International criminal justice.

‘The International Criminal Court is now operational in The Hague. The United Nations is proud to have played an important role in its establishment and in making arrangements for the commencement of its operation.’ ‘No UN institution – not the Security Council, not the Yugoslav tribunal, not a future ICC – is competent to judge the foreign policy and national security decisions of the United States.’ The world has made revolutionary advances in the criminalisation of domestic and international violence by armed groups and their individual leaders. The 128-article Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) was adopted at the conclusion of the UN Diplomatic Conference on the Establishment of the ICC held at the Food and Agriculture Organisation in Rome from 15 June–17 July 1998. The final vote was 120–7 (including China and the USA, two permanent members of the UN Security Council), with 21 abstentions (including India, representing one-sixth of humanity). Participants included representatives from 160 countries plus 33 observers from intergovernmental and 236 observers from non-governmental organisations (NGOs). The ICC Statute received its sixtieth ratification in April 2002 and came into effect in July 2002. On 22 April 2003 Luis Moreno Ocampo of Argentina, who helped to put his country's former military rulers on trial, was elected as its first prosecutor. By the end of 2004, 135 countries had signed and almost 100 had ratified the Rome Statute. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]