[Facts] International Criminal Court

DUBAI (AlArabiya.net)

Here are some key facts on The Hague-based International Criminal Court:

The basics

* The United Nations has ad hoc tribunals dealing with abuses in former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, but the ICC is the first permanent court set up to try individuals for genocide, war crimes and other major human rights violations.

* The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court was established on July 17, 1998, when 120 states participating in a conference on the court adopted the treaty. The statute needed a minimum of 60 ratifications to come into force, which it reached in April 2002 and the treaty entered into force on July 1, 2002.

* The court is now supported by 104 nations, although still not by big powers Russia, China and the United States, which fiercely opposed the creation of the ICC, fearing it would be used for politically motivated prosecutions of its citizens.

* The ICC launched its first investigations in 2004, into crimes in Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda, and issued its first arrest warrants in 2005 for five leaders of the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda, accused of stoking 19 years of conflict. The governments of both countries had asked the ICC to investigate.

* The U.N. Security Council voted in March 2005 to refer war crimes cases in Sudan's Darfur to the ICC, the first time it has made a referral to the court in what was seen as a victory for supporters of the ICC. Formal investigations began in June 2005.

* The court only has jurisdiction with respect to crimes committed after July 1, 2002, in countries that have ratified its treaty. However, the ICC can also prosecute if the Security Council refers a case to it regarding crimes committed in a country that is not a signatory to the treaty. It has jurisdiction only in cases where the country in unable or unwilling to conduct an investigation or prosecution.

* Sudan is not a party to the ICC, and argues that the court has no jurisdiction over its affairs.

* The ICC is separate from the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the highest legal authority of the United Nations which is also based in The Hague and which was inaugurated in 1946 to resolve disputes between states.

Other Darfur warrants

In May 2007, ICC judges issued arrest warrants for two other suspects accused of war crimes in Sudan's Darfur region. Chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked pre-trial judges to issue summonses for Ahmed Haroun and Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-al-Rahman.

* Militia commander Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-al-Rahman, also known as Ali Kushayb.

-- ICC prosecutors say Kushayb, a colonel in the Wadi Salih locality of west Darfur, commanded thousands of Janjaweed militia and personally led attacks on towns and villages.

-- Human Rights Watch quoted witnesses as saying Kushayb was one of the key leaders of the attacks on villages around Mukjar, Bindisi, and Garsila in 2003-2004. HRW said several witnesses recognized him as a commander of operations in March 2004, in which several hundred men were executed.

-- Sudan said in February that Kushayb had been in detention in Khartoum since November 2006 on suspicion of violating Sudanese laws and was under investigation for actions in Darfur.

* Ahmed Haroun, state interior minister during the height of the Darfur conflict.

-- Haroun was state minister of interior, a post below the full ministerial level, during the height of the conflict and is currently state minister of Humanitarian Affairs.

-- ICC prosecutors say security committees in Darfur made up of representatives of the Sudanese army, police and intelligence agencies reported to Haroun, especially on matters relating to the staffing, funding and arming of the Janjaweed.

-- Prosecutors said: "Haroun knowingly contributed to the commission of crimes against humanity and war crimes, including murder, rape, torture, inhumane acts, pillaging and the forcible transfer of civilian populations."

-- The Sudanese government has refused to surrender Haroun to the ICC, saying he had no links with the Janjaweed.