Assembly establishes the Trust Fund for Victims

Senegal deposited the first instrument of ratification, signaling early African support for a permanent court. The milestone complicates accounts that treat Africa only as the object of ICC action:...

The signature period ended with 139 signatories. A signature did not equal ratification. The United States signed on the final day under President Bill Clinton, but did not submit the treaty for...

Ten states deposited ratifications in a coordinated ceremony, bringing the total to 66 and triggering the treaty’s entry into force. The Court’s jurisdiction would generally apply only to crimes...

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 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...

The Prosecutor opened an investigation after the DRC referred its situation. The first ICC case concerned recruitment and use of child soldiers by Thomas Lubanga. The case demonstrated the Court’s...

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...