Review Conference of the International Criminal Court Statute

A Review Conference of the International Criminal Court Statute is due to take place sometime after July 2009 to consider amendments to the treaty that founded the International Criminal Court.

The International Criminal Court was established in 2002 by the Rome Statute as a permanent tribunal to prosecute individuals accused of the most serious crimes of international concern. The Rome Statute provided that a review conference be held seven years after the entry into force, which happened in July 2002. See Article 123 of the Rome Statute]

cope of Conference

The Review Conference may consider any amendments to the Rome Statute and the Statute made specific reference to reviewing the list of crimes within the court's jurisdiction. The final resolution when the Rome Statute was signed specifically recommended that the review should reconsider including drug trafficking and terrorism in the list of crimes, and also agreeing a definition of aggression so that the court can exercise its jurisdiction over this crime. [Amnesty International, 2 November 2006. [http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGIOR400372006 International Criminal Court: Concerns at the fifth session of the Assembly of States Parties] . Accessed 2006-12-05.] The transitional provision of Article 124 regarding the war crimes opt-out must also discussed at the review.

The definition of the crime of aggression is currently being discussed by a "SpecialWorking Group on the Crime of Aggression" which was established in 2002 by the court's members and is chaired by Liechtenstein. PDFlink| [http://www.icc-cpi.int/library/asp/ICC-ASP-5-INF2_English.pdf "Review Conference: scenarios and options"] |69.4 KiB , Rolf Einar Fife, 2006-11-21, accessed 2006-12-05] [http://www.iccnow.org/?mod=aggression Crime of Aggression] , "Coalition for the International Criminal Court", accessed on 2007-10-05]

Any amendments require the agreement of two thirds of member countries to be adopted and the ratification of 87.5% for the amendment to come into force. See Article 121 of the Rome Statute] However, amendments relating to the definition of crimes apply only to those member countries that ratify the amendment. There is some disagreement as to whether an amendment relating to the definition of the crime of aggression would fall into this category or not. [ [http://www.iccnow.org/documents/ICC_ASP5_SWGCA_070116_eng.pdf Discussion paper proposed by the Chairman] , "International Criminal Court - Assembly of State Parties", 2007-01-16, accessed on 2007-10-14 See footnote 1 on page 3]

Proposals

Drug Trafficking

In September 2007, Trinidad and Tobago specifically called for drug trafficking to be included in the list of crimes. [ [http://www.hardbeatnews.com/editor/RTE/my_documents/my_files/details.asp?newsid=13795&title=Top%20Stories Trinidad Ambassador Wants International Court To Include Drug Crimes] , "Heat Beat News", 2007-10-04, accessed on 2007-10-05]

Targeting of Journalists

The British television media company, ITN, wrote to the UK government in 2007 asking them to support an amendment to the definition of war crimes to include the intentional targeting of journalists. [ [http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,,2192417,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=4 ITN seeks law to protect war reporters] , "The Guardian", 2007-10-16, accessed on 2007-10-29]

References