Hague Court: objective, emergence and action

O Hague Court was created through the Rome Statute, a document signed in 1998, and officially entered into force in July 2002, when the minimum number of ratifications for the court to function was formed. He is active in international law prosecuting serious crimes such as war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The Hague Court is currently ratified by 123 countries and serves as the last instance in the judgment of four types of crime. The court's action takes place when the failure of the judiciary in a given country to impose justice is proven. Currently, there are four conviction cases carried out by this institution.

readmore: Human rights and their importance to everyone

Understanding the Hague Court

The International Criminal Court, or Court of The Hague, is located in the city of The Hague in the Netherlands.[1]

O Hague Court, also known as CourtcriminalInternational (ICC) or International Criminal Court, entered into force in 2002. Its creation happened through the StatuteinPomegranate

, a document drawn up in Rome in 1998, which dealt with the creation of a permanent international court. (The name by which this institution is known in Brazil takes into account the place in which it is established: the city of Hague, in the Netherlands.)

The Hague Court operates within the branch of RightInternational, and its jurisdiction is limited to countries that have signed and ratified the Rome Statute. Currently there are 123 countries that ratified it and therefore can have individuals tried by the international court. this court is responsible for judging individuals and non-states, as the judgment of States falls under the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice, a judicial body linked to the UN.

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Currently, the presidency of the Court of The Hague is under the responsibility of the Nigerian judge Chile Eboe-Osuji. He has been in charge of the court since 2018, when he replaced Argentina's Silva Fernández de Gurmendi.

Purpose of the Hague Court

Nigerian judge Chile Eboe-Osuji has been the president of the International Criminal Court since mid-2018.[2]

The Hague Court is responsible for the judgment of the following infractions:

• Crimes of genocide;

• Crimes against humanity;

• War crimes;

• Crimes of aggression.

Thus, the Court in The Hague conducts the trial of individuals who have committed these four types of crimes, with a view to preventing them from happening again.

As mentioned, the role of the Hague Tribunal is limited to countries that have signed and ratified the Rome Statute and functions as last legal instance, when it was demonstrated that the judiciary of a certain country failed to carry out justice, either due to incapacity or lack of political interest. In addition, it is necessary that the accused (defendants) are delivered in The Hague so that members of that court can pass judgment.

readmore: Red Cross - institution responsible for protecting people in places of conflict

Emergence: the Rome Statute

Assembly of Member States of the International Criminal Court. Currently, 123 countries are considered to be Member States of the ICC.[2]

The Hague Court arose because of the need for a permanent and independent court who acted in the trial and prevention of international crimes. The Rome Statute was the result of a long effort that stretched from the end of the Second World War for the creation of a body of the type.

At the end of that conflict, two courts were created to judge the crimes committed by individuals from Germany and Japan. Nuremberg and Tokyo. Efforts were made in the following decades to create a permanent international court, and based on them the Rome Conference in July 1998 took place.

At this conference, members from 148 countries came together and reached the compromise known as the Rome Statute. In this statute, the first article defined:

An International Criminal Court ("the Court") is created by this instrument. The Court will be a permanent institution, with jurisdiction over the persons responsible for the most serious crimes. seriousness with international scope, in accordance with this Statute, and will be complementary to criminal jurisdictions nationals. The jurisdiction and functioning of the Court shall be governed by this Statute|1|.

The document was approved in a vote that had 120 votes in favour, 7 against and 21 abstentions. The vote, however, was secret and the vote was not registered, but it was found that the seven contrary countries to its adoption were: StatesUnited, China, Israel, Iraq, Libya, Qatar and Yemen.

Article 126 of the Rome Statute includes the term that determined the criteria for the Hague Tribunal to enter into force. In that article it was determined that the court would enter into force the following month after the 60-day period following the 60th ratification signature.

The 60th signing of ratification of the Rome Statute took place in April 2002, when 10 countries ratified the document. simultaneously: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ireland, Jordan, Mongolia, Niger, Romania and Slovakia. Thus, the court came into effect on July 1, 2002.

Before the official creation of the International Criminal Court, two symbolic international court cases took place in the 1990s. The first case was the International Criminal Court for the former Yugoslavia, responsible for prosecuting serious crimes that took place during the break-up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. This court existed between 1993 and 2017.

The second case was the International Criminal Court for Rwanda, who judged serious crimes committed during the Rwandan Civil War, particularly because of the genocide that took place in that country in 1994. This court was in force from 1994 to 2015.

Currently, the Rome Statute is signed by 123 countries. It is these, therefore, that fall under the jurisdiction of The Hague, but it is good to remember that the performance of The Hague is always complementary to the judiciary of each of the 123 countries and that their autonomy is not violated by the court International.

Since the Hague Tribunal entered into force, only two countries have decided to withdraw from the ratification of the Rome Statute: Burundi and the Philippines. As a result, both are outside the jurisdiction of the court. Two other countries showed interest in withdrawing their signature, but withdrew from this action: South Africa and The Gambia.

Accessalso: Bosnian War - conflict marked by crimes of genocide

Performance of the Hague Court

To date, the Hague Court has opened 28 cases, four of which have resulted in convictions. The four convicts were:

• ThomasLubanga: former rebel leader of the Democratic Republic of Congo sentenced to 14 years in prison. Lubanga committed a war crime by recruiting children to participate in the conflict in his country between 2002 and 2003. He has been in jail since 2012.

• GermainKatanga: Former military of the Democratic Republic of Congo convicted in 2014 of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Among the crimes committed by Katanga are the looting and massacre of civilians in the village of Bororo. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison, with a period of six years and eight months (Sep/2007 to May/2014) being deducted from his sentence in which he was imprisoned before his sentence.

• BoscoNtaganda: former general of the army of the Democratic Republic of Congo accused of several war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in his country between 2002 and 2003. In November 2019, Ntaganda was sentenced to 30 years in prison, deducting a period of six years and eight months (Mar/2013 to Nov/2019) in which he had already been imprisoned.

• Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi: Malian teacher who joined Anser Dine, a group linked to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghrib. He was charged with war crimes for attacking historic and religious buildings in Timbuktu, Mali. In 2016, he was sentenced to nine years in prison by the ICC.

There was also a condemnation of the vice president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Jean-Pierra Bemba, for crimes against humanity committed in the Central African Republic between 2002 and 2003. Bemba's conviction came in 2016, when the sentence determined that he would be jailed for 18 years, but in June 2018, his defense appeal was able to reverse the sentence, and he ended up being acquitted.

There are 13 complaints under investigation by the Court in The Hague, and these investigations are taking place in the following countries: Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Sudan, Central African Republic (two investigations), Kenya, Libya, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Georgia, Burundi, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Afghanistan.

In addition, the prosecutor of the Court of The Hague is conducting other investigationspreliminary in the following locations: Iraq, United Kingdom, Colombia, Guinea, Nigeria, Palestine, Philippines, Ukraine and Venezuela (two investigations). If consistent evidence of crimes is found, these preliminary investigations may result in formal allegations.

Note

|1| Rome Statute. To access, click on here.

Image credits

[1] Roman Yanushevisky and Shutterstock

[2] MikeChappazo and Shutterstock

By Daniel Neves
History teacher