The International Criminal Court (ICC) is an intergovernmental organization and international tribunal seated in The Hague. The ICC is the only permanent international court with jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for the international crimes of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of aggression. It is separate from the International Court of Justice, a body of the United Nations.
The Rome Statue is the governing charter of the ICC. States that are signatories to the Rome Statute become Member States of the ICC, and serve on the Assembly of the States Parties, which administers the court. Currently, there are 123 Member States – 42 countries are not signatories to the Rome Statute nor are they members of the ICC.
Purposed as the “court of last resort”, the ICC works alongside national judicial systems and may exercise jurisdiction only when national courts are unable or unwilling to prosecute criminals. However, there are some limitations to the International Criminal Court’s reach: it lacks universal jurisdiction and may only investigate and prosecute crimes committed within member states, crimes committed by nationals of member states, or crimes in situations referred to the ICC by the UN Security Council.
The ICC has four principal bodies: the Presidency, the Judicial Divisions, the Office of the Prosecutor, and the Registry. The President is the most senior justice, chosen by the Judicial Divisions. The Judicial Divisions is composed of eighteen justices and hears cases before the court. The Office of the Prosecutor investigates crimes and initiates criminal proceedings before the Judicial Divisions. The Registry manages the administrative functions of the court. Proceedings are conducted in English and French.
Established in 2001, the first hearings occurred in 2006 against Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga Dyilo for war crimes. He was convicted in 2012. There have been 31 cases before the court and a total of 46 individuals have been indicted by the ICC including several heads of state including Omar al-Bashir of Sudan, Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, Muammar Gaddafi of Libya, Laurent Gbagbo of Ivory Coast, Jean-Pierre Bemba of the Democratic Republic of Congo.