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International Criminal Court (Rome Statute of the)


Self Description

August 2002: "An international criminal court has been called the missing link in the international legal system. The International Court of Justice at The Hague handles only cases between States, not individuals. Without an international criminal court for dealing with individual responsibility as an enforcement mechanism, acts of genocide and egregious violations of human rights often go unpunished. In the last 50 years, there have been many instances of crimes against humanity and war crimes for which no individuals have been held accountable. In Cambodia in the 1970s, an estimated 2 million people were killed by the Khmer Rouge. In armed conflicts in Mozambique, Liberia, El Salvador and other countries, there has been tremendous loss of civilian life, including horrifying numbers of unarmed women and children. Massacres of civilians continue in Algeria and the Great Lakes region of Africa." http://www.un.org/law/icc/general/overview.htm

Third-Party Descriptions

November 2012: "A major concern for the Americans is that the Palestinians may use their new status to try to join the International Criminal Court. That prospect particularly worries the Israelis, who fear that the Palestinians may press for an investigation of their practices in the occupied territories widely viewed as violations of international law."

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/30/world/middleeast/Palestinian-Authority-United-Nations-Israel.html

July 2011: "Women, of course, bear the main brunt of wartime sexual violence—as they always have. Last December, my CFR colleague Mark Lagon hosted a sobering meeting with the eminent legal scholar and activist Catharine MacKinnon. Now the special gender adviser to the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, Mackinnon in 2000 argued the path-breaking legal case Kadic vs. Karadzic — about mass Serbian rape of Bosnian women — which for the first time established mass rape as an act of genocide."

http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2011/07/20/stopping-wartime-sexual-abuse-of-men

June 2011: "• Call for the arrest and extradition of Ahmed Haroun to the International Criminal Court, noting that he is responsible for the deaths of far more people than President Qaddafi of Libya, and call for him to be dismissed immediately as Governor of South Kordafan;"

http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/18/is-omar-hassan-al-bashir-up-to-genocide-again/

July 2008: "Some U.N. officials suspect the operation was intended to serve as a warning to U.N. peacekeepers and humanitarian workers of Sudan's intent to use deadly force if the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court targeted the country's leader. On Wednesday, those fears were heightened after a Nigerian company commander was killed by unidentified assailants in the town of Forobaranga in West Darfur."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/19/AR2008071901608.html

July 2008: "DAKAR, Senegal — Thousands of people took to the streets of Sudan’s tense capital on Sunday in a carefully choreographed protest against the expected request by the International Criminal Court to arrest President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on war crimes charges."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/14/world/africa/14sudan.html

July 2008: "Judges at the International Criminal Court on Wednesday ordered the release of the court's first defendant, a Congolese warlord charged with the coercive recruitment of thousands of child soldiers, saying he could not receive a fair trial due to withheld evidence."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/02/AR2008070202893.html

May 2007: The International Criminal Court's prosecutor launched an investigation Tuesday into complaints of rape, sexual cruelty and other abuses committed in the Central African Republic, notably in 2002 and 2003, a period of intense fighting between government and rebel forces.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/22/AR2007052201384.html

February 2007: The International Criminal Court in The Hague considers the use of children younger than 15 in armed conflicts a war crime and announced last week that Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga Dyilo will be tried on charges of recruiting child soldiers as young as 10.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/06/AR2007020601619.html

January 2007: The International Criminal Court ruled Monday that Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, charged with recruiting child soldiers as young as 10 and sending them into battle, will be the first defendant to face trial at the newly established court.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/29/AR2007012901586.html

October 2005: Mendez also told reporters that governments have an obligation to cooperate with the International Criminal Court, which has begun an investigation into alleged war crimes in Darfur. The United States opposes the Hague-based court, which it believes may conduct politically motivated investigations into U.S. military actions. Congress has also passed legislation that limits U.S. cooperation with the court.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/10/AR2005101001317.html

