s Advocacy in the Creation of the International Criminal Court: Changing the Landscapes of Justice and Power,” p. 1234.
- 10.
Article 5(2) of the Rome Statute.
- 11.
Marlies Glasius, “Expertise in the Cause of Justice: Global Civil Society Influence on the Statute for an International Court,” in Marlies Glasius, Mary Kaldor and Helmut Anheier (eds.), Global Civil Society 2002 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), p. 137
- 12.
In this regard, it is commented that the ICC “has become a prominent feature of foreign policy in the world. The U.S. foreign policy on the ICC carries an array of disincentives designed to entice less powerful countries away from the Court, while European Union policy carries various incentives for ICC ratification.” See, Spees, supra, “Women’s Advocacy in the Creation of the International Criminal Court: Changing the Landscapes of Justice and Power,” p. 1247.
- 13.
Ibid.
- 14.
It is stated that the Genocide Convention has so far failed to effectively address the issue of genocide. For instance, see, Scott Straus, “Darfur and the Genocide Debate,” Foreign Affairs, Vol. 84, Issue 1, 2005, p. 122.
- 15.
Steven R. Ratner, “The International Criminal Court and the Limits of Global Judicialization,” Texas International Law Journal, Vol. 38, Issue 3, 2003, p. 446.
- 16.
It has been commented that the Court’s independence of the UN Security Council alone “has incurred the wrath of the defense and foreign policy establishment of the world’s ‘sole remaining superpower’, the United States, which is a telling indicator of the potential of the new institution as an independent mechanism of accountability.” Spees, supra, “Women’s Advocacy in the Creation of the International Criminal Court: Changing the Landscapes of Justice and Power,” p. 1233.
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Çakmak, C. (2017). Overview and Significance of the International Criminal Court (ICC). In: A Brief History of International Criminal Law and International Criminal Court. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56736-9_13
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