A Seven Year Assessment of the International Criminal Court: Congressional Panel

Event Description

The twentieth century was the bloodiest on record, with some 174 million people killed in genocides and mass murders. Justice for most victims never came. On 17 July 2009, Citizens for Global Solutions (CGS) hosted this briefing. It looked at the record of the International Criminal Court and the case for U.S. engagement with it. The date was International Justice Day. It came seven years after the Rome Statute, the treaty that created the court, entered into force. The recording above is the first part of Benjamin Ferencz’s remarks; the other parts are linked below.

Senator Dodd’s office helped organize the briefing. By then 109 nations had ratified the treaty. Patricia Wald summarized the report of an American Society of International Law task force. It urged the United States to move toward constructive engagement and to send an observer to the 2010 review conference in Kampala. It also urged a review of the bilateral immunity agreements, in which other countries promised not to hand U.S. citizens to the court. The task force called for one government point of contact. It also called for amending or repealing the American Service-Members’ Protection Act, a U.S. law that limits cooperation with the court. Tod Lindberg made a pragmatic case. He noted that the United States allowed the 2005 Darfur referral and that the court had acted cautiously. Ferencz urged that aggression be made a punishable crime.

Speakers

• Benjamin Ferencz, former Nuremberg prosecutor
• The Hon. Patricia Wald, former judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia; chair of the American Society of International Law task force on the court
• Tod Lindberg, Hoover Institution
• Don Kraus, CEO, Citizens for Global Solutions

Titles are as of the event date.

Recordings

• Don Kraus introduces the panel
• Ben Ferencz, part 1
• Ben Ferencz, part 2
• Patricia Wald, part 1
• Patricia Wald, part 2
• Tod Lindberg, part 1
• Tod Lindberg, part 2

Policy Focus

The International Criminal Court and U.S. policy toward it. The panel weighed engaging with the court before deciding whether to join. It discussed passing domestic law so that U.S. courts could try the same crimes. It also discussed defining the crime of aggression at the 2010 review conference.

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