Our purpose: Promoting peace through criminal justice – preventing crimes of aggression
Through the United Nations Charter, States have expressed their commitment “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war”. They have agreed to renounce the illegal threat or use of force, and to settle their disputes “by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered”. States have the legal duty to abide by this commitment and the UN Security Council has the primary responsibility to enforce it.The Nuremberg Trials made it clear that criminal justice also has an important role to play for the promotion of peace and the deterrence of acts of aggression – though it remained limited and theoretical for many decades thereafter. With the 2010 Kampala amendments to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, States Parties created a new mechanism to enforce the most important rule of international law: the prohibition of the illegal use of force under the United Nations Charter. This website is dedicated to making accountability a reality.
News
Proposal to Amend the Jurisdiction of the ICC over the Crime of Aggression: Since March 2022, Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA) have elaborated a non-paper containing specific amendments to Article 15bis of the Rome Statute that would partially align the ICC jurisdictional regime on the crime of aggression to the one that already exists for the other three core crimes. For a summary of the non-paper, see here
Virtual Roundtable of the Council on Foreign Relations: In Defense of a Democracy: Prosecuting Russian Aggression Against Ukraine: On 25 May 2022, David Scheffer, Oona Hathaway and Claus Kreß discussed the crime of aggression and the need for a special tribunal in the situation in Ukraine. To watch the panel, click here.
James Kingston Obituary: It is with enormous sadness that the Global Institute for the Prevention of Aggression reports the death of James Kingston. As a legal adviser of the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and President of the Irish Branch of the International Law Association, he was a strong supporter of the International Criminal Court and the prohibition of aggression.
James joine
d the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs in 1995 and became legal adviser in 2009. He advised on various matters, including EU law, human rights law and international criminal law and was instrumental in advising on some of the big foreign policy decisions in Ireland. His expertise in international law brought him to his position in the Irish Branch of the International Law Association where he served as President from 2016 to 2020. He lectured in public international law at University College Dublin and Trinity College Dublin.
James was a brilliant lawyer, an outstanding advocate for the rule of law and a good friend to many of us. His sudden death is a great loss for the international community.
We present our deepest condolences to his family.
Statement of Members of the Council of Advisors on Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine: urging States Parties to the Rome Statute to amend the crime of aggression’s jurisdictional regime.
GIPA Statement_24 March 2022_ENG
GIPA Statement 24 March 2022_UKR
GIPA Statement 24 March 2022_RUS
GIPA Statement 24 March 2022_FR
GIPA Statement 24 March 2022_ESP
GIPA Statement_24 March 2022_ARA
GIPA Statement_24 March 2022_CHI
GIPA Statement_24 March 2022_POR
For a commentary by the Convenor of the Global Institute for the Prevention of Aggression, see The Need to Reexamine the Crime of Aggression’s Jurisdictional Regime (justsecurity.org)
Repository of Documents Relevant to the Situation in Ukraine: The Global Institute for the Prevention of Aggression has created a repository of documents relevant to the situation in Ukraine, such as applicable domestic criminal laws as well as resolutions and statements of international organizations.
Statement of the Global Institute for the Prevention of Aggression on the Situation in Ukraine: Article 2(4) of the United Nations (“U.N.”) Charter is the cornerstone of the rules-based international order—the prohibition of the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any State, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.
With the sending of Russian forces into the sovereign territory of Ukraine, the Russian Federation has acted in complete disregard for the prohibition of the use of force under the U.N. Charter and customary international law. Pretextual invocations that purport to suggest a legal basis must be seen for what they are: a perversion of international law. There is no legal justification for any use of force against the sovereignty, territorial integrity, or political independence of Ukraine. The Russian use of force constitutes an act of aggression, and can amount to the crime of aggression, with cyber-attacks potentially forming part of the modality of its commission.
U.N. Member States must stand united in condemning this flagrant and dangerous violation of international law and ensure that the U.N. Charter is enforced, including rallying in support of the laws and norms against the aggressive use of force. Additionally, U.N. Member States must decline to recognize any “new states” purportedly “created” through such illegal acts that violate jus cogens norms.
Our thoughts are with all those impacted by this unlawful act, and especially the people of Ukraine and the soldiers on both sides who should not be forced to fight or die in the service of an illegal war.
– Jennifer Trahan, Convenor
The Council of Advisers’ Report on the Application of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court to Cyberwarfare: Based on a series of three convenings involving a group of eminent legal and technical experts across 2019 and 2020, the report discusses the extent to which cyber-attacks could fall within each of the Rome Statute’s four crimes. The meetings were sponsored by Liechtenstein and Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Costa Rica, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland, as well as the Global Institute for the Prevention of Aggression.