From Spectators to Champions: How Supportive States Can Promote Cooperation with the International Criminal Court through Multilateral Bodies
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has a record of significant successes in bringing defendants into custody. However, perilously for the ICC’s future, its upcoming docket is dominated by politically challenging investigations involving actors that are openly or quietly hostile to the court, or parties that lack a legal obligation to cooperate with it. These include new investigations spanning Georgia, Burundi, Myanmar and Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Palestine, and the Philippines, as well as potential investigations in Ukraine and Nigeria. The ICC has already faced difficulties in obtaining cooperation in the past, with the possibility that this challenge will be exacerbated in the future.
This briefing paper offers recommendations as to how the ICC should approach cooperation challenges, as well as how states that are supportive of its work could leverage multilateral bodies’ support to influence reluctant governments to cooperate with the ICC to advance investigations, arrests, and prosecutions. Over time, states have failed to promote such support with consistency. Among other findings, the briefing paper concludes that:
- The ICC Assembly of States Parties (Assembly) should expect non-cooperation and prepare for it in each situation.
- The Assembly should be responsive to signals of non-cooperation and actively participate in ensuing diplomacy.
- The Assembly should call for cooperation consistently with respect to all ICC situations and clearly name non-cooperating states when that situation arises.
- Individual Assembly members should support cooperation diplomacy.
- The ICC should strengthen its capacity to track fugitives through voluntary funding or the program budget.
- The ICC prosecutor should more readily request non-cooperation findings and ICC judges should expedite the process for non-cooperation referrals.
- New officials in leadership roles should meet and discuss expectations.
These recommendations are based on an analysis of patterns in how states have or have not used multilateral institutions to help tribunals obtain cooperation from reluctant governments.
2020–2021 International Criminal Court Prosecutor Election Process: Insights and Recommendations for Future Elections
Building on the Justice Initiative’s advocacy efforts to improve election and nomination procedures throughout the International Criminal Court, and drawing on a range of interviews conducted with individuals engaged in the process, this paper reflects on the prosecutor’s election and offers guidance on how it can be improved.
Electing the Next Judges of the International Criminal Court: Principles and Essential Skills
This briefing paper outlines the steps member states should prioritize during the elections of six new judges to the International Criminal Court to ensure the highest caliber candidates are elected.
The Justice Initiative Releases New Recommendations for the Election of the ICC Prosecutor
Following the election of the third prosecutor in the history of the International Criminal Court (ICC), the Justice Initiative, an active observer of the election process, has released a series of recommendations for future elections.