International Criminal court

US President economic sanctions against officials of the International Criminal Court (ICC) for their investigation into alleged war crimes by U.S. forces and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Afghanistan since 2003.

• ICC is permanent international court established to investigate, prosecute and try individuals accused of committing the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole, namely genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression.

Limitation of ICC

• Disproportionately targeting the African continent: Of more than two dozen cases, all have dealt with alleged crimes in African states.
• Lack of participation by three permanent members of the UN Security council: China, USA, Russia
• Imposition of certain principles: to transpose principles of liberal democracy to all states, and to impose ‘one-size-fits-all’ solutions in order to provide international justice
• Jurisdiction of the ICC over internal conflicts: could misuse its jurisdiction for political purposes- India wanted war crimes to not include acts committed in the context of an armed conflict not of an international character
• Lack of support: from all states in the world, and the absence of systematic cooperation by states parties to its Statute. Court does not have its own police force.
• Biased character: accused of being a tool of Western imperialism and biased in favour of powerful countries against weak states.

Way Forward

• needs to expand its focus beyond Africa.
• must focus on fairness, local justice and international social justice in order to improve its legitimacy and work
• members have a crucial role to play in supporting Court to provide international justice. Prosecutor must start pursuing party in positions of power in those countries that invite him in or in which he chooses to investigate. 
• To enhance its credibility the court needs to broaden its ambit by including more permanent members of UN and by strengthening of investigations and prosecutions.
• Principal objections of India to the Rome Statute
• Extraordinary privileges given to the UNSC to make referrals to the Court- made the ICC subordinate to the UN Security Council, and thus in effect to its permanent members, and their political interference
• Blurred the legal distinction between normative customary law and treaty obligations, particularly in respect of the definitions of crimes against humanity and their applicability to internal conflicts
• Refused to designate of the use of nuclear weapons and terrorism among crimes within the purview of the ICC, as proposed by India
• Power to initiate cases on his/her own volition given to the ICC Chief Prosecutor.