FACTBOX-Key facts about the International Criminal Court
LONDON, June 6 (Reuters) – The International Criminal Court (ICC) is set to announce on Monday a formal investigation into suspected crimes against humanity in Sudan’s Darfur region.
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Inaugural ceremony of International Criminal Court in The Hague, March 11, 2003. (Reuters). |
Here are some key facts on the Hague-based court:
* The United Nations already had ad hoc tribunals dealing with abuses in former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, but the ICC is the first permanent court set up to try individuals for genocide, war crimes and other major human rights violations.
* The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court was established on 17 July 1998, when 120 States participating in a conference on the court adopted the treaty.
* The statute needed a minimum of 60 ratifications to come into force, which it reached in April 2002 and the treaty entered into force on July 1, 2002. In May 2005, the Dominican Republic became the 99th nation to ratify the treaty.
* The ICC launched its first investigations in 2004, into crimes in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda, but has yet to issue its first indictment or arrest warrant. The governments of both countries had asked the ICC to investigate.
* The U.N. Security Council voted on March 31 to refer war crimes cases in Sudan’s Darfur to the ICC, the first time it has made a referral to the new court in what was seen as a major victory for supporters of the ICC.
* The United States has spurned the ICC and has lobbied other nations to do so too, or at least exempt U.S. nationals from prosecution. But Washington abstained from the U.N. Security Council vote on Darfur after winning guarantees that its citizens in Sudan would be exempt from ICC prosecution.
* The ICC is separate from the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the highest legal authority of the United Nations which is also based in the Hague and which was set up in 1946 to resolve disputes between states.
ICC website: http://www.icc-cpi.int/home.html