{"id":4228,"date":"2010-07-08T06:50:13","date_gmt":"2010-07-08T10:50:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/?p=4228"},"modified":"2010-07-08T22:26:17","modified_gmt":"2010-07-09T02:26:17","slug":"the-international-criminal-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/2010\/07\/08\/the-international-criminal-court\/","title":{"rendered":"the International Criminal Court&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p align=\"justify\">In February, after hearing the testimony at the <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.iraqinquiry.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Chilcot Inquiry<\/a><\/strong>, I reported on the <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.iccnow.org\/\" target=\"_blank\"><font color=\"#200020\">Coalition for International Criminal Court<\/font><\/a><\/strong>, something I&#8217;d never ever heard of [<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/wp-admin\/..\/index.php\/2010\/02\/01\/4-iraq-and-the-un-security-council-the-icc\/\"><strong>Iraq and the UN Security Council: the ICC?<\/strong><\/a>]. Here&#8217;s a piece of what I wrote then:<\/p>\n<table width=\"95%\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"5\" border=\"0\" align=\"center\">\n<tr>\n<td>\n<div align=\"justify\">&#8230; there&#8217;s a <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/International_Criminal_Court\"><strong>second World Court<\/strong><\/a> [<strong><font color=\"#200020\">International  Criminal Court<\/font><\/strong>] brought to my attention in the Chilcot  Inquiry by the testimony of <strong>Ms. Elizabeth Wilmshurst<\/strong>:<\/div>\n<ul>\n<div align=\"justify\"><sup>The <font color=\"#200020\"><strong>International  Criminal Court<\/strong><\/font> [commonly referred to as the <strong>ICC<\/strong> or <strong>ICCt]  <\/strong>is a permanent tribunal to prosecute individuals for genocide,  crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression  [although it cannot currently exercise jurisdiction over the crime of  aggression]&#8230;<\/sup><\/div>\n<p><sup>The  establishment of an international tribunal to judge political leaders  accused of war crimes was first made during the Paris Peace Conference  in 1919 by the Commission of Responsibilities. The issue was addressed  again at conference held in Geneva under the auspices of the League of  Nations on November 1-16, 1937, but no practical results followed. In  1948, following the Nuremberg and Tokyo Tribunals, the United Nations  General Assembly recognized the need for a permanent international court  to deal with atrocities of the kind committed during World War II. At  the request of the General Assembly, the International Law Commission  drafted two statutes by the early 1950s but these were shelved as the  Cold War made the establishment of an international criminal court  politically unrealistic.<\/sup>                                          <\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\"><sup>Benjamin B. Ferencz, an investigator of Nazi war  crimes after World War II and the Chief Prosecutor for the United States  Army at the Einsatzgruppen Trial, one of the twelve military trials  held by the U.S. authorities at Nuremberg, later became a vocal advocate  of the establishment of an international rule of law and of an  International Criminal Court. In his first book published in 1975,  entitled <em>Defining International Aggression-The Search for World Peace<\/em>,  he argued for the establishment of such an international court.<\/sup><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\"><sup>The idea  was revived in 1989 when A. N. R. Robinson, then Prime Minister of  Trinidad and Tobago, proposed the creation of a permanent international  court to deal with the illegal drug trade. While work began on a draft  statute, the international community established <em>ad hoc<\/em> tribunals  to try war crimes in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, further  highlighting the need for a permanent international criminal court.<\/sup><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\"><sup>Following  years of negotiations, the General Assembly convened a conference in  Rome in June 1998, with the aim of finalising a treaty. On 17 July 1998,  the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court was adopted by a  vote of 120 to 7, with 21 countries abstaining. <strong><font color=\"#200020\">The  seven countries that voted against the treaty were China, Iraq, Israel,  Libya, Qatar, the United States, and Yemen<\/font><\/strong>.<\/sup><\/p>\n<div align=\"justify\"><sup>The Rome Statute became a binding  treaty on 11 April 2002, when the number of countries that had ratified  it reached 60. The Statute legally came into force on 1 July 2002, and  the ICC can only prosecute crimes committed after that date. The first  bench of 18 judges was elected by an Assembly of States Parties in  February 2003. They were sworn in at the inaugural session of the court  on 1 March 2003. The court issued its first arrest warrants on 8 July  2005, and the first pre-trial hearings were held in 2006.<\/sup><\/div>\n<\/ul>\n<div align=\"justify\">The <strong><font color=\"#200020\">ICC<\/font><\/strong>  is a huge topic, worthy of investigating thoroughly. This court is an  attempt to resolve the questions raised by the nebulousness of  international law and the absence of any real court of final resort,  particularly with things like genocide and war. As you can see it was  opposed by those traditional allies &#8211; <strong><font color=\"#200020\">China,  Iraq, Israel, Libya, Qatar,<\/font> <font color=\"#990000\">the United  States<\/font>, and <font color=\"#200020\">Yemen<\/font><\/strong>. And so here&#8217;s  the current layout:               <\/div>\n<div align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" vspace=\"7\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/images\/icc.gif\" \/><br \/>               <strong><font color=\"#15571a\">Ratified<\/font><\/strong>, <strong><font color=\"#dd8200\">Signed but  not Ratified<\/font><\/strong>, <strong><font color=\"#c0c0c0\">Not signed<\/font><\/strong><\/div>\n<div align=\"justify\"><strong><font color=\"#200020\">What&#8217;s wrong with this  picture?