GENOCIDE        WATCH

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is an intergovernmental organization and international tribunal that is located in The Hague, Netherlands. The ICC has the authority to prosecute individuals for international crimes. The ICC’s jurisdiction includes the prosecuting individuals for crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression. The ICC is meant to complement existing national judicial systems so it can only exercise its jurisdiction if the national judicial system is unwilling or unable to prosecute the criminals. Additionally, the ICC does not have universal jurisdiction so it may only investigate and prosecute crimes committed within member states, crimes committed by nationals of member states, or crimes in situations that are referred to the Court by the United Nations Security Council. If a state is not a member of the Rome Statute treaty, then individuals in their states cannot be investigated or prosecuted for crimes under the ICC’s jurisdiction. As of November 2019, there are 123 ICC member states and 42 states that are non-party, non-signatory states.