NEW YORK (voa) – The world’s first permanent war crimes tribunal has become a reality.
At a ceremony Thursday at U.N. headquarters in New York, 10 nations presented their ratifications, bringing the total number to 66 – 10 more than needed to bring a 1998 Rome treaty into force on July 1.
While many countries and organizations consider the International Criminal Court a human rights milestone, several nations have failed to ratify the treaty, including the United States, China and Russia.
Although the United States signed the treaty under former President Clinton, it was never ratified by Congress. The Bush administration strongly opposes the concept of a permanent international court, because of fears U.S. soldiers could be unfairly prosecuted.
The court, known as the ICC, will be based in The Hague and will try only those cases of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity that countries cannot or will not handle themselves. Its mandate will not be retroactive, and it will have jurisdiction only over crimes committed after July 1 this year.
The impetus to establish the court came after the Bosnian war and the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. The U.N. Security Council has set up temporary tribunals to try individuals for atrocities committed in those cases, and this is the first permanent international court.
