The International Criminal Court Gets Jurisdiction over the Crime of Aggression, 14 December 2017

The International Criminal Court Gets Jurisdiction over the Crime of Aggression, 14 December 2017

The ICC’s jurisdiction over the crime of aggression has been activated through the Resolution adopted by consensus by the Assembly of States Parties on 14 December 2017. Crime of aggression was one of the four crimes included in the Rome Statute; however, unlike the other three crimes, the crime of aggression was not defined in the Statute due to the impossibility to reach an agreement in the definition of this crime. The definition of crime of aggression was finally accepted at the Kampala Review Conference in 2010 but the activation of the ICC’s jurisdiction over the crime of aggression was suspended until a decision of the ASP, which would not take place before 1 January 2017. In this regard, the adoption, by consensus, of the resolution to activate the ICC’s jurisdiction is the culmination of a decades-long negotiation process.

 

The text of the Resolution adopted by the Assembly of States Parties