International Criminal Court.
Publié le 10/05/2013
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only exercise its jurisdiction when a national court is unwilling or unable to carry out the investigation or prosecution.
For example, the ICC might intervene when agovernment’s judicial system has collapsed or is actively shielding a person from criminal responsibility.
The court may hold accountable any person aged 18 or older at the time of the crime without regard to the individual’s official duties or functions.
Therefore, heads ofstate, legislators, and other high-ranking government officials are not exempt from criminal responsibility.
Crimes in the court’s jurisdiction are not subject to a statuteof limitations, meaning there is no time limit on bringing charges.
IV CRIMES PROSECUTED BY THE COURT
Four categories of crime are included in the ICC’s jurisdiction: genocide; crimes against humanity; war crimes; and crimes of aggression.
Aggression cannot be thesubject of any prosecution, however, until the Assembly of States Parties, a body made up of one representative from each nation that has accepted the statute,amends the statute to define the crime and set out the conditions for prosecution.
The issue of aggression is politically charged and participants at the Rome Conferencecould not agree on its definition.
Proposed definitions centered around the idea of an armed invasion or attack by one nation against another with the intent to violateits territorial integrity or political independence.
The Rome Statute defines genocide as the commission of certain acts with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.
The actslisted are killing members of the group or causing them serious bodily or mental harm; forcing the group to live in conditions calculated to bring about the group’sphysical destruction in whole or in part; and using forcible measures to prevent births within the group or to transfer children out of the group to another group.
Crimes against humanity, as specified by the statute, are certain acts committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against any civilian population.
The actsinclude murder or extermination; slavery; deportation or forcible transfer of a population; imprisonment and other severe deprivations of physical liberty; torture;violent sexual offenses, such as rape, sexual slavery, and forced prostitution; forced disappearance; and apartheid.
The statute leaves open the possibility ofprosecuting other, unnamed inhumane acts of a similar character.
The statute’s list of war crimes is extensive.
It includes acts prohibited by the 1949 Geneva Conventions on the laws of war: willful killing, torture, intentionally causinggreat suffering, hostage taking, extensive destruction and looting of property, depriving prisoners of war of a fair trial or forcing them to serve in the military of a hostilepower, and unlawful deportation or confinement.
The statute also defines as war crimes 26 other serious violations of the laws and customs of war, such as pillage,intentionally directing attacks against civilians, using poison weapons or poison gas, and subjecting individuals to mutilation or scientific experimentation.
Finally, thestatute contains special rules that extend the court’s war crimes jurisdiction to civil wars, which historically were not regulated by international law.
However, the court’sjurisdiction excludes “internal disturbances” such as riots and other sporadic acts of violence.
V STRUCTURE AND ADMINISTRATION
The ICC has three main functional divisions: the judges, the registrar, and the prosecutors.
The court consists of 18 judges.
They are elected by the Assembly of States Parties in a secret ballot.
During judicial elections each participating nation may nominateone candidate.
The candidate must be an expert either in criminal law and procedure or in relevant areas of international law, such as human rights law or the law ofarmed conflict.
Judges serve a single term of nine years; however, in the first election only, held in 2003, judges were randomly assigned terms of three, six, or nineyears.
To ensure geographic diversity, no two judges may be of the same nationality.
The judges are led by the Presidency, a group of three judges who areresponsible for the judicial administration of the court.
The Presidency consists of a president, first vice president, and second vice president.
Judges in the Presidencyare elected by the court’s judges and serve three-year terms.
The judges are assigned to pretrial, trial, and appeals chambers.
The pretrial chamber has the power to authorize investigations by the prosecutor, and it may issueorders, warrants, and summons during an investigation.
It also has the responsibility to protect the rights of victims and witnesses during pretrial proceedings and toensure due process for the accused.
The trial chamber’s function is to conduct a fair, speedy trial, to convict or acquit the accused, and to sentence those convicted.The appeals chamber has the power to reverse or amend convictions and sentences and to order new trials.
The Registry is the administrative arm of the court and oversees nonjudicial matters.
It is headed by a registrar who is the principal administrative officer of the court.The registrar is elected by the judges to a five-year term.
The Office of the Prosecutor is responsible for conducting investigations and prosecutions.
It consists of a chief prosecutor elected by the Assembly of States Parties in asecret ballot, as well as one or more deputy prosecutors.
Deputy prosecutors are nominated by the chief prosecutor and elected by the assembly.
Both the chiefprosecutor and the deputy prosecutors serve a term of nine years and are not eligible for reelection.
The ICC is financed primarily by dues from states that are parties to the Rome Statute.
Other funds may be supplied by the United Nations, if the General Assemblyapproves, and from voluntary contributions of governments, international organizations, businesses, and individuals.
The statute requires an annual independent auditof all financial records of the court.
To guard the independence of the court, the salaries of judges and other court officials may not be reduced while they hold office.
VI GENERAL PROCEDURES
The ICC’s chief prosecutor may initiate investigations independently based on information he or she has received about crimes within the court’s jurisdiction.Alternatively, cases may be referred to the prosecutor by the UN Security Council or by a state that is a party to the Rome Statute.
The prosecutor evaluates theinformation and investigates to determine whether or not there is a sufficient basis to prosecute.
If the prosecutor decides to proceed with the investigation, he or shemust first obtain authorization from the pretrial chamber.
Formal prosecution begins when a pretrial chamber issues an arrest warrant or summons for an accused person to appear based on the charges filed by the prosecutor.When the accused appears, a hearing is held to determine whether sufficient evidence exists to proceed to trial.
Nations that would normally have jurisdiction over thecrimes committed may appear to challenge the ICC’s jurisdiction or the admissibility of the case.
Once the pretrial chamber has confirmed the prosecutor’s charges, athree-judge trial chamber conducts the trial in public proceedings with the accused present.
The court may convict if at least two of the three judges are convinced of the suspect’s guilt beyond reasonable doubt; the decision need not be unanimous.
The courtcan fine or imprison those convicted and order reparations to victims; it may not impose the death penalty.
The maximum sentence is life imprisonment.
Sentences ofimprisonment will be served in The Netherlands or in another country that voluntarily accepts the prisoner.
Either the prosecution or the defense may appeal the verdictor the sentence to the appeals chamber.
All nations that are parties to the Rome Statute must cooperate with the court in investigation, prosecution, and enforcementof the court’s judgments..
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