Conference “Addressing cyber-related crimes under the Rome Statute system”: Professor Jennifer Trahan, Convenor of The Global Institute for the Prevention of Aggression, was honored to present the findings of the Council of Advisers’ Report on the Application of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court to Cyberwarfare” at the International Criminal Court on January 22, 2024. The conference where she spoke was entitled “Addressing cyber-related crimes under the Rome Statute system” and co-sponsored by the International Criminal Court’s Office of the Prosecutor and Microsoft (See ICC OTP Press release).

The meetings of the Council of Advisers that led into the drafting of the report occurred in 2019-2020, while Don Ferencz was Convenor of GIPA. The meetings on which the report is based were hosted by the Permanent Mission of Liechtenstein to the UN, and co-organized by 10 other UN missions. The full report, drafted under the supervision of Liechtenstein legal adviser Sina Alavi, can be found here.

The report makes the case that each of the Rome Statute’s four crimes can be committed partly or fully through cyber, a position now endorsed by the ICC Prosecutor. The report is anticipated to play a role in the formation of the ICC’s future policy paper on the Rome Statute and cyber.