About the ICC

What is the ICC

What is the International Criminal Court (ICC)?

The ICC is a permanent, uniform, and global legal system for dealing with war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide where national courts are either unavailable or unable to prosecute. The ICC prosecutes individuals, not states, and can also prosecute heads of corporations. (The ICC will eventually cover the crime of aggression, but only after countries have agreed on a definition.)

Where did the idea of an International Criminal Court come from?

The actual movement for the creation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) began over 50 years ago. The concept of a formalized system of international criminal justice was addressed by the Nuremburg trials (the prosecution of Nazi criminals following the Second World War).

The International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and the Former Yugoslavia sparked a new awareness of the need for a permanent international criminal court.

In 1994, the International Law Commission completed its project of writing a draft Statute for an international criminal court and the negotiations for the Rome Conference began.

The Rome Statute of the ICC was adopted by 120 states at an international diplomatic conference held in Rome in July 1998. The ICC came into being six months after 60 states ratified, which occurred on July 1, 2002.

The International Court will prosecute for the crimes of: Genocide, War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity

What is genocide?

Genocide is a crime that can take place during peace or war. Genocide is a criminal act with the intention of destroying an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group targeted as such. Examples are:

• Killing members of the group;
• Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
• Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life that are meant to destroy that group (for example, withholding water or food);
• Imposing measures to prevent births within the group (for example, sterilizing the women of the group); and
• Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group (for example, as happened in WWII, where some children were taken from Poland, etc, their identities changed, and sent to Germany to be raised as Germans).

Please see our Lesson Plan on Genocide in the 'Teaching Resources' section of this Campaign Toolkit for further resources.

What is a war crime?

A war crime must take place in an international or internal armed conflict. Unlike crimes against humanity, one isolated act is enough to constitute a war crime. Here are some examples of war crimes:

• Murder (of civilians, in mass, etc);
• Cruel treatment;
• Torture; taking hostages;
• Intentionally attacking peacekeepers;
• Conscripting or enlisting children into armed groups, or using them to participate actively in hostilities; and
• Intentionally directing attacks against civilians.

What is a crime against humanity?

A crime against humanity is a crime that can take place during peace or war (including both international and civil/internal wars) in the context of a widespread course of events that are targeted against any civilian population. These acts are:

• Murder (of civilians, in mass, etc);
• Extermination;
• Enslavement;
• Deportation or forcible transfer of population;
• Imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty;
• Torture;
• Rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity;
• Persecution;
• Enforced disappearance;
• Apartheid; and
• Other inhumane acts causing great suffering, or serious injury (including to mental or physical health).

Chronological time line of the ICC's history