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CHAPTER ONE
CONCEPT OF CRIMES AND THE NECESSITY OF THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT
Introduction
The history of mankind is a chronicle of bloodshed
and violence among people with competing interests, ideologies and
aspirations. In the face of the calamitous historical records, one might
be tempted to conclude that ingrained practices are inexorable and
unalterable and that the final arbiter of irreconcilable disputes
between sovereign states will remain the power of armed might.
However,
significant changes have taken place which points a striking fact that
the old ways are not necessarily immutable, and in a thermonuclear
world, the illogical deduction that the violent past is merely prologue
to the future might turn out to be man’s most suicidal error. The dire
need for justice to take its full course cannot be over-flogged or
over-emphasized:
But there can be no peace without justice, no
justice without law, and no meaningful law without a court to decide
what is just and fair under any given circumstance. The process of
codification, adjudication and enforcement is as vital to a tranquil
international community as it is to any independent national state”.
This was succinctly stated by Benjamin B. Ferencz in his book “An
International Criminal Court, A Step towards World Peace”. He saw the
need for the codification of laws in a bid to achieve justice in its
greatest maximum and a permanent court to implement such goals bringing
it to fruition.
The concept of an international arm code and an
international criminal court are the results of two trends in
international law- The need to punish offenders (individuals) for
international crimes, and the need for an impartial international
tribunal or court; hence the of International Criminal Court. Kofi
Annan, former United Nations Secretary-General said thus:
For nearly
half a century – almost as long as the United Nations has been in
existence – the General Assembly has recognized the need to establish
such a court to prosecute and punish persons responsible for crimes such
as genocide. Many thought… that the horrors of the Second World War –
the camps, the cruelty, the extermination, the Holocaust – could never
happen again. And yet, they have, in Cambodia, Bosnia and Herzegovina
and Rwanda. Our time – this decade even – has shown us that man’s
capacity for evil knows no limits. Genocide… is now a word of our time
too, a heinous reality that calls for a historic response.
The “response” he referred to in his above words of wisdom, is a
permanent court girded and saddled with the responsibility of promoting
justice by holding individuals accountable; to end impunity; to help end
conflicts and ease the transition to peace; to remedy the deficiencies
of ad hoc tribunals and to deter future war crimes.
In the long run,
the great question that comes to play is: “How far has the court fared
in the actualization of its goals. Propagation of justice and the
abatement of international crimes to its bearest minimum”. Thomas
Darnstadt et al equally stated thus in his book. A dangerous luxury: The
International criminal Court’s Dream of Global Justice.
“The
International Criminal Court in the Hague is supposed to bring war
criminals to justice, but it has yet to deliver a single verdict. Can
International law bring peace to war-ran regions – or does it actually
hinder the peace process”.
A cursory look into the history, necessity
and role of the International Criminal Court will therefore be done.
The attitudes of states towards its existence and their cooperation
geared towards supporting the court’s operation will not be left out.
It
is worthy of note that the dangers of international crimes with
particular reference to genocide cannot be over-emphasized and should be
given prompt attention and effective solutions/control strategies
proffered. We seek a climate where the global economy and open trade are
graving, where democratic norms and respect for human dignity and
rights are increasingly accepted and where terrorism, drug trafficking
and international crimes do not undermine stability and peaceful
relations.
1.2 Definition of International Crimes
The prosecution
of severe international crimes is a necessary to enforce international
criminal law and deliver justice to victims. This is an important
component of transitional justice or the process of transforming
societies into rights respecting democracies and addressing past human
rights violations.
What then are International Crimes?
In an early
essay on “International criminal law”, Sir John Fischer Williams opined
that “International crimes” appeared “to have at least two meanings:
one, a crime against international law, and the other, ‘a crime which
brings or may bring an offender into conflict with the laws of more than
one country. It is this second sense which is the most popular use of
the phrase and which is associated with the “International criminal” who
is known to the authorities of more than one Police Force”.
International
crimes has also been broadly defined as “an act universally recognized
as criminal which is considered a grave matter of international concern
and for some valid reasons cannot be left within the exclusive
jurisdiction of the state that would have control over it under ordinary
circumstances”.
This strikes a cord to the fact that international
law imposes criminal liability directly on individuals. Erstwhile, it
was questionable whether “true offenders” could actually be brought to
book and punished accordingly, especially where such laws addressed
itself only to states. It could repress individual conduct only by
authorizing states to do so through their legal systems. However, since
the end of the Second World War, the notion has thus transcended to the
fact that individuals can have both international rights and duties,
“there has been an increasing trend towards the expansion of individual
responsibility directly established under international law.
The
crimes that states are thereby obligated to repress can be classified in
different ways. The most generally useful schemes may be one that
distinguishes between various types of international crimes on the basis
of the degree of official involvement in the conduct constituting the
crime. Accordingly, international crime can be adjudged roughly into
three general heads.
The first general heading includes violations of
international norms directed towards restraining the conduct of state
officials acting under colour of law. Offences under this heading
include; conventional war crimes such as violations of the Hague and
Geneva Convention, in addition are two other categories of crime that
were prosecuted at Nuremberg: Crimes against peace and crimes against
humanity. They are equally known to comprise of the “classical domain”
of international criminal law. By extension this heading includes:
genocide, apartheid and torture.
The second heading includes the
crimes associated with terrorist activities that have been the subject
of the relatively recent conventions. This dwells strictly on criminal
responsibility by individuals. The subject of these conventions is to
deny offenders “safe haven” to close bolt holes. A classical example is
the offence of piracy. “
The third heading covers other acts of
private individuals that have been subjected to treaty prohibition
because they involve either transnational traffic or illicit commodities
(narcotics, endangered species and at one time obscene publication).
International crimes are also classified or categorized as “crimes against the peace and security of mankind”.
Article 16 crime of Aggression
Article 17 Crime of genocide
Article 18 Crime against Humanity
Article 19 Crimes against United Nations and Associated Personnel
Article 20 War Crimes
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