What the US cannot veto: the ICC at the Hague

January 17, 6:18 PMForeign Policy ExaminerAimee Kligman

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The International Criminal Court  or ICC (La Cour pénale internationale or CPI) at the Hague is outside US jurisdiction. To quote Wikipedia this is its purpose: The International Criminal Court (ICC or ICCt)[1] was established in 2002 as a permanent tribunal to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression, although it cannot currently exercise jurisdiction over the crime of aggression.[2][3] The Court came into being on 1 July 2002 — the date its founding treaty, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, entered into force[4] — and it can only prosecute crimes committed on or after that date.

There are currently 108 member nations and others waiting for ratification. The United States, India, Russia and China have all objected to some of its rulings, and have not joined. Unfortunate for the U.S.

Agence France Presse has just announced that anytime from now until this coming Wednesday, an official inquiry for crimes against humanity as well as crimes of war committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip will be addressed to the ICC/CPI by a joint action group that met in Geneva today.

The statement came directly from Haytham Manna, spokesman for the Arab Commission for Human Rights, and one of the participants in this meeting. The document contains a list of alleged violations against international human rights law committed by the Israeli army since its invasion into the Palestinian territory at the end of December.

According to the group of international lawyers and jurors, which represents about 300 organizations worldwide who defend human rights, the petition can be examined by the ICC/CPI even though Israel is not party to it.

Let us look at a previous record: in 2005,  the UN Security Council had requested that the ICC/CPI to investigate violations of human rights in Darfur. Three years later, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court asked the Court to issue an arrest for Sudanese President Umar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir for committing genocide, and crimes against humanity. The jury is still out.

Related articles on war crimes and prosecution:

If U.S. doesn't prosecute Bush & Cheney, other nations may

Who will prosecute Bush, Cheney & Rumsfeld for war crimes?

Foreign Policy: but what about the other Gitmo?

Turning Nuremberg on its head