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Netherlands pleased that aggression is to be prosecuted at international level
The Netherlands is pleased that the International Criminal Court (ICC) has been granted new powers to prosecute the crime of aggression. The agreement emerged from a conference reviewing the Rome Statute, which forms the legal basis for the ICC.
The new powers enable the Court, which has its seat in The Hague, to prosecute political or military leaders who carry out attacks which, by their ‘character, gravity and scale constitute a manifest violation of the Charter of the United Nations’.
‘In the fight against impunity for those who threaten international peace and security, this is a notable victory’, foreign minister Maxime Verhagen said following the Review Conference of the Statute of Rome, which concluded on Saturday in the Ugandan capital, Kampala.
The Netherlands has worked tirelessly in recent years to build bridges and help achieve consensus among the States Parties to the Rome Statute.
The ICC’s new powers will not take effect overnight. The actual exercise of jurisdiction will be subject to a decision to be taken by the States Parties after 1 January 2017.
Awarding the power to prosecute the crime of aggression is a major expansion of the ICC's jurisdiction, which currently extends to genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.