This dissertation seeks to explore the principle of complementarity, its advantages and its success so far through the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) self-referral to the International Criminal Court (ICC). It seeks also to investigate whether there are loopholes in the principle of complementarity, especially with regard to referrals by the Security Council involving states that are not parties to the Rome Statute. In particular the dissertation seeks to explore whether states can use this principle to hamper the efforts of the ICC to bring justice to victims of the most serious crimes of international concern and to end impunity / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2008. / A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Law University of Pretoria, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Masters of Law (LLM in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa). Prepared under the supervision of Dr Raymond Koen of the Faculty of Law, University of Western Cape, South Africa / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/ / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

Thesis (LLM)--University of Stellenbosch, 2002. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The permanent International Criminal Court (ICC) will come into operation after the 60th ratification of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court of 1998. The ICC will have jurisdiction over the most serious international crimes, namely war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. The focus of this thesis is the difficulties surrounding the admissibility of a case before the ICC. There are basically two legs to this analysis: jurisdiction and complementarity .. Jurisdiction of the ICC is analysed in historical and theoretical context. This comprises an overview of the international tribunals since the First World War, and more specifically their impact on the development of jurisdiction in international criminal law. Secondly, the thesis is examining the jurisdiction of the ICC in terms of the specific provisions of the Rome Statute. This analysis comprises a detailed analysis of all the provisions of the Rome Statute that have an impact on the exercise of the ICC's jurisdiction. The relationship between the ICC and national courts is a difficult relationship based on a compromise at the Rome Conference in 1998. The principle underlying this relationship is known as "complementarity". This : means that the ICC will only exercise its jurisdiction if a national court is "unwilling" or "unable" to exercise its jurisdiction. A detailed analysis of the different provisions of the Rome Statute, as well as some references to other international tribunals, serve to analyse the impact of complementarity on the eventual ambit of the ICC's jurisdiction. In conclusion, some suggestions regarding the admissibility of cases and the difficult relationship between the ICC and national courts are made. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die permanente Internasionale Strafhof (ISH) sal met sy werksaamhede begin na die 60ste ratifikasie van die Statuut van Rome van 1998. Die ISH sal jurisdiksie uitoefen oor die ernstigste internasionale misdade, tewete oorlogsmisdade, volksmoord en misdade teen die mensdom. Hierdie tesis fokus op die probleme rondom die toelaatbaarheid van 'n saak voor die ISH. Hierdie ontleding het basies twee bene: jurisdiksie en komplementariteit. Die jurisdiksie van die ISH word in historiese en teoretiese konteks ontleed. Dit behels 'n oorsig van die internasionale tribunale sedert die Eerste Wêreldoorlog, en meer spesifiek die impak wat hierdie tribunale op die ontwikkeling van jurisdiksie in die internasionale strafreg gehad het. In die tweede plek word jurisdiksie ontleed aan die hand van die spesifieke bepalings van die Statuut van Rome. Hierdie ontleding behels 'n gedetaileerde ontleding van al die bepalings van die Statuut van Rome wat 'n impak het op die uitoefening van die ISH se jurisdiksie. Die verhouding tussen die ISH en nasionale howe is 'n komplekse verhouding, gebaseer op 'n kompromie wat by die Rome Konferensie van 1998 aangegaan is. Die beginselonderliggend aan hierdie verhouding staan bekend as "komplementariteit". Dit beteken dat die ISH slegs sy jurisdiksie sal uitoefen indien 'n nasionale hof "onwillig" of "nie in staat is" om jurisdiksie uit te oefen nie. 'n Gedetaileerde ontleding van die verskillende bepalings van die Statuut van Rome, sowel as verwysings na ander internasionale tribunale, dien om die impak van komplementariteit op die omvang van die ISH se jurisdiksie, te ontleed. Ten slotte word sekere voorstelle aangaande die toelaatbaarheid van sake en die verhouding tussen die ISH en nasionale howe gemaak.

Magister Legum - LLM

Title of the dissertation: The Rome Statute's Crime of Aggression following the Kampala Review Conference The definition of crime of aggression was adopted in 2010 to fill the gap in article 5 (2) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court ("ICC"). Complicated discussions preceding the adoption have identified many problematic aspects within the definition, including the relationship between the ICC and the UN Security Council ("SC") - whether the SC would be the only body capable to commence proceedings for the crime of aggression or not; further including the legal status of humanitarian intervention for the purposes of its criminalization under the Rome Statute; position of a perpetrator of the crime - should only leaders be considered perpetrators or should "lower" state officials be included; how should the amendment enter into force - under article 121 (4) or 121 (5) of the Rome Statute; etc. Many of these questions have not been answered by the adopted definition in a satisfactory way and so while the international community was celebrating the success of the adoption of the "supreme crime's" definition, many (including the author of this dissertation) have been seriously disappointed by the short-comings of the adopted text. Scholars continue to better understand the...

