Its first two decades have brought criticism and controversy but as the International Criminal Court marks its 20th birthday the Ukraine war is giving it a new impetus.<\/p>\n
Since its founding Rome Statute entered force on July 1, 2002, the world's only permanent war crimes court has had a poor record of just five convictions.<\/p>\n
The Hague-based ICC is also accused of focusing on African suspects and suffers from the absence of key countries like the United States, China, Russia and Israel.<\/p>\n
But it remains the court of last resort for grave charges such as genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and aggression, when member states are unable or unwilling to prosecute.<\/p>\n
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has made the international community realise the importance of the rule of law, says ICC prosecutor Karim Khan.<\/p>\n
\"If we don't hold on to the law today, I think there is very little hope for anybody's tomorrow,\" Khan told AFP.<\/p>\n
\"That growing realisation has been rendered more acute because of the events of the 24th of February and the events in Ukraine -- and I think it's long overdue.\"<\/p>\n
The ICC will hold a special 20th anniversary conference on Friday, which it says is \"an occasion for reflections on how well the ICC has met expectations\".<\/p>\n
And those expectations have always been high.<\/p>\n
- 'Lofty goals' -<\/p>\n
The ICC is the successor to the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals, when the post-war international order sought an ideal of global justice.<\/p>\n
Tribunals into the wars in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s and the 1994 Rwandan genocide also laid the ground for a permanent court.<\/p>\n
The Rome Statute was signed in 1998 and came into effect four years later, allowing the court to finally open its doors.<\/p>\n
Yet since then, it has failed to snare any senior government leaders, and its five convictions so far have all been African rebels, including one former child soldier.<\/p>\n
\"Contemplating the ICC's legacy in light of its lofty goals, the results are negligible,\" Thijs Bouwknegt of the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies told AFP.<\/p>\n
It had high profile failures, with former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo being cleared, former DR Congo vice-president Jean-Pierre Bemba acquitted on appeal and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta having charges dropped.<\/p>\n
Just as damaging is the absence of key players.<\/p>\n
The United States, which signed the Rome Statute in 2000 but never ratified it, has sometimes been actively hostile, at one point sanctioning the court over its Afghan probe.<\/p>\n
China, Israel, Myanmar and Syria have also steered clear, along with Russia -- which even allegedly sent a spy posing as an intern to target the ICC's Ukraine probe.<\/p>\n
But while there was \"deservedly\" criticism of the ICC, the court had made a \"significant contribution\", said Victoria Kerr of the Hague-based Asser Institute for International and European Law.<\/p>\n
\"The ICC is not a panacea, nor should its effectiveness be measured solely on its convictions,\" Kerr told AFP.<\/p>\n
- 'Recipe for Armageddon' -<\/p>\n
In recent years the court has sought to improve.<\/p>\n
New probes into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Afghanistan, Myanmar and the Philippines have taken the ICC into some of the world's most contested conflicts.<\/p>\n
Khan said when he took office last year that he wanted to \"repair\" the ICC's record.<\/p>\n
Bouwknegt however said Khan's decision to \"deprioritise\" alleged US crimes in Afghanistan and focus on the Taliban and Islamic State \"exposed that the court still curtsies to the most powerful\".<\/p>\n
Ukraine is now where the court has a chance to prove its credentials.<\/p>\n
Khan said the recent backing of 43 states for the ICC's Ukraine probe was \"not simply because of what's happening in Ukraine\".<\/p>\n
\"It's a realisation that when we view international law as an a la carte menu which states can pick and choose from ... that is a recipe for Armageddon,\" he told AFP.<\/p>\n
Long under-funded and short-staffed, the ICC has had a surge in Western support since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, including the help of dozens of foreign investigators.<\/p>\n
But Ukraine also throws up the same key difficulty the ICC has faced for the last two decades.<\/p>\n
\"The key challenge will be bringing high-level perpetrators before the court,\" said Kerr.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Its first two decades have brought criticism and controversy but as the International Criminal Court marks its 20th birthday the Ukraine war is giving it a new impetus. Since its founding Rome Statute entered force on July 1, 2002, the world's only permanent war crimes court has had a poor record of just five convictions. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553,2576],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-102649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed","category-fil-d-actualite"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n