FACT SHEET

THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT

Since the creation of the United Nations, the International Law Committee (ILC) was charged with the task of codifying the juridical principles first applied by the Nurenberg tribunal. The onset of the cold war quickly brought the ILC work in this field to a standstill - which would thereafter last for almost forty years.

After 1989 two major changes intervened: a new international climate resulting from the end of the cold war; and a growing consensus around the French idea of a humanitarian droit d'ingérence, i.e. the right of interfering in domestic affairs when basic human rights are threatened. Following a specific initiative taken by Trinidad and Tobago, the procedures to arrive at the institution of an International Criminal Court were eventually reactivated.

Thus, in May 1994 the ILC finalized a first draft of the Court's statute. In the meantime, the international outrage surrounding the crimes perpetrated in former yugoslavia led to the creation, on the part of the UN Security Council, of an ad hoc Tribunal with a mandate and a jurisdiction on such crimes.

No Peace Without Justice, a Non-governmental Organization carrying out international campaigns for the rapid institution of an International Criminal Court, played a prominent lobbying role for the creation of the ad hoc Tribunal on former Yugoslavia.

In November 1994, the 49th session of the UN General Assembly set up a Preparatory Committee charged with the review of the ILC draft Statute and the preparation of a consolidated text for the establishment of the International Criminal Court. On the same occasion, the Italian government - through its ad hoc Representative, Ms. Emma Bonino - offered to host the plenipotentiaries' conference for the Court's institution. An offer reiterated ever since.

The Prep-Com convened in 1995 and has thus far agreed on the definition of three basic crimes on which the Court's jurisdiction should be based: crimes against humanity, genocide, and war crimes. Other categories of crimes may be taken into consideration at a later stage.

The Prep-Com held its last session on August 30, 1996, by inviting the General Assembly to renew its mandate through 1998, and to convene in the course of the same year the Plenipotentiaries' Conference on the establishment of the Court.