1 Victims of the Gravest Crimes: The Role of Victims in Legal Proceedings Before the International Criminal Court Abstract This thesis analyzes the role of victims in the proceedings before the International Criminal Court, or the so-called victims' mandate of the ICC. The purpose is to comprehensively introduce their rights as well as the way in which this regulation is being applied. Therefore, the research question has two parts. The first part inquires into the current design of the victim's rights before the Court, while the second asks about the results of its application to the present day. Answers offered by the author of the thesis appear respectively in the second and the third chapter. The first chapter is focused on a historical development of the position of victims in the system of international criminal justice. It is of introductory nature and serves to highlight the historically unprecedented character of the role of victims before the ICC. Regarding the research method, the thesis analyzes the role of victims of crimes prosecuted by the ICC from both, theoretical as well as empirical angle. The purpose is to practically and comprehensively describe the regulation of victims before the ICC but also go beyond the "letter of the law" to see the legal regulation within its material context -...

Die vorliegende Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Frage, inwieweit Geschädigte von völkerstrafrechtlichen Verbrechen sich am Verfahren vor dem Internationalen Strafgerichtshof (IStGH) beteiligen können. Im Jahr 1998 wurde das Rom Statut des IStGH errichtet, welches erstmalig im Völkerstrafrecht die Möglichkeit für Geschädigte vorsieht, über die „Beteiligung“ als Zeuge hinaus aktiv am Verfahren vor dem IStGH teilzunehmen. Die Arbeit setzt die Normen des Rom Statuts zunächst in einen historischen Kontext. Sodann wird die Auslegung der Normen in den unterschiedlichen Verfahrensabschnitten umfassend anhand der gängigen Interpretationsmechanismen sowie der bisherigen Rechtsprechung erläutert. Da die Auslegung der Normen aufgrund der teilweise sehr weiten Fassung der Normen und der fehlenden Rechtsprechung weitestgehend ungeklärt war und zum großen Teil immernoch ist, stellt die Erläuterung der Auslegungsmöglichkeiten einen Schwerpunkt der Arbeit dar. Es erfolgt sodann eine Auseinandersetzung mit der Frage, inwieweit die bestehenden Regeln auf der einen Seite den Wünschen und Erwartungen der Geschädigten entsprechen, und inwieweit sie auf der anderen Seite mit den Rechten der Angeklagten und übergeordneten Interessen in Übereinstimmung zu bringen sind. Es werden Alternativen zum Internationalen Strafgerichtshof untersucht. Die Arbeit zeigt im Ergebnis Möglichkeiten und Grenzen der sogenannten Opferbeteiligung auf und erarbeitet Verbesserungsvorschläge zu dem derzeit bestehenden Modell. / When the Rome Statute for the International Criminal Court was adopted in 1998, one of its innovations was that victims were granted an active role in the proceedings. This thesis is among the first to focus on the International Criminal Court’s power to enable victims to take part in the proceedings. It provides a comprehensive analysis of the legal framework of the participation system, taking into account relevant Court decisions. The study examines the position of victims in international criminal law, especially their rights to participate in all stages of the proceedings. It further explores to which extent the rules of the International Criminal Court correspond to the victims’ needs and wishes and on the other hand how the rules can be reconciled with the rights of the accused and other interests. The extent to which the ICC, as a criminal court, can and will at all help victims to overcome the consequences of war crimes. It will finally be reflected on some possible alternatives.

This thesis argues that the International Criminal Court (ICC) brings a new more deontological paradigm to international interventions, founded upon the universal application of legal principle, and displacing consequentialist notions of justice linked to human rights. Based upon the Court’s Statute and mode of operations, it is argued that this is associated with assumptions concerning the ICC’s primacy, military enforcement, and theory of change. The consequences of this development in volatile contexts are demonstrated. The case study, founded upon analysis from the war-affected community, examines the impact of the International Criminal Court in the Lord’s Resistance Army war, and reveals the relationship between criminal justice enforcement, and community priorities for peace and human rights. On the basis of evidence, and contrary to narratives repeated but unsubstantiated in the literature, it demonstrates that in this case these two imperatives were in opposition to one another. The Court’s pursuit of retributive legal principle was detrimental to the community’s interests in peace and human rights. The subsequent failure of the ICC’s review process to interrogate this important issue is also established. The research establishes that statutory and operational assumptions upon which Court interventions are based do not hold in volatile contexts. For the case study community and elsewhere, this has had adverse impacts, with significant implications for the ICC. The findings indicate that if these issues are not fundamentally addressed, principled international criminal justice enforcement in volatile environments will continue to have profoundly negative human rights consequences.

