The International Criminal Court

There can be no global justice unless the worst of crimes -- crimes against humanity -- are subject to the Law. In this age more than ever we recognize that the crime of genocide against one people truly is an assault on us all - a crime against humanity. The establishment of an International Criminal Court will ensure that humanity's response will be swift and will be just.

Kofi Annan

Okay, so the other day, when the Sudanese President al-Bashir was indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), I started to do more research on what exactly the ICC is. I am a firm believer in International Organizations, this world is too complicated and technologically "small" for big democratic nations to not join in with the International Organizations, such as the United Nations, NATO and the International Criminal Court. It makes me think of "no man is an island", well, in effect no country should be either. Well, apparently Mr. Bush seems to think the United States should be..

Now some background:
In July of 1998, the United Nations state members convened in Rome, to discuss the possibility of such a court. Kofi Annan, who was then the United Nations Secretary General said this:

Now at last, thanks to the hard work of the States that participated in the United Nations Conference over the last five weeks - and indeed for many more months before that - we shall have a permanent court to judge the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole: genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Kofi Annan

This meeting in Rome, is now known as the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
President Bill Clinton signed the treaty on the last day it was available to be signed.. December 31, 2000, and this is part of what he said on that day:

The United States is today signing the 1998 Rome Treaty on the International Criminal Court. In taking this action, we join more than 130 other countries that have signed by the December 31, 2000 deadline established in the treaty. We do so to reaffirm our strong support for international accountability and for bringing to justice perpetrators of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. We do so as well because we wish to remain engaged in making the I.C.C. an instrument of impartial and effective justice in the years to come.

President Bill Clinton

However, after the Bush Administration entered office, on May 6, 2002 President Bush nullified President Clinton's signature. The Rome Statute was to go in effect on July 1, 2002. His claim was that the ICC "may initiate politically-motivated prosecutions against US nationals."

As the United States works to bring peace around the whole world, our diplomats and our soldiers could be dragged into this court," Bush said. "And that's very troubling to me. We'll try to work out the impasse at the United Nations but one thing we're not going to do is sign on to the International Criminal Court.

President George W Bush

I understand that he says he wants to protect our soldiers and diplomats. But if we're not doing anything wrong.. Why would we have anything to hide? It's not like the ICC can just bring up false charges. It has rules, and regulations, just like any other court in a government body.

Human Rights Watch, a popular organization that does just that, watches out and tries to ensure human rights around the world, had said this when it was "unsigned."

Unsigning the treaty will throw the United States into opposition against the most important new institution for enforcing human rights in 50 years

Kenneth Roth

Human Rights Watch

Sigh..

here's a current article discussing the court: www.iht.com