June 2005: Thrust this week into its highest-profile case to date, the fledgling International Criminal Court (ICC) faces both enormous opportunities and risks as Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo launches an investigation into possible war crimes in the Sudanese region of Darfur. At stake is not only the provision of justice to the victims of violence there, which has left at least 180,000 dead and nearly two million homeless, but the very future of international justice. The case, analysts say, crosses a new threshold, since for the first time investigators will be working uninvited by the local government and against its will.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-06-09-darfur-icc-csm_x.htm

Relationships

RoleNameTypeLast Updated
Advised by (past or present) Prof. Catharine A. MacKinnon Ph.D., Esq. Person Jun 27, 2011
Organization Executive (past or present) Navanethem "Navi" Pillay Person Dec 10, 2010

Articles and Resources

32 Articles and Resources. Go to:  [Next 12]

Date Fairness.com Resource Read it at:
Dec 05, 2012 Rape is shredding Syria's social fabric

QUOTE: Honor killings, forced marriages and divorce are just a few of the ways shame is destroying lives in Syria. There is also suicide when the shame becomes too much to bear....The unending "dishonor" and manipulation of Syrians through sexualized violence is committed by all sides, although the majority of our reports indicate government perpetrators.

 CNN (Cable News Network)
Nov 29, 2012 U.N. Assembly, in Blow to U.S., Elevates Status of Palestine

QUOTE: More than 130 countries voted on Thursday to upgrade Palestine to a nonmember observer state of the United Nations....The new status will give the Palestinians more tools to challenge Israel in international legal forums for its occupation activities in the West Bank, including settlement-building...

 New York Times
Jul 20, 2011 Stopping wartime sexual abuse - of men

QUOTE: the United Nations (UN) and international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) “barely acknowledge” the pervasive sexual violence against men that occurs in modern war....of roughly 4,000 NGOs addressing wartime sexual violence, only 3% mentioned male victims (and usually only in passing).

 CNN (Cable News Network)
Jun 18, 2011 Is Omar Hassan al-Bashir Up to Genocide Again?

QUOTE: As is the case in most violent conflicts across the globe, civilians (men, women, children babies, elderly) suffer most grievously. This is particularly true in Sudan because of Bashir’s propensity for targeting an entire population of a region and not just those engaged in fighting his troops.

 New York Times
Nov 19, 2009 Democracy under threat: Congo's constitution

QUOTE: In the past three years the 38-year-old president [of Congo, Joseph Kabila] has shown increasingly little interest in living up to the democratic promise that impressed the West when he won at the polls in 2006.

 Economist
Aug 13, 2009 Unleashing the laws of war: The Geneva conventions at 60

QUOTE: some inevitably question whether the Geneva conventions and their later protocols are really suited to today’s conflicts.

 Economist
Jun 25, 2009 Global reach of Spain's courts curtailed: Spanish parliament passes law to limit judges from taking cases of torture or war crimes in other countries. Is this a blow for universal justice?

QUOTE: Spanish courts, the last holdout for trying crimes committed anywhere in the world, will now limit their reach...A joint press release from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the UGT trade union stated, "Spain is more concerned with not offending some powerful governments than with ending the impunity that criminals benefit from."

 Christian Science Monitor
Mar 16, 2009 Kidnapping aid workers: part of Sudan's strategy? Three Western aid workers were released Saturday. The government denies involvement but some analysts see a broader strategy at work.

QUOTE: A rebel leader and analysts say the kidnapping and recent expulsion of 13 aid groups are part of a [Sudanese] government strategy to scare away remaining aid workers and break up camps housing Sudanese civilians who have fled the war.

 Christian Science Monitor
Jul 20, 2008 Indictment of Sudanese Leader Seen as Threat to Peacekeepers

QUOTE: Some U.N. officials suspect the operation was intended to serve as a warning to U.N. peacekeepers and humanitarian workers of Sudan's intent to use deadly force if the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court targeted the country's leader.

 Washington Post
Jul 13, 2008 Sudanese Protest War Crimes Case Against President at Scripted Rally in Capital

QUOTE: Thousands of people took to the streets of Sudan’s tense capital on Sunday in a carefully choreographed protest against the expected request by the International Criminal Court to arrest President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on war crimes charges. Students and members of the ruling National Congress Party were bused to the center of the capital, Khartoum, where they waved banners denouncing the international court and the United Nations.