With its national strength, the United States is, more often than not, a major State initiating the making of important international multilateral treaties and shaping the final outcome by wielding its influence in the negotiation processes. Nevertheless, three major international multilateral treaties concluded in three different domains all appear the same situation in which the U.S. participated actively in the negotiations but ended up rejecting to sign or ratify due to their inconformities with American ¡§national interests.¡¨ The purpose of this thesis is to examine the American proposals and interventions made in the negotiating processes of three important international multilateral treaties, i.e., the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, Kyoto Protocol and Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, so as to understand American negotiation stances as well as the issues to which the U.S. attached importance to and the derive the substantive contents of the ¡§national interests¡¨ that the U.S. held dear. Furthermore, this thesis takes one step further to analyze who were the actors that shaped and defined the ¡§national interests¡¨ which the U.S. valued and held tight.

Resumo: O objetivo desta pesquisa reside na análise dos motivos que explicam a criação do Tribunal Penal Internacional ter ocorrido apenas na década de 1990, precisamente em 1998, sendo que desde o início do século XX já existiam propostas para instauração de uma organização internacional semelhante a essa. Para tanto, são analisados, inicialmente, as origens do processo de internacionalização dos direitos humanos e os antecedentes, tanto institucionais quanto sob a perspectiva dos princípios jurídicos, do Tribunal Penal Internacional. Considerando que as Nações Unidas só voltaram a deliberar sobre este projeto após o término da Guerra Fria, são investigados, também, de que maneira o encerramento desse peculiar conflito, bem como as suas repercussões no âmbito das relações internacionais, influenciaram na retomada e no desenvolvimento das negociações sobre a proposta do Tribunal. Esclarecidos esses motivos, procede-se a uma análise sobre as três fases que compuseram o processo político para a elaboração do Estatuto do Tribunal e culminaram na instauração dessa corte internacional: a inicial, no âmbito da Comissão de Direito Internacional; a intermediária, coordenada pelo Comitê Preparatório, e a final, ocorrida na Conferência de Roma. Encerra-se esta pesquisa discutindo-se os aspectos mais atuais acerca do Tribunal Penal Internacional e os limites da sua criação / Abstract: This research intends to explain the reasons why the International Criminal Court establishment took place just in the nineties, precisely in 1998, but since the begin of the twentieth century there were already proposals for the creation of a international organization like this. In order to accomplish this objective, are analyzed, initially, the origins of the human rights internalization process, and the background, both institutional and from the perspective of legal principals, to the International Criminal Court. Considering that the United Nations just come back to deliberate about this project after the end of the Cold War, are investigated, furthermore, how the end of this particular conflict, including its consequences in the international relations, influenced the resume and the development of the negotiations about the Court proposal. Clarified these reasons, the research is developed with the analysis of the three phases that made up the political process for the elaboration of the Court Statute, and that culminated in the establishment of the International Criminal Court: the first within the International Law Commission, the intermediate, coordinated by the Preparatory Committee, and the final, held at the Rome Conference. This research is concluded by discussing the most current aspects regarding the International Criminal Court and the limits of its creation / Orientador: Samuel Alves Soares / Coorientador: Héctor Luis Saint-Pierre / Banca: Paulo César de Sousa Manduca / Banca: Suzeley Kalil Mathias / Mestre

The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court is a major landmark in the development of international accountability. Its preamble affirms “that the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole must not go unpunished and that their effective prosecution must be ensured by taking measures at the national level and by enhancing international cooperation”. Thus the signatory states were “determined to put an end to impunity for the perpetrators of these crimes and thus to contribute to the prevention of such crimes”. The ICC contributes to the fight against impunity and the establishment of the rule of law by punishing violations of international legal norms. Accountability is important for the past and the future of societies. The ICC needs the support and cooperation of the states to effectively perform its mandate. So without ratification and implementation of the Rome Statute the ICC will not have jurisdiction over non-member states, unless referred by the UN Security Council. The Rome Statute does not only create the ICC but it also creates the national jurisdiction of its States Parties as these states have the primary responsibility to investigate and prosecute Rome Statute crimes. With only five Arab states to date being State Parties to the Rome Statute, it is obvious that the region is underrepresented at the ICC. Despite their positive role played in the creation of the ICC, not ratifying the Rome Statute raises several questions, especially that the majority of states that voted against the Statute were from the Arab region. Ratifying and implementing the Rome Statute will strengthen the Arab states criminal justice system, enabling them to prosecute international crimes domestically and will deter any individual from committing them in the future, regardless his official position. It will also allow the Arab states to have the primary jurisdiction over international crimes and reinforces the entire judicial system. This research will examine the issue of ratification and implementation of the Rome Statute by the Arab states by analysing the reasons, challenges and obstacles of the Arab states for not becoming part of the international criminal justice system.