Looking back, looking ahead - reflections from the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC. (International Criminal Court)

• Published date: 22 March 2012
• Author: Bensouda, Fatou
• Date: 22 March 2012

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Thank you for being here, and thank you to the Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute for this very kind invitation.

Today I would like to share with you some reflections in relation to the International Criminal Court ("ICC"), a unique institution of which I have the privilege and the responsibility to be the Prosecutor. I will look back on some historical developments; I will discuss current activities and challenges for the Office; and finally I will look ahead, and take this opportunity to present to you some ideas to deal with today's global problems, and more importantly prevent them from reoccurring.

The ICC was created in 1998 by the Rome Statute. (1) The Statute defines the mission of the Office of the Prosecutor ("OTP"): to put an end to impunity for the most serious crimes of concern to the international community--genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes--and thereby contribute to the prevention of such crimes. The OTP and the Court itself are part of a new system of international justice created by the Statute. There are now 121 State Parties to the Rome Statute, the latest member being the Guatemala, all committed to prevent and punish massive crimes, using the rule of law to protect their own citizens. (2) This is a twenty-first century institution.

We cannot overemphasize the role of institutions. The world is facing different international problems, which in turn require regulation: climate change, international trade, international finances, and international crimes. The two areas in which we can see some progress are those where international institutions were created to manage the challenges: international trade and massive crimes; the World Trade Organization, and the ICC Rome Statute.

Sixty years ago, with the Nuremberg Trials, for the first time, those who committed massive crimes were held accountable before the international community. For the first time, the victors of a conflict chose the law to define responsibilities.

In the words of the Nuremberg Prosecutor Justice Robert H. Jackson:

That four great nations, flushed with victory and stung with injure stay the hand of vengeance and voluntarily submit their captive enemies to the judgement of law is one of the most significant tributes that power has ever paid to reason.

Nuremberg was a landmark. However, the world was not ready to transform such a landmark into a lasting institution.

In the end, the world would wait for almost half a century after Nuremberg, and would witness again two genocides--first in the Former Yugoslavia, and then in Rwanda--before the UN Security Council decided to create the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, thus connecting peace and international justice again.

The ad hoc tribunals paved the way for the decision of the international community to establish a permanent criminal court, to avoid a repetition of its past experiences. A court built upon the lessons of decades when the world had failed to prevent massive crimes.

The ICC Rome Statute was created in 1998 in Rome during the UN Diplomatic Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court and added an independent and permanent justice component to the world's efforts to achieve peace and security. As UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon stated in 2007, "The rule of law is a fundamental principle on which the United Nations was established.... International criminal justice, a concept based on the premise that the achievement of justice provides a firmer foundation for lasting peace, has become a defining aspect of the work of the Organization." (3)

The ICC Rome Statute offers a solution, as a new instrument of peace creating global governance without a global Government but with international law and courts. The Court was built as a matter of realism, as a form of protection. That is the main point: accountability and the rule of law...