Brussels, 12/03/2003 (Agence Europe) - The eighteen judges of the International Criminal Court, who met on Tuesday for the Court inaugural session, took their oaths and elected their President and Vice-Presidents. Canadian Philippe Kirsch will preside over the Court, assisted by Akue Kuenyehida of Ghana, and the Costa Rican, Elizabeth Odio Benito. The public Prosecutor, for which post there is no candidate at present, is to be elected in April. The Court, which took up its duties on I July 2002, is not yet operational, but has already received over 200 cases. At the time of writing, 89 countries out of 39 signatories, have ratified the Court's statutes.
The International Criminal Court is the first permanent international competent court to prosecute individuals accused of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Complaints can be brought on the initiative of a party state, the Prosecutor (notably on the basis of a complaint from an individual or an NGO), or the Security Council. The Security Council is the only body which can decided to pursue actions committed by a state or by a national of a state which does not adhere to the ICC's statutes. Its competence will not override that of national legal systems, and it will only be allowed to take action when the countries in question are not able to or do not wish to investigate or to bring legal proceedings. The ICC's jurisdiction will not be retroactive; the Court will not be able to investigate crimes committed before it entered into force on 1 July 2002.
The Commissioner for External Relations, Chris Patten, welcomed "an historical success, perhaps the greatest development in the field of international law since the United Nations came into being". He believes that the Court "sends out a strong signal (…) there is no longer any such thing as impunity" to those who may commit war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. The President of the European Parliament, Pat Cox, who also welcomed the creation of the Court, criticized the United States in a press release. The US withdrew its signature from the Court statutes, and attempted to impose bilateral agreements making it impossible for their nationals ever to be brought before the Court. Some twenty countries have already caved in to American pressure. After the discussions that shook the EU last year, no Member States have signed these agreement. Spain, Italy and the UK, which were inclined to do so, finally gave up the idea. Of the candidate countries, only Romania signed an agreement with the United States, but promised not to ratify it as a result of pressure from the EU. The United States, incidentally, were not represented at the inaugural session in The Hague.