The International Criminal Court (ICC) came into being in 2002. Below, I post three links to some very interesting Al Jazeera’s interview programs (led by Riz Khan and David Frost – the guy who interviewed Richard Nixon) about the activities of the ICC and Luis-Moreno Ocampo, who was elected the chief prosecutor of the ICC by the representatives of 70 countries in 2002.
- Frost over the world – Luis-Moreno Ocampo (20 June 2008)
- Riz Khan – The ICC and Omar al-Bashir (28 September 2008)
- Riz Khan – The ICC’s Luis-Moreno Ocampo (19 March 2009)
The first two interviews deal with the “conflict” in Darfur, Sudan, and the indictment of the Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir. The latest interview concentrates on the possibility of suing Israel for the alleged war crimes committed in the December 08/January 09 aggression in Gaza, where probably around 1,000 civilians were killed. I found it striking that it is in fact not easy to accuse Israel or some members of its government for these war crimes. The reason is that Israel is not one of the 108 “state parties” (or members) of the ICC, nor is it subject to the Rome Statute, as are other 148 countries. Technically, there is nothing that forces Israel to obey the international law – it is “immune” to it. The alleged war crimes in Gaza could be investigated only if the ICC recognizes Palestine as a country, and therefore as its member, for this purpose.
The so-called “universal jurisdiction”, i.e. the application of the international law universally, to any country, irrespective of its having signed any treaty (such as the Rome Statute), was under discussion in the late 1990s but it didn’t go through because of the United States. By the way, the United States, together with Israel, “unsigned” the Rome Statute in 2002 (signed in 1998), the year when the ICC actually came into existence. So not only is Israel free to do whatever attrocities and aggressions they like, also the United States can. The alleged war crimes and human rights violations (such as torture) conducted under the US government blessing are therefore likewise not very well prosecutable.
There is a brief article about the ICC on Wikipedia, where most of the present information comes from.
Luis-Moreno Ocampo was at the Hay on Wye book festival this year and I heard him speak.
The article I wrote is here
http://quillcards.com/blog/index.php/2009/05/29/the-hay-festival-luis-moreno-ocampo-and-darfur/
Thanks for your report, David! I liked to learn from it. The current activities (but also the sheer existence) of the ICC are really quite exciting, I wish it received more attention in the “mainstream” media.