The ICC( International Criminal Court) In Five Minutes

The International Criminal Court (ICC) was formed to investigate and prosecute serious systemic crimes like crimes against humanity and genocide. Members can join voluntarily and investigations can be initiated by the UN Security Council or the court itself. The ICC is funded by member states and intervenes when national authorities fail to act. Some criticize the disproportionate number of prosecutions against people of African descent. The ICC is based in The Hague and is made up of judges from different countries. This is just a summary of the ICC's jurisdiction and powers. Welcome to this new episode of the Diary of a Lawyer. This is going to be quick regarding the ICC. It's been in the news in the last few days, regarding matters involving the war in Ukraine. But we're not going to go into the finite details, but rather the jurisdiction and basic functions of the courts. So the ICC was formed under the Rome Statutes, or 1980 Rome Statutes, to investigate, prosecute, and ultimately, as its tyrants, prevent serious systemic crimes. Among those are crimes like crimes against humanity, genocide, systemic deportation, torture of populations, and so on and so forth. So those are the kind of crimes that lead to the ICC intervention. Now, members can join the ICC voluntarily, and prosecutions and investigations can be initiated by referral from the UN Security Council, or by the court on its own volition can initiate investigations and eventually prosecutions. The ICC is funded by member states that are part of the ICC, and it can also look into allegations of victims that were committed by a member state or on the territory of a member state. Now, the ICC does not replace national authorities, but only intervenes when the national authorities for one reason or the other fail to meaningfully intervene, legally prosecute or stop serious systemic crimes that are within the jurisdiction of the ICC. In the past, we've had high-level arrests of heads of state and interventions through specific tribunals focusing on specific countries. It is based in The Hague, and it's made up of various organs and offices, and a mixture of judges from different countries. Now, the one last point I want to say is that there have been criticisms, some valid, some not so, or legitimate criticisms, regarding the disproportionate number of persecutions and investigations against people of African descent, in particular Africa. Now, that could be looked at two sides. One is to say that, well, there have been many atrocities and dictatorships and misgovernance in Africa, and therefore it's only natural that the disproportionate nature of those persecutions come from that region. However, other people argue that, well, there have been other mass crimes committed in other parts of the world, and why aren't those people persecuted? Now, that's a matter for people in different debates. My focus was just to quickly go through the jurisdiction, the powers, and the functioning, the basic function of the ICC. That is it in a nutshell. There's another video that goes into another episode in slightly more greater detail, but this is just a nutshell of what the ICC, National Criminal Court, which was established under the Rome Statutes of 1988, the powers, and jurisdictions, and what it can't, can't do. Thank you. Speak to you soon. And there's another episode of The Diary Lawyer. We'll speak again. Bye.