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Multiple Avenues for State Cooperation with the International Criminal Court – Part Two

March 12, 2020

Freya Baetens

Yesterday’s post (see here) discussed witness protection and the release of temporarily or permanently acquitted defendants as potential avenues for State cooperation with the ICC. Today’s post will consider further opportunities for such cooperation and conclude with some general observations on the issue. Detainees’ family visits Many detainees cannot afford to take their families with them to The Hague or to fly them over for regular visits. It is, however, important that such visits take place: both for the defendant, as experience shows that defendants who maintain contact with their families are more cooperative, less violent and in better physical and mental health, but also for the family members themselves, who do not stand accused of having committed any crimes. For this reason, the Assembly of States Parties of the ICC has set up a Voluntary Fund – again external to the main ICC budget. Four States used to contribute to this Fund, but one of these withdrew from the Statute (the Philippines) and the other three…

Multiple Avenues for State Cooperation with the International Criminal Court – Part One

March 11, 2020

Freya Baetens

The issue of obtaining State cooperation in prosecutions of criminal suspects is one of the biggest challenges facing the International Criminal Court (ICC). While States are supposed to have clear and binding obligations under Part 9 of the Rome Statute, sometimes those legal obligations are frustrated. As a result, the ICC has adopted an approach that involves ‘multiple…

False Positives, False Negatives, and Prosecutorial Discretion regarding the Jurisdiction of the ICC

March 9, 2020

Anthony Abato

Critics of the ICC Prosecutor’s request for a determination under article 19(3) in the Situation in the State of Palestine are right to point out that she could have simply launched an investigation without seeking such a ruling. As this critique goes, the Prosecutor has the authority to investigate a State referral without seeking the…

The International Criminal Court Independent Expert Review: reforming the Court: Part III

February 10, 2020

Douglas Guilfoyle

Editor's Note: This post is Part III of a three-part series. Read Part I here and Part II here. In the first two parts of this series of posts, I examined the background to and structure of the 2020 Independent Expert Review (IER) of the International Criminal Court. The IER tasked…

The International Criminal Court Independent Expert Review: reforming the Court: Part II

February 7, 2020

Douglas Guilfoyle

Editor's note: This post is Part II of a three-part series. Read Part I here. In part one of this series of posts, I outlined the background to the 18th International Criminal Court Assembly of State Parties (ASP) adopting a resolution establishing an Independent Expert Review (IER) of the Court to…

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Recent reports regarding the possible use of chemical weapons in Syria are very disturbing indeed. If it turns out that there is concrete evidence that chemical weapons have been used, many will hope this will (finally) provoke action by the Security Council. There will inevitably be calls for accountability of those responsible and hopes that the Syrian situation will be referred…

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Last week, the UN General Assembly voted by 138 to 9 (with 41 abstaining) “to accord to Palestine non-member observer State status in the United Nations”. Thus, Palestine which has been an observer at the UN since 1974 has had its status within the UN upgraded to being an observer State. There has been much euphoria on…