the human right to water and sanitation in emergency situations

- Part 1 - International laws applicable in emergencies
CHApTER 5 - INTERNATIONAl CRIMINAl lAW
National authorities have an obligation to criminalize violations of international human rights and humanitarian
law in national legislation and to prosecute and punish those responsible before national courts
and tribunals.
The statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) 26 , the so-called “Rome Statute”, defines a number of
crimes that are considered to be of international concern and which can be investigated and prosecuted
by the court, provided that the court has jurisdiction over these acts. These are included in Box 7.
BoX 7 - Crimes under the Rome Statute
Crimes
against humanity
Defined as acts committed as part of widespread or systematic attack directed
against a civilian population, whether in times of war or peace, including murder,
extermination, enslavement, deportation or forcible transfer of population, arbitrary
imprisonment or other severe deprivation of liberty, rape and sexual violence,
persecution, enforced disappearance, and other inhuman acts intentionally
causing great suffering or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health.
Genocide Defined as acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national,
ethnic, racial or religious group.
War crimes Serious violations of IHL include:
- Grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949;
- Other serious violations of the laws and customs applicable in international armed
conflict, within the established framework of international law;
- In the case of an armed conflict not of an international character, serious violations
of Article 3 common to the four Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949;
and/or
- Other serious violations of the laws and customs applicable in armed conflicts not
of an international character, within the established framework of international law.
Nowadays, the ICC provides perhaps the best hope yet for a uniform system of international accountability.
International criminal law is complementary to national law in the sense that international courts, such
as the ICC, generally only exercise jurisdiction when national courts have proved unwilling or unable to
26/ The “Rome Statute” was adopted in Rome, Italy on 17 July 1998 by the United Nations Diplomatic Conference of Plenipotentiaries
on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court. The Rome Statute is an international treaty, binding only
on those States which formally express their consent to be bound by its provisions. These States then become “Parties”
to the Statute. In accordance with its terms, the Statute entered into force on 1 July 2002, once 60 States had become
Parties. Thus, anyone who commits any of the crimes under the Statute after this date is liable for prosecution by the Court.
Today, 105 States have become Parties to the Statute. The States Parties meet in the Assembly of States Parties which is
the management oversight and legislative body of the Court. The ICC was established not as an organ of the United Nations
but as an independent organization with an independent budget. For more details on the ICC, refer to the following website
www.icc-cpi.int.
© ACF - THE HUMAN RIGHT TO WATER AND SANITATION IN EMERGENCY SITUATIONS
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