The ICC: Cosmic Justice On An International Scale
By Ann Huggett (09/21/03)
Claiming that it had historical precedent and was established to promote the rule of law, the International Criminal Court was founded July 17, 1998 by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court in a diplomatic meeting of plenipotentiaries organized by the United Nations. The Court actually went into force on July 1, 2002 when the minimum requirement of a 60 nations membership level was reached. As of July 14, 2003 there were 92 member nations, all subject to the court and its rulings.
Based in The Hague, the ICC claims the jurisdiction to prosecute those individuals responsible for the worst crimes against humanity, such as genocide and war crimes, irrespective of whether that nation's courts considers the actions of its individuals as crimes or not. Unwilling to submit itself to an international body considering itself superior to US Constitutional law and understanding that the court could easily devolve into a punitive body intent on show trials against those heads of state whose policies are in conflict with progressive politics, the United States refused to join.
It was wise to refuse. Going to the ICC's own web site, a quick check shows that the ICC has not posted any of its cases although it does have an actual caseload. Instead of prosecuting ICC member Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni for human rights violations by his military in Northern Uganda against unarmed civilians, the ICC is now a vehicle of harassment against UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and other senior members of his cabinet for his country's participation in the Iraq War. Greek lawyers brought the suite in the ICC; the Greek government was quietly for the war but 90% of the Greek population was not.
The Greek lawyers from the Athens Bar Council are charging the UK of 20 specific war crimes among which are civilian casualties, the cutting of water supplies, the destruction of food supplies, destruction of the environment, and bombing of civilian residences. The Greeks lawyers stated that, "The repeated, blatant violations by the United States and Britain of the stipulations of the four 1949 Geneva conventions, the 1954 convention of the Hague as well as the charter of the international criminal court, constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity. "[The accused] intended to cause severe psychological distress or major physical or psychological damage to individuals who enjoy the protection of the Geneva conventions."
Blair will be required to appear before the court if the chief prosecutor of the ICC, Luis Moreno Ocampo, feels that the case has merit. The US is named but it is Britain that is bearing the brunt of the accusations. Observers note that even though the US is not subject to the court's jurisdiction, the suite is intended as an indirect attack on US President George Bush by attacking Blair.
There have been forty over suits brought before the ICC over the Iraq War and all so far have been dismissed. However, it is precisely this type of suit that gives validity to critics of the ICC and justifies the US refusal to join. By immediately devolving the ICC into a kangaroo court set up by the UN while ignoring actual gross violations of international law to pursue foreign policy disputes among nations acting in international best interests in the War on Terror, lawyers have exposed the very weaknesses inherent in the ICC.
As stated earlier, the ICC was specifically designed to provide a worldwide understanding of the rule of law. However, if the ICC's concept of laws are vague, bent, twisted, warped, or broken in order to prosecute/harass national leaders acting in their best interests against enemies, who have struck directly or aided in committing acts of warfare/terror, then the ICC is not only just another worthless exercise in international control started by the UN but dangerous as well. Peace is not secured by suing those nations and leaders actively engaged in rooting out tyranny and terror nor is justice served by concocting vague allegations of environmental damage while an ICC mass murderer member like Cambodia or a narco-terrorist nation like Albania get free passes.
The ICC needs to clean its own house first before it allows its members to provide the judges and counselors for its courtrooms. The rule of law applies impartially to everyone. It is not a creature of the whims or fancies of the latest fads and legal theories as hallucinated in The Hague. In order for the law to be honored and upheld it must not be administered by the guilty against the innocent.
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