International Criminal Court: Introduction and Member Country of ICC

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About

  • International Criminal Court (ICC) , permanent judicial body established by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (1998) to prosecute and adjudicate individuals accused of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
  • On July 1,2002, after the requisite number of countries (60) ratified the agreement, the court began sittings. It is headquartered in the Netherlands at The Hague.
  • The International Criminal Court, established in 2002, seeks to hold to account those guilty of the some of the world՚s worst crimes.
  • it deters would-be war criminals, bolsters the rule of law, and offers justice to victims of atrocities.
  • the ICC was established as a court of last resort to prosecute the most heinous offenses in cases where national courts fail to act.
  • Unlike the International Court of Justice, which hears disputes between states, the ICC handles prosecutions of individuals.
  • The court՚s jurisdiction extends to offenses that occurred after July 1,2002, that were committed either in a state that has ratified the agreement or by a national of such a state.
  • In the aftermath of World War II, the Allied powers launched the first international war crimes tribunal, known as the Nuremberg Trials, to prosecute top Nazi officials.
  • It wasn՚t until the 1990s, however, that many governments conflate around the idea of a permanent court to hold perpetrators to account for the world՚s most serious crimes. Ad hoc international criminal tribunals had been set up by the United Nations to deal with war crimes in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, but many international law experts considered them inefficient and inadequate as a deterrent.
  • Trinidad and Tobago requested that a UN commission look into the creation of a permanent court in 1989.In the following years, such efforts gained support, especially in Europe and Africa. African countries make up the largest bloc of ICC members. The European Union is also a staunch supporter of the court; it adopted a binding policy in support of the ICC in 2011.
  • The ICC՚s founding treaty was adopted by the UN General Assembly at a conference in Rome in July 1998. After being ratified by more than sixty countries, the Rome Statute entered into force on July 1,2002.
  • There are 122 countries party to the Rome Statute. Some forty countries never signed the treaty, including China, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iraq, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey. Several dozen others signed the statute, but their legislatures never ratified it. These include Egypt, Iran, Israel, Russia, Sudan, Syria, and the United States.

Member Country of ICC

Illustration: Member Country of ICC

MCQs

1. Where is the headquarter of ICC?

  1. New Zealand
  2. Netherland
  3. Singapore
  4. New York

Ans. B

Explanation: The ICC is based in The Hague, a city in the Netherlands that hosts many international institutions and has field offices in several countries. The court carries out its investigative work through the office of the prosecutor.

2. The number of judges in ICC________?

  1. 16
  2. 17
  3. 18
  4. 19

Ans. C

Explanation: The court has eighteen judges, each from a different member country and elected by the member states. It requires its members to seek a gender-balanced bench, and the judiciary must include representatives of each of the United Nations five regions. Judges and prosecutors are elected to nonrenewable nine-year terms.

3. The court has jurisdiction over how many categories of crime.

  1. 2
  2. 6
  3. 4
  4. 8

Ans. C

Explanation: The court has jurisdiction over four categories of crimes under international law:

  • Genocide, or the intent to destroy in whole or in part a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.
  • War Crimes, or grave breaches of the laws of war, which include the Geneva Conventions prohibitions on torture and attacks on civilian targets, such as hospitals or schools.
  • Crimes against humanity, or violations committed as part of large-scale attacks against civilian populations, including murder, rape, imprisonment, slavery, and torture; and
  • Crimes of Aggression, or the use or threat of armed force by a state against the territorial integrity, sovereignty, or political independence of another state, or violations of the UN Charter.

4. Who contributes to the fund of ICC?

  1. UN
  2. ICJ
  3. USA
  4. Member States

Ans. D

Explanation: The vast majority of that funding comes from member states. Contributions are determined by the same method the United Nations uses to assess dues, which roughly correspond to the size of each member՚s economy. The largest contributions in 2017 came from Japan, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom.

5. Which among the following forms the structure of ICC?

  1. The Presidency
  2. The Judicial Divisions
  3. The Office Of The Prosecutor and The Registry
  4. All

Ans . D

Explanation: The ICC has four principal organs: the Presidency, the Judicial Divisions, the Office of the Prosecutor, and the Registry. The President is the most senior judge chosen by his or her peers in the Judicial Division, which hears cases before the Court. The Office of the Prosecutor is headed by the Prosecutor who investigates crimes and initiates proceedings before the Judicial Division. The Registry is headed by the Registrar and is charged with managing all the administrative functions of the ICC, including the headquarters, detention unit, and public defense office.

#international court of justice #Rome Statute #Netherlands #The Presidency

#The Judicial Divisions

#The Office Of The Prosecutor

#The Registry

Manishika