ICC opens investigation into Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Rome Statute entered into force, establishing the ICC as the first permanent treaty-based international criminal court. Its role is complementary: national jurisdictions retain primary...

The Assembly of States Parties held its first session and began establishing the Court’s budgetary, administrative and oversight arrangements. Member states became the institution’s principal...

The Assembly created the Trust Fund for Victims under Rome Statute article 79. The Fund can implement reparations ordered by the Court and provide assistance to victims and families, extending the...

The elected judges took office at the Court’s inaugural session in The Hague. The Court began building an institution with chambers, a prosecutor, registry, defence counsel system and victims’...

The Assembly of States Parties elected Argentine jurist Luis Moreno Ocampo as the first Prosecutor. His office would decide which situations to investigate within the jurisdiction conferred by the...

Following Uganda’s self-referral, the Prosecutor opened the Court’s first investigation, focused on the Lord’s Resistance Army. The referral enabled ICC action but narrowed the initial focus toward...

UN Security Council Resolution 1593 referred the situation in Darfur to the Court, the first such referral. Sudan was not a Rome Statute party. The referral extended jurisdiction but exempted...

The Court unsealed warrants for five senior LRA figures, including Joseph Kony. The warrants marked the Court’s first arrest requests. Their practical force depended on governments capturing and...

DRC authorities transferred Lubanga to The Hague, making him the first person detained by the ICC. His trial concerned conscripting and enlisting children under 15 and using them in hostilities. The...

Pre-Trial Chamber I confirmed charges of conscripting, enlisting and using children under 15 in hostilities. This was the first confirmation of charges in ICC history. The Court’s narrow charge...