International Criminal Court's ( ICC ) chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo listens to questions at a news conference in The Hague March 3, 2011. The International Criminal Court prosecutor said on Thursday Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and members of his inner circle could be investigated for alleged crimes committed against civilians by security forces.Reuters
International Criminal Court's ( ICC ) chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo listens to questions at a news conference in The Hague March 3, 2011. The International Criminal Court prosecutor said on Thursday Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and members of his inner circle could be investigated for alleged crimes committed against civilians by security forces.ReutersThomas Lubanga, a leader of the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC), talks to villagers near the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo town of Bunia in Ituri district in this June 5, 2003 file photo.ReutersA protester defaces a picture of Sudanese President Bachir outside the Sudanese Embassy in London July 14, 2008. Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir t became the first sitting head of state to be charged by the International Criminal Court.reutersU.S. President Barack Obama will deploy 100 military personnel to central Africa in the hope of catching LRA leader Joseph Kony.ReutersCongolese opposition figure Jean-Pierre Bemba sits in court at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands October 19, 2010. The ICC said on Tuesday it would pursue a war crimes trial of Bemba, rejecting a defence appeal seeking to dismiss the case.ReutersKenya's finance minister Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta addresses a news conference in his office in the capital Nairobi, December 15, 2010. Kenyatta is one of several Kenyan government ministers and a former police chief which the International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo has named as suspects behind the east African country's post-election violence in 2008.ReutersA combination of photos shows Saif al-Islam (L) during an interview with Reuters in Tripoli March 10, 2011, and his father Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in Damascus March 29, 2008. A war crimes prosecutor on May 16, 2011 sought an arrest warrant for Muammar Gaddafi, accusing him of killing protesters against his four-decade rule,reuters
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is the first ever permanent, treaty based, international criminal court established to promote the rule of law and ensure that the gravest international crimes do not go unpunished and is complementary to national criminal jurisdictions. It was set up in the wake of genocide in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda and created in 2002 by the Rome Statute Treaty.
While the court is widely understood to be a great international achievement, it has also been crippled by the refusal of some of the world's most powerful countries to recognise its jurisdiction amid concerns about sovereignty and the targeting of soldiers, officials or heads of state with arrest warrants.
The US, Russia, China, India and all Middle Eastern countries, including Libya, are among those who not a signatory to the ICC treaty, which has been ratified by 114 out of 193 officially recognised states.
The ICC currently has thirteen cases in five countries :The Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Uganda, The Central African Republic and Kenya. A new country could soon be added to the Hague tribunal's proceedings after Chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo recently requested arrest warrants to be issued against Col gaddafi, his son,Saif Al'Islam, and his intelligence chief Abdullah Senussi.
