An outside view of the new complex of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, The Netherlands. Picture by Robin Utrecht/ABACA/PA Images. All rights reserved.In a world where states very reluctantly - if ever - cede powers to supranational organisations, the ICC has seen 124 states ratify its Rome Statute. The adolescent court is also seeing its jurisdiction expand this year to include a new crime: the crime of aggression.
Added in the last hours of the drafting of the Rome Statute in 1988, due to the dogged persistence of three Nuremberg Trial prosecutors throughout the night, the crime was mentioned in the Statute but its definition was left for later. Later was 2010, when an amendment to the Rome Statute containing the definition was agreed on by state parties in Kampala. The result of intense and lengthy negotiations, the addition was praised as a historic achievement for international criminal law. That was not the end of it, though: the amendment then had to be ratified by 30 states to come into force. In June 2016, the State of Palestine became the 30th to ratify it, allowing the court to exercise jurisdiction over the crime of aggression after the 1st of January 2017. The Assembly of States party to the Rome Statute are expected to vote to activate that jurisdiction this year.
The crime of aggression is referred to as being the planning, initiation or execution, by a political or military decision-maker, of the use of armed force by a state against another. The Rome Statute provides a list of acts that qualify as an act of aggression, including invasion or attack, bombardment, blockade of ports or coasts, and even the sending of mercenaries against another state.
