An Introduction To The International Criminal Court - Institute for ...

creation of the court 19
and the drafting of the Elements of Crimes, 60 which elaborate upon the definitions
of offences in Articles 6, 7 and 8 of the Statute. The Commission met
the deadline of 30 June 2000, set for it by the Final Act, for the completion of
the Rules and the Elements. 61 Other tasks included drafting an agreement
with the United Nations on the relationship between the two organisations,
preparation of a host State agreement with the Netherlands, which is to be
the seat of the Court, and documents to direct or resolve a range of essentially
administrative issues, such as the preliminary budget. An Agreement
on the Privileges and Immunities of the International Criminal Court was
also adopted. It provides personnel of the Court with a range of special
measures analogous to those of United Nations personnel and diplomats.
It is up to individual States to sign and ratify this treaty. 62 The Preparatory
Commission held ten sessions, concluding its work in July 2002 just as the
Statute was entering into force, although it did not formally dissolve until
September 2002.
The Statute required sixty ratifications or accessions for entry into force.
The date of entry into force – 1 July 2002 – is an important one, if only
because the Court cannot prosecute crimes committed prior to entry into
force. Entry into force also began the real formalities of establishing the
Court, such as the election of judges and Prosecutor. States were also invited
to sign the Statute, which is a preliminary step indicating their intention to
ratify. They were given until the end of 2000 to do so, and some 139 availed
themselves of the opportunity. Even States that had voted against the Statute
at the Rome Conference, such as the United States and Israel, ultimately
decided to sign. States wishing to join the Court who did not deposit their
signatures by the 31 December 2000 deadline are said to accede to, rather
than ratify, the Statute. 63
Senegal was the first to ratify the Statute, on 2 February 1999, followed
by Trinidad and Tobago two months later. The pace of ratification was
speedier and more dramatic than anyone had realistically expected. By the
second anniversary of the adoption of the Statute, fourteen ratifications had
60 Provided for in Art. 9 of the Rome Statute.
61 ‘Elements of Crimes’, ICC-ASP/1/3, pp. 108–55; ‘Rules of Procedure and Evidence’, ICC-ASP/1/3,
pp. 10–107.
62 ‘Agreement on the Privileges and Immunities of the International Criminal Court’, ICC-ASP/1/3,
pp. 215–32. See Phakiso Mochochoko, ‘The Agreement on Privileges and Immunities in the
International Criminal Court’, (2002) 25 Fordham International Law Journal 638.
63 There have been three accessions: by Dominica and Afghanistan, which never signed the Statute;
and by Timor Leste, which did not even exist as a sovereign State until May 2002.