FACTBOX-What is the International Criminal Court
Sept 30 (Reuters) - The International Criminal Court prosecutor intends to pursue charges against "those most responsible" for Kenya's 2008 post-election violence. [ID:nLU7010]
The Hague-based court has been ready to step in if the Kenyan government did not come up with a way of putting on trial those accused of causing violence that killed at least 1,300 people in east Africa's biggest economy. Here are some facts on the court: WHAT IS THE ICC?
* The United Nations has ad hoc tribunals dealing with abuses in former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, but the ICC is the first permanent court set up to try individuals for genocide, war crimes and other major human rights violations. * The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court was established on July 17, 1998, when 120 states participating in a conference on the court adopted the treaty.
* The statute needed a minimum of 60 ratifications to come into force, which it reached in April 2002 and the treaty entered into force on July 1, 2002. The court is now supported by 104 nations, although still not by Russia, China and the United States, which opposed the creation of the ICC, fearing it would be used for politically motivated prosecutions of its citizens.
* The ICC launched its first investigations in 2004, into crimes in Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda, and issued its first arrest warrants in 2005 for five leaders of the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda, accused of stoking 19 years of conflict. The governments of both countries had asked the ICC to investigate. * The U.N. Security Council voted in March 2005 to refer war crimes cases in Sudan's Darfur to the ICC, the first time it has made a referral to the court in what was seen as a victory for supporters of the ICC. Formal investigations began in June 2005. * The court only has jurisdiction with respect to crimes committed after July 1, 2002, in countries that have ratified its treaty. However, the ICC can also prosecute if the Security Council refers a case to it regarding crimes committed in a country that is not a signatory to the treaty. * The ICC is separate from the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the highest legal authority of the United Nations which is also based in The Hague and which was inaugurated in 1946 to resolve disputes between states.
SOME RECENT CASES:
* At present at the ICC Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo are awaiting trial. They are accused of attacking civilians, using child soldiers and being responsible for rape committed by subordinates in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
* Congolese rebel warlord Jean-Pierre Bemba is facing trial on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Bemba is accused of leading rebels from the Democratic Republic of Congo in a campaign of torture, rape and murder in the neighbouring Central African Republic. Bemba, who was arrested in Belgium in May 2008, denies all the charges.
* An arrest warrant was issued by the ICC in March 2009 for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir over charges of crimes against humanity in Sudan's conflict-ridden Darfur region. (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: africa.reuters.com/ ) (Writing by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit)
