Yesterday, the American Bar Association (ABA) and the international community celebrated International Criminal Justice Day. https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/aba-news-archives/2017/07/statement_of_abapre.html
In particular, the ABA and the international community recognized that 15 years ago the International Criminal Court (ICC) was created. Today depending on your perspective the ICC has accomplished significant victories in bringing prosecutions and holding trials that have been judged to meet international standards of fairness. However, the ICC suffers from a shortage of resources and inability to implement its orders. Its reliance on other countries to carry out arrest warrants and requests for witnesses to testify mean that in a number of cases countries do not comply. Just as in national courts many cases are politicized. Many , if not most defendants, have significant resources and utilize criminalized power structures to resist indictment or prosecution by the ICC.
As some of the key powers, such as the China, United States, and Russia are not members of the ICC, the Court often lacks the ability to carry out its mandates.
As the production and distribution of arms, including sophisticated weapons like drones, increasingly become available to both state and non-state actors, the ability of persons in international and internal conflicts to perpetrate mass destruction becomes easier and the growth of international atrocities outpaces the ability of the ICC and the international community to stop such conflicts and adjudicate the violations of the laws of war.
Increasingly, one of the values of the ICC is to help other ad hoc criminal tribunals as the latter try to develop and implement norms to meet best standards of operation.
Leave a Reply