KEITH BUSINGYE LAW GUIDE;The International Criminal Court currently (2015)

The court was established by an international treaty (the Rome Statute), which entered into force on 1^st July 2002[1] and seeks to prosecute the perpetrators only if their domestic courts are unable or unwilling to do so.

The court has 122 countries as state parties to the Rome Statute, of these, 34 are from Africa, 18 from the Asian Pacific, 18 from Eastern Europe, 27 from Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as 25 from Western Europe and the Northern America.

The court has criminal jurisdiction over the most serious crimes of concern to international community, namely genocide[2], crimes against humanity[3], committed after 1^st July 2002 as well as the crime of aggression[4]once the conditions under which the court can exercise its jurisdiction on the later have been fulfilled.

The court has 18 judges who are elected for 9 years by the assembly of states parties to the Rome Statute, and assigned into pre-trial and appeal chambers[5]

 The Court does not have jurisdiction over crimes before the entry into force of the Statute (2002) and cases are only admissible before the Court where a state is not investigating or prosecuting the accused, that is to say, if the state is unwilling or genuinely unable to do so. Individuals cannot bring cases directly before the Court, but States Parties, the Security Council or the Court Prosecutor can initiate action[6]. In the case where a State Party or the Court Prosecutor initiates the prosecution, the Court will not take up the case if the country where the alleged crime took place or the country of nationality of the accused person refuses to permit prosecution. This does not apply where the Security Council initiates the prosecution[7]. The international criminal court is a new way of establishing criminal liability and the ICC  which is governed by the Rome statute which is the treaty determining the crimes and jurisdiction of the court as well as rules of procedure.

The Rome statute was adopted by 120 states on 17, July 1998; the ICC is an independent organ from the United Nations with its seat in The Hague, Netherlands. It is funded by state parties as well as contributions from individuals, corporations and other entities. This makes it one the most independent organs under international Law of Nations.

Currently, the president of the court is Judge Sang-Hyun Song; the prosecutor is Ms. Fatou Bensouda, and the Registrar of the court is Mr. Herman Von Hebel, the court has 800 staff members from approximately 100 states, it has 6 official languages, that is to say English, French, Arabic, Chinese, Russian and Spanish of these, the court has two working languages which are English and French. The court’s headquarters are at The Hague, the Netherlands. The court has six field offices situated in Kinshasa and Bunia (DRC), Kampala (Uganda) Bangui (Central Africa Republic, CAR), Nairobi (Kenya) Abidjan (Cote d’Ivoire).[8]The ICC uses these offices to extend its functions the regions around the areas mentioned.

Investigations and cases before the ICC currently;

The ICC is currently carrying out 9 investigations under the office of the prosecutor in the situations in Uganda, the DRC, CAR, CARII, Darfur (Sudan), Kenya, Libya, Cote d’Ivoire and Mali. The court has 9 preliminary examinations under the office of the prosecutor which is currently monitoring the situations of Afghanistan, Colombia, Georgia, Guinea, Honduras, Iraq, Nigeria, Palestine and Ukraine. The court has so far issued 27 arrest warrants of which 13 warrants have been implemented and 2 warrants were withdrawn following the death of the suspects, 9 summonses to appear have been served to individuals and all 9 of them appeared voluntarily before the court, they are not in custody apparently. The court has 8 persons in custody these include, DRC: Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, Germain Katanga and Bosco Ntaganda, CAR: Jean-Pierre Bemba, Gombo and Jean Jacques Mangenda Kabongo, Cote d’Ivoire:Laurent Gbagbo and Charles Ble Goude, Uganda: Dominic Ongwen, the other 12 suspects under the Ugandan situation remain at large. The ICC relies on the cooperation of states and International Organisations in the implementation of its arrests warrants, 22 cases have been brought before the court and of which 8 are currently at the trial stage and 2 at appeals stage[9].

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[1] The Rome Statute is the founding Statute of the International Criminal court in Rome, 1998.

[2] Article 6 of the Rome Statute (Genocide means  killing, causing bodily harm, inter alia, with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.)

[3] Article 7 of the Rome Statute (the acts of murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation or forcible transfer of population inter alia as listed under this Article, committed as part of widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack.)

[4] Article 8bis (This Article was inserted by resolution R/C Res.6 of 11 June 2010, following the conditions set out under Article 121 and 123 which define the crime.)

[5] The court today, ICC-PIDS-TCT-01-060/15-Eng, updated: 10th February 2015, accessed: 20th February.

[6] Article 13 of the Rome Statute (The court may exercise Jurisdiction with respect to a crime referred to in Article 5 in accordance with the provisions of the Rome Statute.)

[7] Security Council referrals are binding upon non-state parties to the Rome Statute

[8] The court Today, ICC-PIDS-TCT-01-060/15-Eng, updated: 10th February 20, 2015, accessed 20^th February 2015.

[9] Ibid.