The International Criminal Court was created as a treaty between 123 countries and its main purpose is to help end impunity for the perpetrators of the most serious crimes of concern to the international community. The ICC is governed by the Rome Statute and has international jurisdiction under aggression, crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide. One of the most serious issues that the court has dealt with various times is the international crime of genocide. In the Rome Statute Article 6, “genocide” is defined by killing members of a group, harming members of a group, deliberately inflicting physical destruction to the whole or a part of the group, imposing measures to prevent births within certain members of a group, or forcibly …show more content…
This difference may be because the Darfur case is very recent and the Holocaust was during a World War in which the allies were active. However, an important perspective is that in the Darfur genocide only the president has had a trial of these crimes, although there are so many other actors that can be found responsible for genocide under the Rome Statute article 6 or of the other three jurisdictions that the court has. While in the Nuremberg trials, they gathered major players of the Nazi regime to trial within the same year that the war ended, excluding Adolf Hitler and others who committed suicide. The level of importance on both of these cases are both significant thus, why does it …show more content…
The convention on the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide was adopted by the general assembly on Dec. 9, 1948. However, has the ICC helped prevent other criminal acts such as genocide from occurring? According to the Rome Statute, the ICC has temporary jurisdiction only with respect to crimes committed after the entry into force of this statute. Thus, the ICC cannot really do anything in order to help prevent such actions from happening. However, territorial jurisdiction can prevent the state parties that have ratified the Rome Statute. Territorial jurisdiction is when the ICC has jurisdiction over crimes committed within the state parties. In order to exercise any of these jurisdictions the prosecutor has to get a state referral so that they can investigate the case and decide whether it is necessary to send out warrants or to hold tribunals for any individual. The prosecutor can also initiate investigations on the basis of information on crimes within the jurisdiction of the court. As well as when a criminal action has occurred various times, the Security Council may refer these cases to the prosecutor for further research on the