International Criminal Court

International Criminal Court

As an aftermath of World War 2, came an outcry for a judicial system that would handle the prosecutions of war criminals. Numerous tribunals were set into place to handle the prosecutions of ex-Nazi generals. Following the success of such tribunals, the idea of having an independent judicial court arose. The near half-century pursuit had come to a conclusion with a "1998 UN diplomatic conference in Rome, Italy, convened for the sole purpose of finalizing a statute on the establishment of an international criminal court. The global event attracted representatives of 160 countries, 17 intergovernmental organizations, 14 specialized agencies of the UN, and some 250 nongovernmental organizations. The Rome Statute was adopted by a vote of 120 in favour, 7 against and 21 abstaining" (Encarta, 2006.) On July 1st, 2002, with 60 states to ratify the treaty, the International Criminal Court (ICC) came into existence. The court objective is to focus on "prosecuting aggression, genocide, major war crimes and crimes against humanity" (Fehl, 357) committed by those states whom are members ICC. Since the initial launch of the ICC, one hundred countries have ratified the Rome Statute with Mexico being the latest to do so. Since the Rome conference, the ICC has made tremendous progress as an independent organization in a small timeframe of four years. This can be reflected in the generally positive outlook on the instruction from its member states including number of super powers such as Britain. The organization has placed its headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands. Despite the evident progress and success, the ICC faces numerous issues that beg for immediate as well as long term reforms. This paper argues that without immediate attention to accurate planning and clear-cut reforms, the ICC is threatened by imminent failure. A predominant issue in the ICC's operation is the