Originally published on the CGS blog on September 9, 2009.
The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno Ocampo, announced today that in the next three years he plans to open four new investigations into war crimes committed around the world. He is currently looking into war crimes committed in Afghanistan, Georgia, Colombia, Kenya and Gaza. By considering war crimes committed by Israeli forces, Ocampo has demonstrated that the ICC constitutes a fair and neutral justice system in which the legitimate concerns of all parties can be addressed without the regional biases that may appear in other national and international institutions.
Of the regions being considered, Afghanistan has dominated the news for being a hotbed of extremism and the site of the NATO war against the Taliban. The ICC will examine the actions of rebels and of NATO coalition forces. Ocampo has said that unless the United Nations Security Council or the Afghanistan Government asks for ICC involvement, the court would not need to launch investigations if the Afghan authorities credibly do so themselves. At this point there is no certainty of the ICC charging anyone, but the parties involved in the Afghanistan fight have accused each other of crimes like torture, mass murder, kidnapping and attacking schools.
While Afghanistan has ratified the treaty that created the ICC, the U.S. is still not a member.
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