Tagged: Non-State Party

Ukraine: The ICC’s Authority Grows as Another Non-State Party Accepts Its Jurisdiction

Ukraine gained its independence from the former Soviet Union in 1991 when its parliament adopted the Act of Independence. Since then, Ukraine has worked to stabilize and grow as a new sovereign and independent state with the hope of joining the European Union. That hope was quashed in late 2013 when Viktor F. Yanukovych, then-president of Ukraine, won election for the third time (whether he actually won and whether it was done democratically is debated to date) and began to work closely with Russia rather than the European Union.

In November 2013, protests in Kiev and across Ukraine began. These protests continue today, resulting in almost one hundred dead and thousands injured. In light of the situation, Ukraine, not a party to the International Criminal Court (ICC) referred the situation to the Court, via declaration dated April 9, 2014, and accepted the Court’s jurisdiction. The Registrar of the ICC received this declaration on April 17, 2014.

In the Declaration of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Ukraine asks the Court to hold senior officials of Ukraine criminally liable for alleged crimes against humanity committed during peaceful protests that took place in Ukraine between Nov. 21, 2013 and Feb. 22, 2014,

namely Yanukovych Viktor Fedorovych – the President of Ukraine – and other officials to be determined by the Prosecutor….

Ukraine utilized the mechanism under Article 12(3) of the Rome Statute, which “enables a State not party to the Statute to accept the exercise of jurisdiction of the Court.” With acceptance of the jurisdiction comes the cooperation obligations described and enumerated under Part 9 of the Rome Statute. The next step is for the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) to decide whether to initiate investigation into the referred situation. On Friday, April 25, 2014, as reported in the ICC’s press release, Fatima Bensouda

has decided to open preliminary examination into the situation in Ukraine in order to establish whether the Rome Statute criteria for opening an investigation are met.

This is the second time a State that is not party to the Rome Statute referred a situation to the Court. The first situation referred to the Court via the Article 12(3) mechanism was the Situation in the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire. Both situations, Côte d’Ivoire and Ukraine, present an interesting step in the evolution of the ICC’s jurisprudence that was anticipated in the Rome Statute (Article 12(3)) but used only twice. Cases currently pending at the ICC were either referred to the ICC by a State party or the Security Council, or investigation was initiated proprio motu by the Prosecutor. However, Article 12(3) offers a State that has not signed onto and ratified the Rome Statute, an international multilateral treaty, the chance to nevertheless accept the obligations and protections thereunder on a temporary basis.

One may argue that the 12(3) mechanism is circumventing the checks and balances guaranteed in Article 17 of the Statute, which makes the ICC’s jurisdiction complementary to a national jurisdiction. Article 17 states that a case is inadmissible to the ICC where

the case is being investigated or prosecuted by a State which has jurisdiction over it, unless the State is unwilling or unable genuinely to carry out the investigation or prosecution.

But because the process under Article 12(3) is initiated by a State not party to the Statute and is voluntary, it is the State that effectively gives up its own jurisdiction protected via Article 17 and accepts the one of ICC.

And how does this development affect the authority and power of the ICC? Greatly, because it is viewed as an authority with ability to carry out justice even by those who have not yet signed and ratified the Statute.

Related Readings:

Ivory Coast Delivers Suspect to the International Criminal Court

POST WRITTEN BY: Prof. Peter Widulski, Assistant Director of the First Year Legal Skills Program and the Coach of International Criminal Moot Court Team at Pace Law School

On March 22, 2014, Ivory Coast (Côte d´Ivoire) authorities delivered Charles Blé Goudé to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, pursuant to an arrest warrant issued by an ICC Pre-Trial Chamber on December 21, 2011. The warrant was based on information that Blé Goudé bears responsibility for crimes committed by militia forces under his command in the aftermath of the Ivory Coast presidential election in November 2010. After the election, a civil war broke out between forces of former President Laurent Gbagbo (who lost his bid for re-election) and supporters of the newly elected President Alassane Ouattara. More than 3,000 people were killed during this civil war. Blé Goudé, a supporter of Gbagbo, is accused of being responsible as an “indirect co-perpetrator” on four counts of crimes against humanity: murder, rape and other forms of sexual violence, other inhumane acts, and persecution. All of these acts are listed in Article 7 of the ICC’s Rome Statute as the basis for a charge of crimes against humanity “when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population ….”

The Ivory Coast was not a Party to the ICC’s Rome Statute at the time the crimes charged were committed. The Ivory Coast deposited its instrument of ratification of the Rome Statute on February 15, 2013.  However, many years earlier, in April 2003, the Ivory Coast Government under then-President Gbagbo accepted ICC jurisdiction over crimes committed on its territory during a previous period of violence. This was done pursuant to Rome Statute Article 12(3), which provides that a non-State Party may lodge a declaration with the ICC accepting jurisdiction over acts committed on its territory that constitute crimes within the ICC’s subject matter jurisdiction. By letters to the ICC in December 2010 and May 2011, newly elected President Ouattara reaffirmed the validity of the April 2003 Declaration (original) and his government’s willingness to cooperate with the ICC.

Following these letters, the ICC Prosecutor requested authorization from the Pre-Trial Chamber to initiate an investigation of the Ivory Coast Situation, which the Chamber provided in October 2011. The Chamber found that information submitted by the Prosecutor provided reasonable grounds to believe that pro-Gbagbo forces committed crimes against civilians that are within the ICC’s subject matter jurisdiction. Among the materials submitted by the Prosecutor were several public reports authored by Human Rights Watch and by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, informing of murders and rapes committed by pro-Gbagbo forces against civilians who were, or were suspected to be, loyal to Alassane Ouattara.

When two months later, in December 2011, the Pre-Trial Chamber issued the arrest warrant for Blé Goudé, it noted that the Prosecutor’s submission that Blé Goudé is liable as an “indirect co-perpetrator” under Rome Statute Article 25(3)(a) “may well need to be revisited in due course with the parties and participants.” Article 61 of the Rome Statute requires that within a reasonable time after an accused person has been surrendered to the Court, the Pre-Trial Chamber must hold a hearing to confirm the charges. This hearing will provide Blé Goudé an opportunity to challenge the charges against him. It will be the Pre-Trial Chamber’s duty to determine, on the basis of the hearing, whether, pursuant to Article 61(7), “there is sufficient evidence to establish substantial grounds to believe that the person committed each of the crimes charged.” If one or more of the charges are confirmed and the case goes to trial, the Trial Chamber must be convinced, pursuant to Article 66(3), of the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.