The International Criminal Court (ICC)

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International Criminal Court
From Transnational, no. 13, 16 June 1997. On June 19–20 the first of several conferences will take place in Paris on the establishment of the International Criminal Court.
Main issues in establishing world criminal court
Reuter, 18 August 1997. Key issues under negotiation by an inter-governmental committee working toward creating the world's first permanent International Criminal Court (ICC). A five-week treaty conference is expected to be held in Rome next June.
Crunch time for ICC
OneWorld, 26 May 1998. Crunch time for the setting up of a permanent International Criminal Court. Last meetings of the Preparatory Committee have ironed out many of the difficulties. But the decision-making Diplomatic Conference, scheduled for 15 June to 17 July in Rome with the possibility of representatives of 185 UN Member States being present, will certainly need to be diplomatic.
US moves to rein in international criminal court
By Ian Black, The Guardian (London), Thursday 18 June 1998. The United States yesterday imposed strict limits on the role of a planned international criminal court, which human rights groups warned could enable any tyrant to block his own prosecution. The court, which is likely to sit in The Hague, will not have retroactive powers and would step in only if national judiciaries were unwilling or unable to act.
The internationalization of justice
Proceso, editorial, 24 June 1998. Convened by the United Nations, the community of nations is meeting in Rome to establish an International Criminal Court which would try those accused of crimes against humanity, crimes against human rights and war crimes which national courts refuse to try.
Worldwide War Crimes Court Is Approved
By Thomas W. Lippman, Washington Post, Saturday 18 July 1998. Delegates from more than 100 countries voted overwhelmingly yesterday to create a permanent international court to try suspected war criminals and perpetrators of genocide. They rejected U.S. objections to key provisions, making it unlikely the US will participate in the creation or operation of a tribunal it had worked hard to create.
International Criminal Court: Today, October 7 1998 at 3 P.M ceremony for No Peace without Justice, warns about any possible boycott of the ratification process
No Peace without Justice, press release, Roma, 7 October 1998. At a Ceremony held at Palazzetto Trevi, 19 countries have signed today the Rome Treaty for the establishment of the International Criminal Court. It took the international community 50 years to obtain the statute of the first permanent institution with jurisdiction of the most serious violations of humanitarian law.
U.S. to persevere against criminal court
By Paul Lewis, The Globe and Mail, 26 July 1999. The United States is expected to continue its campaign against potential politically inspired warcrimes prosecutions at a conference about the proposed International Criminal Court that is to begin at the United Nations today.
U.S. Republicans step up campaign against global court
Reuters, ABC.com, Wednesday 29 November 2000. U.S. Republican lawmakers stepped up their drive on Wednesday to get bipartisan support for legislation against the world's first permanent criminal court, saying the United States and Israel could become the targets of politically-motivated prosecutions. But an Israeli official, Justice Minister Yossi Beilin, disagreed.
Israel opts out of war crimes court
Reuters, 1 July 2002. The Israeli government has voted against joining the first world criminal court, fearing it might be hauled up to face charges over the building of Jewish settlements on land it captured in war. Seventy-four countries have signed and ratified the treaty, but neither Israel nor its superpower ally the United States has done so.
US seeking a 'two-tier' system of international justice
By Andrew Buncombe, The Independent, 4 July 2002. The concept of extraterritoriality in the Chinese Treaty Ports. The United States is trying to force a controversial plan through the UN Security Council that would give itself immunity from the new International Criminal Court, creating what some condemned as a two-tier system of justice.
Why Washington battles the International Criminal Court
By John Catalinotto, Workers World, 19 September 2002. The real reason for the US refusing to agree with the ICC is to free the White House and the Pentagon for waging wars, overthrow governments or slaughter a country's labor leaders. A top Bush official: “The top public officials—President Bush, Secretary Rumsfeld, Secretary Powell—they are at the heart of our concern.”
Universal jurisdiction undermined
Opinion article, The Hindu, Thursday 10 October 2002. The US seeks to make general the limited exemption from the jurisdiction of the Court that they have thus far agreed to grant U.S. citizens. The Europeans had decided that only U.S. military personnel and diplomats would be exempt from the jurisdiction of the Court. Washington's reservations become even more difficult to understand in view of the principle of complementarity on which the Court is based.