Wow. So in a very exciting development, the Palestinian authority and others have requested the ICC to investigate possible war crimes that have been committed in Gaza in the most recent Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo, is going to consider the investigation - especially because last week, the Palestinian Authority accepted the jurisdiction of the ICC.
Now, this raises some very fascinating questions for international law. First, does the Palestinian Authority even have legal power to recognize the ICC? The ICC charter includes “sovereign states” — and the Palestinian Authority may or may not be recognized as a “sovereign state.” If it’s not a state, can the Palestinian Authority even be considered a member of the ICC charter? Since Israel has not signed on to the Rome Statute and does not recognize the ICC, the only avenue for the ICC to get involved is through the Palestinian Authority.
If this complex, and controversial legal (and nationalist) quandary is solved, the ICC will have to genuinely consider the 210 requests from various organizations and individuals. Groups like Amnesty International have accused Israel of violence against civilians and the illegal use of phosphorus shells. At the same time, groups like Human Rights Watch have asked the ICC to investigate “Hamas’ rocket attacks on Israeli towns and its alleged use of Palestinian civilians as human shields.”
One positive implication of this is that the ICC will be venturing out of Africa. The ICC has been criticized of becoming the “International Criminal Court of Africa” and of failing to address issues occurring elsewhere in the world. This would be a first step out of Africanization of the court, and could potentially increase its credibility in the future. What I wonder, though, is whether the ICC’s involvement will only heighten pressure on both sides and exacerbate the conflict. It seems to me that the ICC doesn’t have the best record of peacekeeping, and this sort of investigation could cause anger, violence, and conflict to simply intensify. Such an explosive issue has to be addressed very carefully, and I simply hope the ICC is capable of approaching it with the caution it deserves.
