Move to make act of aggression ICC offence welcomed

Non-governmental organisations have welcomed a resolution by the International Criminal Court to add crimes of aggression to The Hague’s list of offences.

They also welcomed the rejection of a push to have the United Nations Security Council have the sole mandate over which crimes of aggression the Court could investigate and prosecute.

International Centre for Policy and Conflict director Ndung’u Wainaina said the conference had renewed a conviction that justice, democracy, sustainable development, peace and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms were interdependent.

“The conference has collectively agreed and declared that impunity is untenable. The growing ICC community has reaffirmed the importance of a collective commitment to bringing to justice those responsible for the worst violations of international criminal law,” Mr Wainaina said.

Similar sentiments were shared by the Coalition for the International Criminal Court, which welcomed the development saying it was an important step to ending impunity.

The coalition, which brings together various international criminal justice NGOs, however, was concerned that the conditions agreed for the prosecution of the crime would leave many states out of reach of justice.

“There also remains a question mark over when the Court will be able to exercise its jurisdiction over this crime of concern to the international community as a whole,” said CICC convener William R. Pace.

On Friday night, the Review Conference of the Rome Statute in Kampala adopted, by consensus, a definition for the crime of aggression.

The definition criminalises the use of armed force by one state against another carried out in contravention of the UN Charter. 

But the new deal will not come into force until 2017 when the same majority of states parties pass the adoption of an amendment to the statute.

The conference agreed that a situation in which an act of aggression appeared to have occurred could be referred to the court by the Security Council.

However, the conference also decided that the ICC prosecution may initiate an investigation if the UN Security Council failed to determine the existence of an act of aggression.