 New York Times
Jul 10, 2008 The Pursuit of Justice vs. the Pursuit of Peace (Memo From Africa)

QUOTE: But the complexity and fragility of Sudan’s multiple conflicts have led many diplomats, analysts and aid workers to worry that the Sudanese government could lash out at the prosecutor’s move by expelling Western diplomats and relief workers who provide aid to millions of people displaced by the fighting, provoking a vast crisis and shutting the door to vital diplomatic efforts to bring lasting peace. The dueling objectives have exposed a growing tension: between justice and peace, that is, between the prosecution of war criminals and the compromises of diplomacy.

 New York Times
Jul 03, 2008 Congolese Accused of Recruiting Child Soldiers Ordered Set Free

QUOTE: Judges at the International Criminal Court on Wednesday ordered the release of the court's first defendant, a Congolese warlord charged with the coercive recruitment of thousands of child soldiers, saying he could not receive a fair trial due to withheld evidence.

 Washington Post
May 23, 2007 Court Examines Alleged Abuses in Central African Republic

QUOTE: "These victims are calling for justice," Moreno-Ocampo said, adding that many of them are now shunned by their families and communities. The court will look into crimes committed during continuing hostilities in parts of the country.

 Washington Post
Apr 30, 2007 Why genocide is difficult to prosecute: Protesters in 35 nations and more than 280 US cities rallied Sunday for protecting those being killed in the Darfur war.

QUOTE: The word genocide raises deep legal and moral conundrums in a globalizing world, experts say: The term has gained popular usage in a media age to describe mass atrocities, as in Darfur, Rwanda, Bosnia. Yet prosecutors and world courts are ever more cautious about leveling the charge, even when it may apply – since it raises a requirement to intervene.

 Christian Science Monitor
Feb 28, 2007 World court's big move on Darfur: The International Criminal Court indicted a key Sudanese official and a janjaweed leader Tuesday.

QUOTE: The naming of Ahmed Haroun, a former deputy interior minister, and a janjaweed leader known as Ali Kushayb, is considered a bold move for the young ICC and its chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo. Despite Sudan's rejection of the indictments, most experts hailed them as an international censure that could help end the four-year-old crisis that has killed more than 200,000 people, and displaced more than 2 million.

 Christian Science Monitor
Feb 07, 2007 U.S. Declines to Join Accord on Secret Detentions: 58 Nations Sign Separate Pact On Child Soldiers

QUOTE: Representatives from 57 countries on Tuesday signed a long-negotiated treaty prohibiting governments from holding people in secret detention. The United States declined to endorse the document, saying its text did not meet U.S. expectations.

 Washington Post
Jan 30, 2007 Court Orders Trial for Congolese Warlord Accused of Conscripting Children

QUOTE: The International Criminal Court ruled Monday that Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, charged with recruiting child soldiers as young as 10 and sending them into battle, will be the first defendant to face trial at the newly established court.

 Washington Post
Jan 02, 2007 The Way We Live Now: Not the Case

QUOTE: The often circuslike atmosphere of [Hussein's] trial, as well as the murder of three defense lawyers, led groups like Human Rights Watch to condemn the tribunal as flawed and illegitimate.... Since its inception, the tribunal has been haunted by a fundamental problem that bedevils the new Iraqi government more generally: the nature and origin of its authority.

 New York Times
Apr 02, 2006 If Not Peace, Then Justice

QUOTE: ...now the International Criminal Court has begun its investigations into the mass murders and crimes against humanity that have been committed, and are still taking place, in the Darfur region of Sudan.

 New York Times
Oct 11, 2005 Militia Violence Escalating In Darfur, U.N. Envoy Says

QUOTE: Khartoum has not abided by a long-standing Security Council order to establish a "plan to disarm" the Sudanese-backed Arab militiamen, who stand accused of driving more than 2 million tribal Africans from their homes since 2003.

 Washington Post

32 Articles and Resources. Go to:  [Next 12]