International penal court [ CPI ]

    International penal court [ CPI ]

1

PRESENTATION

International penal court [ CPI ], permanent court international, independent of the United Nations, charged to judge the authors of the international crimes: génocides, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and, in the long term, crimes of aggression.

The international penal Court (CPI) is based in the Hague (Netherlands). Entry into force the 1 ^er July 2002, it gathers, at this date, 139 countries signatories and 76 ratifications.

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CREATION OF THE CPI

2. 1

A project of long date

Since 1946, in an international context marked by the traumatism caused by Shoah, one of the first initiatives of United Nations (UNO) is to create the Commission of the international law (TDCI), charged to work out and codify the international law, but also to prepare the statute of an international criminal court. In its turn, Convention for the prevention and the repression of the crime of génocide, adopted on December 9, 1948, considers the creation of an international criminal court. But the project once again remains outstanding, regarded as a Utopia of humanistic. In the years 1990, work of the TDCI leads nevertheless to the establishment of two international penal Tribunals: for ex-Yugoslavia (TPIY) in 1993, and for Rwanda (TPIR) in 1994. With a competence reduced to the territories for which they were created, these courts thus represent a considerable limitation of the preliminary draft.

The will to create a permanent international court becomes again of topicality in 1995 pennies the impulse of the Coalition for the international penal Court, an association joining together more than 100 nongovernmental organizations (ONG) with vocation of defense of the humans right (of which Amnesty International and the international Federation of the Leagues of the humans right).

2. 2

Utopia with the concretization: the statute of Rome

Three years later, July 17, 1998, within the framework of a conference at this meeting in Rome under the aegis of the United Nations, 120 of the States present adopt the treaty of creation of the international penal Court: it is the statute of Rome "Affirming that the most serious crimes which touch the whole of the international community could not remain unpunished and that them repression must be actually ensured by measures taken within the national framework and by the reinforcement of the international co-operation, determined to put a term at the impunity of the authors of these crimes and to thus contribute to the prevention of new crimes (…)" (preamble), the countries signatories agree on an entry according to the international penal Court three months after the sixtieth ratification. To the 1 ^er July 2002, effective date of birth of the CPI, the statute of Rome was signed by 19 additional States, and was ratified by 76 nations.

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COMPETENCES AND MISSIONS

The CPI aims to consider the "crimes most serious which touch the whole of the international community (…) [ It ] competence with regard to the following crimes has: a) The crime of génocide; b) Crimes against humanity; c) war crimes; d) The crime of aggression "It can judge any person (the CPI is not qualified to judge disagreements between States) being made guilty such crimes, civil or military, and this whatever its rank or its official function, the political decision maker or top graded with the simple executant. It can be seized by a State left (i.e. which signed the statute of Rome), the prosecutor or the Security Council of the United Nations.

The creation of the CPI thus devotes the concept of "universal criminal law", instrument of protection of the international law and order. In fact, beyond its mission of sanction of the international crimes, the CPI also posts a clear will of prevention  —according to words' of the Secretary General of the United Nations Kofi Annan: "We wish to see it dissuading the future war criminals, and making so that no government, no State, no junta and no army can nowhere attack the humans right with impunity".

Contrary to the two international penal Courts (TPI) respectively created for ex-Yugoslavia and Rwanda, the CPI does not have an action limited on a given and restricted territory, but can consider all the crimes committed on the territory of any country having ratified the statute of Rome. On the other hand, if the TPI have, as long as they remain in force (namely as long as the objectives which were assigned to them will not have been achieved), primacy on national justices, the CPI intervenes only in second recourse, if justices of the nations concerned cannot or do not want to continue the people committal for trial.

If it has vocation with the universality, the CPI is however confronted with limits registered in its same statutes. Thus, except for a sasine by the Security Council for UNO, the CPI is qualified only if the person committal for trial is amenable to one of the Member States or if the crimes occurred on the territory of a Member State. In addition, it cannot have any retroactive action: only complaints for crimes committed as from the date of its entry into force can thus be admissible, the 1 ^er July 2002, and for the countries having ratified the treaty on this date. For the countries ratifying the treaty after the 1 ^er July 2002, only the crimes committed starting from the effective date of ratification can be taken into account. Lastly, several countries refuse to ratify the statute of Rome, in particular the United States, which refuses to see their nationals exposed to international continuations, whereas they have many troops abroad.

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COMPOSITION AND OPERATION

The CPI is made up of four bodies: the presidency, the rooms, the office of the prosecutor and graft it. The presidency, which is in charge of the good administration of the Court, is consisted the president, the first and the second vice-presidents; those are elected in the majority absolute of the 18 judges of the Court for one three years renewable duration.

The judges of the Court (elected by the States left for a nine years renewable mandate) are divided into sections (rooms): the preliminary room studies the validity of the requests, authorizes or not the opening of an investigation and prepares the procedure; the room of first authority considers the businesses validated by the preliminary room; the room of call considers the businesses carried in call by the prosecutor or the person accused against a judgement given by the preliminary room or of first authority.

The office of the prosecutor is composed of the prosecutor (and possibly of assistant prosecutors), who is elected for nine years by the Parliament of the States left. Its role is to inquire in all independence into the crimes coming under the responsibility of the Court. Lastly, it clerk's office is in charge of the nonlegal aspects (like the information management concerning a business or the communication between the Court and the States).

In 2005, the president of the CPI is the Canadian Philippe Kirsch (elected in March 2003) and the prosecutor is the Argentinian one Shine Moreno-Ocampo (elected in April 2003). The CPI informs three businesses concerning of the crimes committed in democratic Republic of Congo (RDC), in Uganda and in the area of Darfour (Sudan)  —in this last case, sasine comes from the Security Council of UNO.