Magister Legum - LLM / This research paper examines whether the International Criminal Court has the competence to compel the appearance of witnesses before it, and if the States Parties to the Rome Statute have an obligation to serve and enforce a witness summons issued by the Court. In December 2013 the Office of the Prosecutor requested the International Criminal Court to summon witnesses and ascribed to the Court the power to order some States Parties to enforce witness summonses. The defence counsel in the particular case and the Kenyan government, the requested State Party, opposed the request. In April 2014 Trial Chamber V (A) of the International Criminal Court delivered a decision on that matter in which it found that it had indeed the power to compel witnesses and to order Kenya to enforce the summonses. The decision was confirmed on appeal in October 2014. This paper analyses the issue with reference to the decision of the Trial Chamber, the judgement of the Appeals Chamber, and the assertions by the parties in the present case. It also introduces other approaches on how to deal with this issue. The paper essentially analyses the text of the Rome Statute, the history of its drafting, and compares the enabling laws and jurisdictional competence of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the Special Court for Sierra Leone with regard to the theme under discussion. The paper furthermore analyses how the domestic laws of some states deal with the matter. Finally it examines the measures that the ICC can implement to enforce its orders.

Yes

Magister Legum - LLM

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Magister Legum - LLM

La saisine de la Cour pénale internationale désigne l'ensemble des mécanismes d'ouverture de l'instance pénale internationale. Elle naît formellement de l'acte introductif d'instance qui peut être le fait des États parties au Statut, du Conseil de sécurité de l'ONU et du Procureur. Les procédures diligentées à la suite des saisines ont pour finalité de situer la responsabilité pénale individuelle et de réprimer les violations massives des droits de l'homme et du droit international humanitaire. L'évaluation de la pratique sélective des saisines permet de déceler la lenteur des procédures en cours. Si cette lenteur a des justifications endogènes, elle est explicable, au plan exogène, par les rapports complexes que la juridiction entretient avec les États au regard du principe de complémentarité. Il en est de même de l'emprise du Conseil de sécurité de l'ONU sur la compétence de la Cour et le traitement des saisines. Par ailleurs, en raison de l'exécution discutable de l'obligation de coopération par les États, la CPI assure avec difficulté l'objectif de la lutte contre l'impunité des crimes graves. En tout état de cause, l'essor de la saisine est tributaire d'une application optimale des dispositions statutaires et d'un rééquilibrage des rapports entre les États, le Conseil de sécurité et la Cour / The referral to the International Criminal Court refers to all the opening mechanisms of the international criminal trial. It officially comes from the writ of summons which can be the fact of States parties in the Status, of the UN Security Council and the Prosecutor. The procedures undertaken following the Court referrals have for purpose to locate the individual criminal responsibility and to repress the massive violations of the human rights and the international humanitarian law. The assessment of the selective referrals allows to reveal the slowness of the current procedures. If this slowness has endogenous reasons, it is explained, in the exogenous plan, by the complex relationships that the jurisdiction maintains with States towards the principle of Complementarity. It is the same about the influence of the UN Security Council on the jurisdiction of the Court and the referrals processing. Moreover, because of the questionable performance of the obligation of cooperation by States, the ICC insures with difficulty the objective of the fight against the impunity for serious crimes. In any case, the development of the Court referral is dependent on an optimal application of the statutory disposals and a rebalance of relationships between States, Security Council and Court