The work of civil society recognized in the Report of the Chair of the Working Group on Amendments: The Chairman’s report acknowledged the important role civil society played in the lead up to the Special Session on expanding the ICC’s jurisdiction over the crime of aggression:

“Civil society organizations played an active and constructive role in all WGA sessions, strongly endorsing the harmonization proposal and calling for decisive action to close accountability gaps related to the crime of aggression. These organizations emphasized that harmonization is essential for upholding the principle of equal justice, ensuring that victims of aggression have access to meaningful accountability, and preserving the ICC’s normative consistency and global standing. They unequivocally stated that harmonization was not merely a technical or legal exercise, but a human rights and justice imperative. In their view, victims of aggression, like those of genocide or war crimes, deserve access to justice and accountability mechanisms that do not depend on whether their State has accepted a specific jurisdictional clause.”

This marked a change from previous lackluster engagement on the topic by civil society.