For the first time in the war stricken story of mankind, waging aggressive wars has become a prosecutable crime in international law and given precise meaning and teeth before the ICC - this on the strength of an unexpected consensus reached between member states of the Court (or in ICC terminology 'states parties').
The conference in Kampala concluded with the adoption of a resolution that at last defined the crime of aggression listed in Article 5 of the Rome Statute - the Court's founding treaty - using the UN General Assembly Resolution 3314 (XXIX) as a guide.
The resolution, in effect, criminalises the use of force (for example: blockades, invasions, bombardments) against another country in violation of the Charter of the United Nations; giving the Court the power to try future political and military leaders who plan, prepare, initiate or execute illegal wars, and to hold them (individually) criminally responsible for the commission of this new, and long-overdue, international crime.
Equally importantly, the Kampala resolution settled the conditions under which the ICC could exercise jurisdiction over the crime.
ICC makes waging war a crime
Two United Nations experts have called on Israel to immediately release Palestinian doctor Hussam Abu Safiya...
The firing of Attorney General Pam Bondi, who received widespread criticism for her handling of the...
An Israeli soldier has shared a photo online in which he appears to use a blindfolded...
Authorities have ruled that the death of Nurul Amin Shah, a 56-year-old Rohingya refugee from Myanmar...
