About International Criminal Court (ICC)
Why in News?
• Dominic Ongwen, nicknamed “White Ant”, was found guilty of 61 charges over a reign of terror in the early 2000s, including the first conviction by the ICC for the crime of forced pregnancy.
• He is a Ugandan child soldier-turned-Commander of Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).
• LRA spreads violence to three other African nations — Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic.
History
• On 17 July, 1998 Rome Statute was adopted by 120 States in direction of creating a more just world.
• On 1 July, 2002 Rome Statute took effect upon ratification by 60 states, officially establishing the ICC.
• ICC has no retroactive jurisdiction, so it deals with crimes committed on or after this 1 July, 2002.
About ICC:
• ICC is the world’s first permanent international criminal court, governed by an international treaty called 'The Rome Statute’.
• It investigates and tries individuals charged with the gravest crimes of concern to the international community.
• It has 6 official languages: English, French, Arabic, Chinese, Russian and Spanish.
• It has 2 working languages: English and French.
• ICC Headquarters is at The Hague, the Netherlands.
• India is not a party to Rome Statute along with US and China.
• Recently Malaysia has ratified the Rome Statute and became the 124th State party to the ICC.
Four organs of the ICC
1. Presidency
2. Judicial Divisions (18 judges in 3 divisions) Pre-Trial, Trial and Appeals
3. Office of the Prosecutor
4. Registry
The Rome Statute, grants the ICC jurisdiction over four main crimes:
1. The crime of Genocide
2. Crimes against Humanity
3. War crimes
4. Crime of Aggression
UNSC and ICC
• The Court may exercise jurisdiction in a situation where genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes were committed on or after 1 July 2002.
• ICC is not a UN organization but has a cooperation agreement with the United Nations.
• When a situation is not within the Court’s jurisdiction, the United Nations Security Council can refer the situation to the ICC granting it jurisdiction. This has been done in the situations in Darfur (Sudan) and Libya.
India and ICC
• India did not signed the Rome Statute, and thus, is not a member of ICC because of following reasons:
1. State sovereignty
2. National interests
3. Difficulty in collection of evidences
4.Problem to find impartial prosecutors
5. Crime definition
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