International Criminal Court
The Rome Statute (adopted 17 July 1998, in force 1 July 2002) creates the first permanent court that can try individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and aggression.
Open in the interactive tree →The statute was adopted in Rome by 120 votes to 7 with 21 abstentions, after the UN had set up ad hoc tribunals for the former Yugoslavia (1993) and Rwanda (1994). The court acts only when national courts are unable or unwilling to prosecute, and it can try nationals of states that are parties or crimes committed on their territory; 125 states were parties in January 2025, while the United States, Russia and China are not. Its first conviction came in 2012 (Thomas Lubanga, child soldiers), and aggression became prosecutable in 2018. It has no police of its own, so arrest warrants, such as those against Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu, depend on states to carry them out.
Prerequisites
- Geneva Conventions & Red Cross1864War crimes in the Rome Statute are defined by the Geneva Conventions.
- Nuremberg Trials1945Individuals, including leaders, can be tried under international law
- United Nations1945The UN conference adopted the statute; the Security Council can refer cases
- Universal Declaration of Human Rights1948The crimes it prosecutes violate the rights set out in 1948
Sources
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