International Criminal Court
The International Criminal Court (ICC) was created on 1 July 2002.[1] It investigates and punishes people for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. It is sometimes called the ICC or the ICCt.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ae/International_Criminal_Court_logo.svg/220px-International_Criminal_Court_logo.svg.png)
The ICC's main office is in The Hague in The Netherlands. It has smaller offices in New York City, Kampala, Kinshasa, Bunia, Abéché and Bangui.[2]
The ICC is different from the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The main difference is that ICJ settles arguments between countries, but the ICC punishes people.
Members
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/83/ICC_member_states_world_map.png/350px-ICC_member_states_world_map.png)
On 1 January 2008, 105 countries were members of the ICC.[3] These countries have a duty to help the ICC.
Nearly all the countries in Europe and South America are members, and about half the countries in Africa are members. Only a few countries in Asia have joined.
What kind of crimes does the ICC investigate?
The ICC can normally only investigate three kinds of crime:[4]
- Crimes that were committed in member-countries
- Crimes that were committed by people from member-countries
- Crimes that the United Nations Security Council wants the ICC to investigate
The ICC can only investigate crimes that happened after 1 July 2002. It can only open a case when national courts are not able to or do not want to. If a national court is investigating or prosecuting a case, the ICC is not allowed to.[5]
Who does what?
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3d/Building_of_the_International_Criminal_Court_in_The_Hague.jpg/220px-Building_of_the_International_Criminal_Court_in_The_Hague.jpg)
There are 18 judges in the ICC.[6] They all come from member-countries of the ICC.[7] No two judges can come from the same country.[7]
The prosecutor's job is to investigate crimes. If he finds evidence that a person did something wrong, he asks the judges to start a trial.
The ICC is managed by an "Assembly of States Parties".[8][9] The Assembly elects the judges and the prosecutor.[9] Each ICC member-country has one vote in the Assembly.[9]
Cases
The ICC has opened investigations in four places: Northern Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic and Darfur.[10]
The ICC has arrested three people. They are all from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Thomas Lubanga is accused of using children to make war.[11] Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui are both accused of murder, sexual slavery, using children to make war, and other crimes.[12][13]