Ensuring Accountability in Domestic Courts

Equipping national justice systems to investigate and prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide is a crucial element in the fight against impunity for such atrocities. Human Rights First ( the new name for The Lawyers Committee for Human Rights) works actively to strengthen the capacity of legal systems to deliver justice and accountability for these crimes.

A Unique Window of Opportunity

Since the adoption of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court on 17 July 1998, Human Rights First encouraged countries to become party to the Statute. At the same time, the process of ratification opened an unprecedented window of opportunity for strengthening national criminal laws and creating the domestic infrastructure needed to support the emerging international justice system. This window may close again once the momentum generated by ICC ratification has waned.

Establishing a global system for justice and accountability for gross violations of human rights

Human Rights First believes that in order to establish an effective system to ensure justice and accountability around the world for the most serious crimes, each country should develop legislation that:

• Provides the legal basis for states to cooperate with the ICC

Without such legislation, there would be no adequate domestic legal basis for states to cooperate with the ICC once it starts to investigate and prosecute crimes. Since the ICC has neither a police force nor coercive powers, it would be unable, without such legislation, to obtain evidence, arrest and detain suspects, protect witnesses, or seize assets for the compensation of victims.

• Allows domestic prosecution of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide

Legislation is needed in order to provide the legal basis for national legal systems to prosecute genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in their own courts. Because the Rome Statute gives the ICC the power to strip governments of their jurisdiction should they prove “unable or unwilling” to prosecute such crimes, governments have a powerful incentive to investigate and prosecute these crimes domestically. Appropriate national laws are needed to allow domestic courts to exercise their primary responsibility to bring perpetrators to justice - a judicial remedy that has been promoted by human rights advocates for decades.

• Allows for the exercise of universal jurisdiction

In order to ensure the prosecution of the most egregious crimes regardless of where in the world they occur or who commits them, Human Rights First encourages states to introduce universal jurisdiction for the crimes under the Rome Statute. Such jurisdiction is well established in international law. The ICC will not have the capacity or the jurisdictional reach to try all cases when countries with the primary responsibility to prosecute fail to do so. Universal jurisdiction will then provide the missing link to ensure effective prosecution of international criminals.

Human Rights First’s role