Coalition for the International Criminal Court, New York
Ryan Liss at the UN Security Council |
It has been an incredibly interesting time to be involved with the Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC). Yesterday, the Registrar of the Court — the individual charged with managing all the administrative functions of the International Criminal Court (ICC) - stopped by the office for a meeting; earlier in the day I sat in on meeting between herself and a number of states party to the ICC at the UN Headquarters. Last week, the African Union issued an unprecedented and extremely controversial statement urging its members to refrain from cooperation with the Court in matters related to Sudanese President al Bashir. Days prior, Chile became the 109th state to ratify the Rome Statute at ceremony in New York. A few weeks ago, I monitored a promising meeting of states attempting to define the Crime of Aggression as it pertains to the ICC. Days earlier, I sat in on the ICC Prosecutor’s biannual address to the UN Security Council. A week prior, the President of the Court came by the Coalition for a meeting. And that list is far from exhaustive. Needless to say, from the day I arrived, I have been continuously busy, continuously engaged, and continuously learning.
The CICC secretariat in New York, where I work as an intern in the legal section, is the headquarters for an international coalition of likeminded NGOs (including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, among others) working to improve international cooperation with the Court, to ensure that the Court remains fair, effective and independent, and attempting to make justice a universal reality. The Coalition was conceived in 1995, prior to the Court’s creation; at that time, its role was confined to rallying civil society behind the call for an International Criminal Court. When the ICC was devised three years later through a treaty signed by 120 States, and then created four years after that by sufficient ratifications of that treaty, the Coalition’s purpose evolved into its modern mandate. The CICC maintains an extremely close working relationship with the Court, providing a direct link between the Court and the concerns of civil society.
The Court is something of an unusual body in international criminal law. It was formed by the signing of a treaty, the Rome Statute, in 1998. The Statute provides, in essence: the guidelines for the establishment of the Court, the criminal code on which its jurisdiction is based, and mechanisms for the administration of the Court’s ongoing function. The ICC tries the most grievous offences of international criminal law (particularly genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and perhaps one day the crime of aggression). However, it will only pursue a case where the situation takes place in a country that has ratified its treaty (or when a situation is referred by the Security Council), and where legitimate national trials are not ongoing for the same offences.
My job as a legal intern has been extremely varied. The majority of my work has involved drafting reports and memos on issues of law likely to come before the Court. As the Court is so new, and has only begun its first trial this year, most of these issues are novel concepts of law. The nature of my work requires that I refrain from providing too many details on the specific projects in which I have been involved; however, most of the issues have been drawn directly from the Rome Statute and have involved the interpretation of certain provisions or applicable situations. Beyond this, I have had an opportunity to monitor relevant meetings and developments related to the Court; this has brought me to the UN and the Security Council on a regular basis. The whole experience has been an incredible crash course in international criminal law, international treaty law, and the functions of the United Nations.
My interest in international criminal law is fairly new. For years I have been more concerned with ideas of development and human rights protection, and particularly with the work of grassroots NGOs. However, my work here has accentuated just how interrelated these concerns are. The great breadth of humanitarian crises in the world are caused and/or exacerbated by breaches of international criminal law. While I have, for a long time, seen the immediate provision of aid as far more pressing than notions of immediate or even transitional justice, my experience has made it increasingly difficult to separate the two. In many ways, the persistence of impunity for perpetrators of grave offences under international law delays any possibility of sustainable aid. To this effect, the unique nature of the ICC, which strives for immediate justice to end offences (distinct from most International Criminal Tribunals, which are post-conflict in nature), seems to be a potentially crucial component of the future of human rights protection.
Thus, some of the most interesting elements of my work have dealt with the controversy that has followed from the warrant recently issued by the ICC for the President of Sudan. After years of grave breaches of international law in Darfur, and years of suffering by the Darfuri people, the Court’s actions mark a possible break in the stalemate. Whether or not these efforts prove effective will mark a foundational precedent for this contemporary order of international criminal law and human rights protection. To be involved in this issue at such a turning point has been extremely humbling and engaging.
The office itself has been a great place to work. CICC is located in the offices of the World Federalist Movement (WFM) a couple blocks away from the UN Headquarters. Also housed at the WFM is the up and coming Coalition for the Responsibility to Protect — modelled after the CICC. It’s a pretty laidback environment, filled with a surprising amount of interns, and a lot of youthful hopefulness.
Outside of work, which has been rewarding and exciting, life in New York has been great. Five minutes after arriving, I was pulled away by my new roommates to go drinking in Central Park on a sunny Saturday. Since then, I have had a chance to watch the largest ever 4th of July fireworks display, listen to jazz in Harlem, watch a polo game on Governor’s Island, hang out at Rockaway Beach, jog along the East River, and generally just enjoy the city.
