Achievements

Impunity may be defined as the exemption from consequences of a person’s harmful conduct. Crimes against humanity are committed by persons and not abstract concepts such as states. In the absence of a court to try violators of international criminal law, there is no one to hold such violators responsible for their actions; hence the perpetrators are impliedly encouraged. Through the ICC, human rights violators are held accountable for their actions; hence there is direct prevention of impunity and the general idea that one can get away with violating international criminal law4 .

c) To intervene where national justice systems are unable to act

The outcome of the severe conflict is usually the collapse of crucial national systems such as the judiciary. In other cases, aggressors end up as high-ranking officials of post-conflict regimes. In both instances, it is nigh impossible that the national systems will prosecute the violators of international criminal law. This was the situation in both the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, but ad-hoc international criminal tribunals were able to intervene and bring the perpetrators to book. In the same spirit, the ICC aims to ensure a forum where international criminal law suspects who evade the national criminal justice system can be arraigned and brought to justice.

d) Deterrence

In keeping with one of the overall goals of criminal law, the ICC has an objective of deterring would-be war criminals by meting out punishments proportional to the crime one is found guilty of. In previous times, international law criminals were free to run their campaigns of brutality and violation of human rights without the threat of sanction. However, with the establishment of the ICC, such persons have been noticed that instigating gross violations of human rights will render them personally liable. It is expected that the threat of punishment will serve as a sufficient deterrent against gross violations of international criminal law5 .

e) To end armed conflict

4 Kirsch, Philippe. "The International Criminal Court: current issues and perspectives." Law and Contemporary Problems 64, no. 1 (2001): 3-11. 5 Report of the Secretary-General, 23 August 2004, S/2004/616, para. 49

The ICC shares the values of humanity espoused by the United Nations through the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)6. The ICC’s objective is to ensure that member states comply with international law to ensure that incidents of mass violence and breaches of humanitarian principles are entirely eradicated. By enforcing the international criminal law, the ICC hopes to prevent the recurrence of mass violence by imposing personal responsibility while will serve as a deterrence measure7 .

Achievements

The 2nd president of the ICC, Judge Sang Hyun Song, believes that establishing the court is a significant achievement8. With the advent of the Rome Statute, a new legal regime was created to prosecute international war criminals. The Rome Statute has forced accountability upon regimes all across the world. Presently, the court has helped to develop knowledge about crimes against humanity and genocide to the extent that it is expected that there will be investigations and prosecution in the event of the commission of such crimes.

The ICC and its establishing statute have promoted the welfare of the victims of crimes against humanity and war crimes. The statute places significant emphasis on the protection of victims. Consequently, proceedings before the ICC involve the victims of the crime, and the court is mindful of the interests of the victims during the entire process, including sentencing. Further, a Trust Fund established by the Statute assists victims even beyond the courtroom and has been able to provide financial support to thousands of victims9 .

Today, the ICC leads the clamour for justice and gross human rights violations accountability. People in places that have experienced mass violence, such as the Middle East and North Africa, now demand that oppressive leaders be taken to The Hague10. This situation was not fathomable

6 Song, Sang-Hyun. "The role of the International Criminal Court in ending impunity and establishing the rule of law." UN Chronicle 49, no. 4 (2012): 12-15. 7 Robinson, Darryl. "Serving the interests of justice: Amnesties, truth commissions and the International Criminal Court." European Journal of International Law 14, no. 3 (2003): 481-505. 8 Song, S. "Past achievements and future challenges of the ICC." (2018). 9 Damaška, Mirjan. "The International Criminal Court between aspiration and achievement." UCLA Journal of International Law and Foreign Affairs (2009): 19-35. 10 Mark Kersten. The ICC Three Remarkable Achievements. (2012). <https://justiceinconflict.org/2012/07/09/theicc-three-remarkable-achievements/> Accessed 31st April 2022