The International Criminal Court: Its

roles and functions

When an african war criminal commits genocide or any other war crime on

civilians and nothing is being done because of the lack of African courts, the

International Criminal Court steps in to resolve the problem. The ICC, or International

Criminal Court, is an international court of justice that deals with crimes of genocide,

crimes of humanity, war crimes, and crimes of aggression. In their own words, "The

International Criminal Court (ICC) investigates and, where warranted, tries individuals

charged with the gravest crimes of concern to the international community: genocide,

war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression" (ICC, 2023). It was

founded along with a treaty called "The Rome Statute" which grants the organization

with jurisdiction over the four aforementioned crimes. Though a majority of the

individuals they've prosecuted are African (Oumar Ba, 2021), the ICC also has plenty of

state parties such as the Republic of Korea, Brazil, Finland, the United Kingdom, and

many more that cooperates with the ICC. From learning what the ICC is really about, it

wouldn't take a genius to realize that their role is to complement the criminal justice

system of their state parties and to prosecute individuals breaking at least one of the

four serious crimes they have jurisdiction over. In relation to their roles, the functions of

the ICC would then be about cooperating with its state parties to carry out its mandates

and to conduct impartial trials and ensure that justice is properly delivered.

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 When an individual is accussed of breaking one of the four aforementioned

crimes but cannot be taken to trial by a nation or state party, for some reason, the

International Criminal Court can then take over the process in their stead and take the

individual to trial. This is one of the roles of the ICC, in which it complements the

criminal justice systems of its state parties and other nations that agreed with them for

cooperation. The ICC mostly cooperates with its state parties, but it also plans to

increase its ongoing cooperations with other nations which had garnered some success

as it successfully came with a cooperation agreement with the United Nations. This

agreement isn't enough for the ICC though as it still tries to bridge more cooperations

with other nations that aren't a member to their state party.

When the ICC takes an individual for trial, they can then perform their second

role. The International Criminal Court's second role is prosecute those responsible for

breaking the laws under their jurisdiction. With this role, the ICC must make sure the

accused is either guilty beyond a reasonable doubt or completely innocent. However,

the ICC can only take the individual for trial only if the criminal justice system of the

individual's nation is unwilling or unable to deliver justice. If the individual is declared as

guilty, the ICC can then serve the sentence in all of the countries cooperating with The

International Criminal Court.

Because the ICC does not have its own body that enforces its sentences, one

function of the ICC is to cooperate with state parties and other countries to carry out

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their mandates. The ICC relies on cooperation between their organization and with

other nations for their sentences. Whenever an accused is determined as guilty, the ICC

will have to cooperate and agree with other nations in order to get them to follow

through their mandates. They do this because they don't have jurisdiction over every

nation on earth. Some nations might not even recognize their authority so the ICC

needs the support of other countries to persuade the non-cooperating ones. They also

can't ensure that their mandates are implemented correctly which is why they really

need to cooperate with other countries.

Another function of theirs would be to conduct fair and impartial trials with proper

procedures for the accused, so that justice is delivered to the proper person. The ICC

still follows proper procedures to prevent any arbitrary decision from being made such .

Because the crimes that the ICC have jurisdiction over have very serious punishments,

they'll need to make sure the ones being sentenced is guilty beyond a reasonable

doubt. It's also because having impartial trials with proper procedures can prevent any

mistakes to occur for a much fairer trial and it'll be more safe and efficient to have

proper procedures in the first place. Having a fair trial with proper procedures set in

place would be more efficient for the ICC as the crimes they tackle are serious enough

that they need to make sure it isn't an innocent person they're declaring as guilty.

When a war criminal, for some reason, can't really be prosecuted by their

government, the International Criminal Court steps up as a last resort. The ICC tackles

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against offenders who've commited the most heinous of crimes like genocide, crimes

against humanity, crimes of aggression, and war crimes. The ICC holds the authority to

prosecute others even internationally because of the "Rome Statute," a treaty made to

grant the ICC jurisdiction over the four aforementioned crimes to those countries that

agreed with their rules. However, the ICC is only a last resort and does not have an

enforcing body to enact their decisions. To resolve this, the ICC cooperates with

countries around the world to ensure their mandates are followed through and uses its

state parties to pressure other nations to abide by their mandates. The ICC also needs

to ensure their trials are fair and impartial with proper procedures being followed to be

more efficient and to more importantly avoid making mistake that'll sentence the wrong

person. In conclusion, the International Criminal Court is an organization that steps in as

a last resort to deal with individuals accused of very heinous crimes, complementing the

criminal justice system of every nation by only stepping in when others are unwilling or

unable to and prosecuting the accused, giving them a fair trial to determine whether

they are guilty or innocent. It cooperates with every country to follow through their

mandates and aims to bring fair and impartial trials along with proper procedures to

avoid mistakes and fully determine the verdict of the accused. It might not be a perfect

or powerful court, but it's a noble one that's needed by every nation.