How did the International Criminal Court come into place?:
To better understand this, we must go back to the beginning of the 20th century during WWII. This period of history was filled with numerous violent crimes around the world; genocides, war crimes and even crimes against humanity (murder, enslavement). These activities caused the formation of temporary International Criminal Courts such as the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials (international courts). These courts focused on the crimes that occurred during that specific time frame and then disappeared. They were temporary.
As we go through time to the 1990's, at the end of the Cold War, another set of temporary International Criminal Courts were established to take care of the criminal acts that happened during this time frame. These included the Yugoslavia and the Rwanda International Criminal Courts. Unfortunately, these also vanished after having dealt with all the criminal acts in this time-frame.
All these major events and criminal acts during the 20th century raised the idea of the creation of a permanent International Criminal Court where war crimes, genocides, crimes against society and other major crimes affecting the global population would be tried.
On July 17th 1998, the international community adopted the Rome Statute which was the foundation of the International Criminal Court that now resides in The Hague, Netherlands.
Approximately 120 states signed the Rome Statute but only 60 states ratified it and started implementing it. This was an international agreement on the creation of this court as well as its powers and in which domains it has jurisdiction.
This court actually started being effective and holding trials on July 1st 2002 after several meetings with all the states that signed the Rome Statute. It started being effective when everything was agreed upon; the powers it has, how much it has, who is elected to be there... This court started working when the treaty came into force with its ratification in 60 states.
Over time more countries started signing this treaty and ratifying it. There are presently (2014-2015) approximately 139 signatoires and 123 ratifications.
*Ratification=passed by a states government.
To better understand this, we must go back to the beginning of the 20th century during WWII. This period of history was filled with numerous violent crimes around the world; genocides, war crimes and even crimes against humanity (murder, enslavement). These activities caused the formation of temporary International Criminal Courts such as the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials (international courts). These courts focused on the crimes that occurred during that specific time frame and then disappeared. They were temporary.
As we go through time to the 1990's, at the end of the Cold War, another set of temporary International Criminal Courts were established to take care of the criminal acts that happened during this time frame. These included the Yugoslavia and the Rwanda International Criminal Courts. Unfortunately, these also vanished after having dealt with all the criminal acts in this time-frame.
All these major events and criminal acts during the 20th century raised the idea of the creation of a permanent International Criminal Court where war crimes, genocides, crimes against society and other major crimes affecting the global population would be tried.
On July 17th 1998, the international community adopted the Rome Statute which was the foundation of the International Criminal Court that now resides in The Hague, Netherlands.
Approximately 120 states signed the Rome Statute but only 60 states ratified it and started implementing it. This was an international agreement on the creation of this court as well as its powers and in which domains it has jurisdiction.
This court actually started being effective and holding trials on July 1st 2002 after several meetings with all the states that signed the Rome Statute. It started being effective when everything was agreed upon; the powers it has, how much it has, who is elected to be there... This court started working when the treaty came into force with its ratification in 60 states.
Over time more countries started signing this treaty and ratifying it. There are presently (2014-2015) approximately 139 signatoires and 123 ratifications.
*Ratification=passed by a states government.