One hundred thirty-nine states have signed the treaty as of mid This meant that the ICC's temporal jurisdiction commenced on July 1, The resulting high quality and diverse judicial bench the judges include 7 women and represent all the regions of the world were sworn into office on March 11, , in The Hague, the seat of the court. As of July 8, , ninety-four countries have ratified the ICC treaty.
Each state party has to adopt laws that set out how the state is going to implement its obligations under the Rome Statute. Such laws cover, for example, the technicalities of the cooperation between the state and the Court, and define the crimes covered by the Rome Statute.
The Court will prosecute the most serious crimes that are of concern to the international community. These are crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. It has been proposed that the Court should prosecute the crime of aggression but the state parties have yet to agree on a definition.
Below are brief definitions of the crimes as agreed to in the Rome Statute. This definition of genocide is based on the definition found in the U. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which confirmed genocide as a crime under international law in the aftermath of the Holocaust. War crimes are grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 12 August and other serious violations of the laws and customs applicable in armed conflicts.
The Geneva Conventions are international agreements defining the rules of war. They set international standards for the protection of the civilian population and the treatment of combatants in international and internal armed conflicts.
War crimes are committed in the context of armed conflict. But most war crimes can occur in both situations. Given that foreign troops have fought on Congolese soil, the DRC conflict has both an international and an internal dimension. In northern Uganda, foreign troops have not been involved directly, and hence the war there is understood to be an internal armed conflict.
In addition to the Geneva Conventions, other violations of the laws and customs of war can also be war crimes. The Rome Statute lists a wide range of such acts. Examples include:. Under international law, such acts can be war crimes even if they are not committed as part of a systematic or widespread attack on civilians, but if they are only rare or sporadic.
However, the authority of the International Criminal Court is more limited. According to the Rome Statute, « the Court shall have jurisdiction in respect of war crimes in particular when committed as part of a plan or policy or as part of a large-scale commission of such crimes ».
When the statute of the International Criminal Court was prepared, countries could not agree on a definition of aggression as individual crime. Seven years after the entry into force of the Rome Statute in , the issue of aggression will be reviewed. If a sufficient number of states agree on a definition, it will be included in the Rome Statute, and only then could the Court prosecute crimes of aggression.
The question of aggression is of great importance to the DRC because troops from Rwanda and Uganda attacked and occupied part of the DRC for several years. The jurisdiction of the Court explicitly names a number of sexual and gender-based crimes: rape; sexual slavery; enforced prostitution; forced pregnancy; enforced sterilization; and other forms of sexual violence, gender-based persecution and enslavement, including trafficking in women and girls. These crimes constitute crimes against humanity if they are carried out as part of a systematic or widespread attack on the civilian population.
Acts of sexual violence can also be prosecuted as a war crime if they were committed in the context of, and associated with, an international or internal armed conflict.
This is the case in internal as well as international conflicts. The Rome Statute does not deal with the recruitment of children between fifteen and eighteen years.
Nonetheless, states may be prohibited from recruiting children between fifteen and eighteen years. For example, the Congolese government has signed and ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention of the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, which prohibits recruitment of children under the age of eighteen.
The Ugandan government has also acceded to the Optional Protocol, raising the legal age for recruitment to the age of eighteen. In addition it has made a binding declaration affirming eighteen as its minimum age for voluntary recruitment. The Rome Statute excludes prosecution of a person who was under the age of eighteen at the time of the alleged commission of a crime.
However, it can be a war crime to pillage, starve civilians, or destroy or seize enemy property. A leader or member of an army or armed group involved in such crimes can be prosecuted. Individuals can become criminally responsible by facilitating a crime. For example if an individual involved in economic exploitation activities facilitates a war crime, he or she can be prosecuted. Corporations cannot be prosecuted. The Court has jurisdiction over crimes committed after July 1, , i.
Crimes committed before that date cannot be prosecuted by the Court. For those crimes, other solutions need to be found, such as prosecution in the national justice system, in an ad hoc international tribunal such as the International Tribunal for Rwanda, or any other special tribunal such as the Special Court for Sierra Leone or before the courts of a third country where individuals could be prosecuted under universal jurisdiction.
If a country ratifies the Rome Statute later than July , the Court will only be able to prosecute crimes committed after the date of ratification.
The Court can prosecute crimes committed in states that are party to the Rome Statute. Uganda signed the Rome Statute on March 17, , and ratified it on June 14, Therefore crimes that have been committed after July 1, on the territory of the DRC and Uganda can be prosecuted by the Court.
Yes, in two cases. Did Switzerland miss a historic opportunity to judge a potential war criminal? It has been ten years to the day since TR Denying wartime horrors is now a criminal offence in BiH Denial of genocide and other war crimes, that is likely to incite violence or hatred, is now prohibited by law in Bosnia Enrolled as a child, raped as a teenager: Nepalese victim seeks redress at the United N Uttara a pseudonym suffered first-hand from the effects of the civil war in Nepal.
Abducted by a Maoist guerilla, she Compensation to war crimes victims in BiH, a matter of willingness Compensation for victims of war crimes is possible, as four recent examples in Bosnia and Herzegovina BiH have shown Universal jurisdiction database. Hamid Noury News releases. Democratic Republic of the Congo. Nsumbu Katende, a commander of the armed insurrection Kamuina Nsapu, was found guilty of war crimes committed in Kasai i DRC: now impunity is tackled in Kasai too Geneva, 10 March Is Bosnia turning a deaf ear to UN recommendations?
Explore International Justice. Americas November 3, News Release. October 15, Dispatches. Africa October 11, Dispatches. Videos Watch more.
Reports More reports. January 24, Report. May 17, Report. May 3, Report. November 13, Report. November 3, News Release.
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