Essay on Global Governance

The International Criminal Court (ICC) was established on July 1, 2002 and it works as a permanent tribunal to prosecute criminals that have been charged with war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and crime of aggression. It was founded under the treaty known as the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The official seat of the ICC is in The Hague in Netherlands, however, its proceedings can take place anywhere in the world. Some of the most pressing issues that the ICC has been faced with include human rights and war crimes (such as torture and genocide). Yet, even though this court has been established and it serves as an important part of the legal aspects of the world, many questions have been raised about its role and potential as an instrument of global justice. This has been mostly because of sovereignty issues and conflict over jurisdictions with various countries.

It would be useful to note that before the set up of the ICC, various international crimes were handled by nation-states. These were responsible in trying to capture and punish the perpetuators of the most heinous of crimes. However, it was noticed that this earlier system did not work too well, as the crimes flourished and did not abate. This can be seen from several genocidal campaigns that the world has seen in the past few years. There have been much more massive killings of ethnic and national groups and numerous situations in which war crimes have been extensively committed, such as in Sudan . "In particular, the genocidal attempts in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda are clear examples worth mentioning in this regard. Even though the international community has developed legal instruments to prevent those occurrences, it is evident that they did not succeed. The Genocide Convention of 1948 and the Geneva Conventions of 1949 (hold the states responsible with regard to the rights they guarantee. In addition, especially in case of the crime of genocide, it is generally accepted that it is an international customary rule that any state is responsible for its prevention and for its punishment in case it has been committed in its own territory, even if it is not bound by a treaty requiring doing so" . Looking at such scenarios, we find that it were such problems that supported the idea of the ICC even more. This led the international community to develop a permanent body of law that would work only to address international criminal matters. This led to the creation of the ICC.

It would be useful to consider the role of the ICC in dealing with various international crimes. The ICC deals with some of the most severe and serious crimes that are purporting on the world. One of the reasons why the ICC was established was that there had been a lot of conflict over who was accountable and for whom and the perpetuators mostly went unpunished. "Although the idea that a permanent international criminal court is strongly needed, and therefore, should be created, lingered for a very long time. The realization of that idea has come quite recently. Nation-states, the major and primary actors of the international system, have generally been lenient, if not reluctant, in addressing those kinds of acts. Particularly, concerns over sovereign rights of the states have made them reluctant to get together to discuss the issue up until 1998. Since sovereignty has been the underlying principle in the operation of the international system that is generally believed to be built by sovereign nation-states, states have long refrained from dealing with the issues pertinent to even the gravest crimes in order to show their tribute to the principle of non-intervention. As a consequence, apart from a few examples, human rights issues in general, and international crimes that are the most serious violations of human rights in particular, have not adequately been addressed by the state-based international system" .

The Court, as established by the Statute, is complementary to national criminal justice systems. The principle of complementarity resolves the fundamental problem caused by, say, trying to obtain personal jurisdiction over an alleged terrorist from an overprotective home state. The home state, regardless of whether it is a party to the Statute, first has a chance to prosecute. If the state refuses both prosecution and extradition, under the current enforcement system, justice slowly stops. The consent of the home state is not necessary, however, for the Court to prosecute. If national efforts fail to bring an individual to trial, prosecution can still take place, provided that the alleged offense occurred in the territory of a state party or the U.N. Security Council refers the case to the Court. The jurisdiction of the Court is not concurrent, but rather is subordinate; a default jurisdiction for cases where national courts are unwilling or unable to prosecute. Allowi