<\/font><\/strong> What&#8217;s with the US? Well, that&#8217;s a very long story.  As of December 31, 2000, <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/United_States_and_the_International_Criminal_Court\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>this<\/strong><\/a>  was it:<\/div>\n<ol>\n<div align=\"justify\"><sup>Although  the then U.S. President, Bill Clinton, signed the Rome Statute of the  International Criminal Court in 2000, he stated that although he would  not submit it to the Senate for advice and consent for ratification  until the U.S. government had a chance to assess the functioning of the  court, he nonetheless supported the proposed role of the ICC and its  aims:<\/sup><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<div align=\"justify\"><sup>The United  States should have the chance to observe and assess the functioning of  the court, over time, before choosing to become subject to its  jurisdiction. Given these concerns, I will not, and do not recommend  that my successor, submit the treaty to the Senate for advice and  consent until our fundamental concerns are satisfied.<\/sup><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div align=\"justify\"><sup>Nonetheless, signature is the right action to take  at this point. I believe that a properly constituted and structured  International Criminal Court would make a profound contribution in  deterring egregious human rights abuses worldwide, and that signature  increases the chances for productive discussions with other governments  to advance these goals in the months and years ahead.<\/sup><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/ol>\n<div>but then&#8230;<\/div>\n<ul>\n<div align=\"justify\"><sup>After the  Rome Statute reached the requisite 60 ratifications in 2002, President  George W. Bush&#8217;s Administration sent a note to the UN Secretary General  on May 6, 2002. The note suspended the signature of the US and informed  the Secretary General that the US recognized no obligation toward the  Rome Statute. In addition, the US stated that its intention not to be  become a member state be reflected in the UN depositry&#8217;s list. This is  because signatories have an obligation not to undermine the object and  purpose of a treaty. The US could engage with the Court by reactivating  its signature to the Rome Statute by a letter to the UN Secretary  General. A treaty that is not ratified is not legally binding.<\/sup><\/div>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p align=\"justify\">President Bush and friends withdrew from the International Criminal Court altogether in May 2002 &#8211; imagine that. I guess if you are about to invade a sovereign country unprovoked without the approval of the UN Security Council and you&#8217;re operating a Torture Program, suspending the Geneva Conventions, signing on to a Court that&#8217;s about to debate the criteria for the <strong><font color=\"#200020\">Crime of Aggression<\/font><\/strong>&nbsp; sounds pretty dangerous.<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\">While the Obama Administration has not embraces the ICC, they have returned to the careful but supportive position of the Clinton Administration.  <\/p>\n<table width=\"95%\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"5\" border=\"0\" align=\"center\">\n<tr>\n<td>\n<div align=\"center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/United_States_and_the_International_Criminal_Court\" target=\"_blank\"><strong><font color=\"#200020\">Obama Administration&rsquo;s approach to the ICC<\/font><\/strong><\/a>:<\/div>\n<div align=\"justify\"><sup>Most recently, the Obama Administration has stated its intent to  cooperate with the International Criminal Court. On November 16th,  Ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues Stephen Rapp announced that he  would lead the U.S. delegation to the ICC&rsquo;s annual meeting of the  Assembly of States Parties in The Hague. He told journalists &quot;Our  government has now made the decision that Americans will return to  engagement at the ICC.&quot; The U.S. will participate as an observer. In  response to a question from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee,  Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton remarked that the US will end  its &ldquo;hostility&rdquo; towards the Court. In addition, Susan Rice, US  Ambassador to the United Nations, in her first address to the Security  Council, expressed US support for the Court&rsquo;s investigation in Sudan.  These statements coupled with the removal of sanctions to the Bilateral  Immunity agreements (BIAs) signals a positive shift in the US  cooperation with the Court and may lead to greater participation with  it&hellip;<\/sup><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p><\/p>\n<div align=\"justify\">Since I wrote this on February 1<sup>st<\/sup>, the ICC met in Uganda to debate the <strong><font color=\"#200020\">Crime of Aggression<\/font><\/strong>. The United States attended as an observer. The results of that meeting will be the subject of the next post.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In February, after hearing the testimony at the Chilcot Inquiry, I reported on the Coalition for International Criminal Court, something I&#8217;d never ever heard of [Iraq and the UN Security Council: the ICC?]. Here&#8217;s a piece of what I wrote then: &#8230; there&#8217;s a second World Court [International Criminal Court] brought to my attention in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4228\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}