UN General Assembly advances draft Code of Crimes against Peace and Security

Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister A.N.R. Robinson asked the UN General Assembly to consider an international court, initially to address international drug trafficking. The proposal reopened wider...

Security Council Resolution 827 established the ICTY after reports of grave violations in the former Yugoslavia. The ad hoc tribunal revived international criminal prosecutions, but its creation by...

The International Law Commission completed a draft statute for an international criminal court. Its work followed the atrocities in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, and helped shift the debate from a...

Resolution 955 created the ICTR to prosecute genocide and other serious violations committed in Rwanda in 1994. Rwanda voted against the resolution, objecting in part to the tribunal’s limits on the...

The General Assembly established a Preparatory Committee to produce a widely acceptable treaty text. Negotiations covered jurisdiction, complementarity, prosecutor independence, Security Council...

Delegates from 160 states, international organizations and civil society began the conference to negotiate a permanent criminal court. Newly independent and smaller states argued alongside major...

The Rome Statute was adopted by 120 votes to 7, with 21 abstentions. It created a permanent court with jurisdiction over genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, later extended to aggression....

After adoption, the Rome Statute opened for signature. Signature expressed intent to consider ratification but did not itself make a state a party. Several powerful states later stayed outside the...

Article 27 provides that official capacity, including that of a head of state or government, does not exempt a person from criminal responsibility before the Court. The rule rejects status-based...

Article 16 permits the Security Council to defer an investigation or prosecution for renewable 12-month periods under Chapter VII. The provision connected the Court to a political body in which five...