THE International Criminal Court Duties Staffing Budget

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is a permanent international court that investigates and prosecutes individuals charged with serious crimes such as genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. It aims to fight impunity and hold those responsible accountable. The court operates under the Rome Statute, which was established in 1998. Its jurisdiction includes crimes committed on the soil of member states or on the soil of non-member states. The ICC can investigate cases referred by the United Nations Security Council or cases it deems necessary to intervene in. It is funded by member states and ensures fair judicial proceedings. The court has staff from around 100 states and has offices in various countries. The ICC has handled 31 cases, issued arrest warrants, detained individuals, and made convictions and acquittals. There have been criticisms regarding its alleged disproportionate focus on African cases. Welcome to this new episode of the Diary of a Lawyer and today we are going to be talking about the International Criminal Court, shortly in brief known as the ICC. Now the International Criminal Court has been in the news for the last few days regarding events going on somewhere in a war at the heart of Europe, but what we are going to talk about today is just the basics, where the court is, its jurisdiction and its powers as opposed to the detailed nuances of the current events. Now the ICC investigates where needed or warranted, according to their own words, tries individuals charged with the gravest crimes of concern to the international community, such as genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of oppression. And according to the former Secretary General of the United Nations, the late Kofi Annan, he described it as a cause, this cause is a cause of all humanity. Now the court claims to be fighting impunity, ending impunity, through the pursuit of international criminal justice. The court also claims that its aim is to hold those responsible accountable for their crimes and to also apparently prevent crimes, from such crimes, heinous crimes, from happening again. And it indicates, the ICC indicates they cannot fight those, reach those goals alone and as a court of last resort, it simply seeks to complement, not replace, national courts. And it's governed, was established by the international treaty called the Rome Statute, which was in 1998. And it's the world's first permanent international criminal court. And it aims to, through the pursuit of justice, to, it claims to be fighting towards stability and lasting peace. Now the jurisdiction of the court, as mentioned above, is to investigate and prosecute where evidence is available, crimes against humanity. And this may be on the nation's, the member state's soil, or on the soils, on the crimes committed on the soil of, by a non-member state, on the nation state's soil or boundaries of jurisdiction. It can look at cases referred to it by the United Nations Security Council, or where the court feels necessary for the prosecutor, out of its own volition, investigate and determine whether the evidence reaches the threshold that requires its intervention. It's funded by members. There are a number of members that have signed up to the ICC's jurisdiction. And the ICC indicates that its judicial proceedings are fair and ensure fairness to all concerned. It states that the prosecutor is independent. And it does that through conducting primary examinations, investigation, and is the only one who can bring cases before the court. It does also mention the issues that defendants entitled to public unfair proceeding that they can follow in a language they understand. It allows a forum for victims' voices to be heard in the courtroom and under the Rome statute, and that participating victims and witnesses are protected via a protection program that they say uses both operational and procedural protective measures. It also indicates that it has an outreach that creates a two-way dialogue in which they communicate directly with communities that have suffered from crimes under the ICC's jurisdiction so that they can communicate and get a sense of ownership of the judicial process. By and large, overall, the ICC says it's fighting impunity and by member states who have joined the ICC under the Rome statute. By doing that, they claim that they are taking a stance against those who in the past had no one to answer to after committing alleged crimes or systematic international crimes, which the ICC investigates. It investigates crime of a systemic nature, as mentioned above. And by so doing, it prevents the likelihood of such crimes being committed again. Now, just some basic facts and figures according to the ICC to date. I mean, the ICC is staffed by 900 staff members from around 100 states. It has six official languages, namely English, French, Arabic, Chinese, Russian, and Spanish. It has a liaison office to the United Nations in New York, and it has seven county offices namely in Kinshasa, Ambunia in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kampala, Bangui, which Kampala is Uganda, Bangui in the Central African Republic, Abidja in Cote d'Ivoire, Tbilisi in Georgia, and Bamako in Mali. It has two working languages, which are English and French, and it's headquartered in The Hague, the Netherlands, or Holland, for those who might have heard differently, and Den Haag for those who speak French. And its budget, current budget, 2023, as we speak, March 2023, is 169,649,200,000. So let me repeat, let me just read that in figure. It's 169,649,200, and that's according to their own figures. And they have thus far, to date, have been around 31 cases before they're caught since its inception, where some cases have had more than one suspect, and the ICC judges have issued around 38 arrest warrants and cooperation from other countries. 21 people have been detained in the ICC detention center and have appeared before the ICC. 14 remain at large, whilst charges have been dropped against five people due to passing away. We should also mention that there was a case regarding Kenya that was discontinued for reasons that the ICC states that I won't go into here. And also, the ICC judges have also issued nine summonses to appear, and they have issued 10 convictions and four acquittals. So that's it in a nutshell of what the ICC does. And there have been some criticisms regarding its alleged disproportionate investigation and prosecutions of Africans, per se. Now, there are a number of angles one can look at that. One can say, well, there are claims that, or there's maybe evidence that suggests that there's many cases where there have been widespread crimes that fit the jurisdiction of the ICC on the African continent. But equally, one could also say there have been other conflicts and other widespread violations in other parts of the world. And so why is it that it's just Africa that has disproportionately has had the highest number of prosecutions? Well, that's a debate that we won't go into now. This was just to cover the initial summary of its jurisdiction, its composition, of its work, what it does, how it functions, and its raison d'etre, the reason it was set up under the 1998 Rome Statute. And so if you have any questions, you can put on the link below and we engage privately, but we hope this will shed some light on the basics of what the ICC does to inform, educate, and just share knowledge. Thank you. And if you're happy, you can subscribe to this channel by clicking the link before, or if you have any comments, suggestions, let us know. And we will talk soon. And thank you. We'll speak again in yet another episode of The Diary of a Lawyer. Speak to you soon. Bye.