The International Court of Justice at The Hague in Netherlands is an independent international organization, governed by the Rome Stature. It has directive to investigate and prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. It provides accountability for those culpable of committing atrocities and those who order such crime. Under the rule of law, the ICC provides justice to victims, families and communities of crimes against humanity. The court place a distinguished set of rights to victims, unprecedented in international justice.
I believe that the ICC is very relevant and play a major role in contributing to international justice, peace and stability. The ICC rule to arrest Libya’s president Qaddafi is the first time that the United States and China (both countries are not ICC party) have used their permanent Security Council vote to refer the situation to the ICC for investigation. This exemplifies the general recognition of the importance of the ICC in collective justice.
The biggest challenges that ICC faces is its inability to secure arrests, since it does not have its own police and depends on member states for that task. Also, many countries that are not ICC signatories refuse to help the international community in arresting alleged criminals to face trial. An example is President Bashir of Sudan, who has a warrant arrest and has visited many countries since then, including China. Also, many criticize the ICC because leaders of powerful nations are not being investigated for being linked to such crimes. However, I disagree with that affirmation. We cannot denied justice to some because the international community might not be able to trial all persons who commit crime against humanity. ICC is a relatively new institution that has a potential with time to be a very effective vehicle of international justice.
As US citizens, we should encourage our government to be ICC party and work within the court to reform the necessary provisions to make it effective.
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