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Relevant Treaties
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Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, Adopted by the United Nations Diplomatic Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court, July 17 1998, UN Doc. A/CONF.183/9 [hereinafter cited as Rome Statute]. عربي, 中文, English, Français, Ελληνικά, Русский, Español
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Official Documents
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Declaration of the Palestinian National Authority recognizing the Jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, executed for the Government of Palestine by Ali Khashan, Minister of Justice, January 21, 2009.
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Human Rights in Palestine and Other Occupied Arab Territories: Report of the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, (The Goldstone Report), September 29, 2009. Available online.
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Letter on the Palestinian Authority’s Submission from Beatrice Le Frapper du Hellen, Director, Jurisdiction, Complementarity, and Compliance Division, International Criminal Court to Kyung-Wah Kang, Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. January 12, 2010.
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Report of the Committee of independent experts in international humanitarian and human rights laws to monitor and assess any domestic, legal or other proceedings undertaken by both the Government of Israel and the Palestinian side, in the light of General Assembly resolution 64/254, including the independence, effectiveness, genuineness of these investigations and their conformity with international standards, A/HRC/15/50. Advance Edited Version, September 21, 2010.
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Goldstone II: Questions on the Impartiality of the U.N. Tomuschat Committee, by UN Watch, October 21, 2010.
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Official Submissions to the ICC
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, Memo to the Prosecutor, March 23, 2009.
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, The Palestine Declaration to the International Criminal Court: The Statehood Issue, May 19, 2009.
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Legal Memorandum opposing accession to ICC jurisdiction by Non-State entities, September 9, 2009.
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Opinion in the matter of the jurisdiction of the ICC with regard to the Declaration of the Palestinian authority, September 9, 2009.
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, Working Draft, October 13, 2009.
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Documents on the status of Palestine (English) ( Arabic), October 14, 2009.
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and , Israel, Palestine and the ICC, November 5, 2009.
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; ; ; ; ; & , The Palestinian Declaration and ICC Jurisdiction, November 19, 2009.
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, Les effets de la reconnaissance par la Palestine de la compétence de la CPI (English translation), February 18, 2010.
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, Statehood and Palestine for the purposes of Article 12(3) of the ICC Statute: a contrary perspective, March 30, 2010.
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Journal Articles & Commentary
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, Reconsidering the Goldstone Report on Israel and war crimes, Wash. Post (April 1, 2011). Available online. Archived.
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, Is Palestine a “State”? A Response to Professor John Quigley’s Article, “The Palestine Declaration to the International Criminal Court: The Statehood Issue”, 36 Rutgers L. Rev. 186 (2009). Available online. Archived.
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, ICC Jurisdiction over Acts Committed in the Gaza Strip: Article12(3) of the ICC Statute and Non-State Entities, J. Int’l Crim. Just. 2010 8: 3-27, February 17, 2010. Available online. Archived.
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International Criminal Law Forum
International Criminal Court
The Human Rights and International Criminal Law Forum
The Sanela Diana Jenkins Foundation at UCLA School of Law
Luis Moreno-Ocampo ICC Prosecutor
Topic for September 2010 – January 2011
Gaza Jurisdiction Question Does the Prosecutor of the ICC have the authority to open an investigation into alleged crimes committed in the 2008-2009 Gaza conflict?
This debate addresses whether the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has authority to open an investigation into alleged crimes committed by different parties during the conflict in Gaza in December 2008 and January 2009.
According to the Rome Statute, before making any legal decision on whether to open an investigation, the Office of the Prosecutor has a duty to conduct a preliminary examination to consider all issues pertaining to its jurisdiction and to the admissibility of cases potentially arising from the situation.
With regard to the issues relating to its jurisdiction, the Court’s jurisdiction is limited to crimes—war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide—committed on the territory of, or by a national of, a State Party. Crimes committed in other situations can come before the ICC if the relevant State which is not party to the Statute voluntarily accepts the jurisdiction of the Court on an ad hoc basis (Article 12(3) of the Rome Statute) or if the Security Council refers a situation (Article 13(b)).
Israel is not a party to the Rome Statute, and has not accepted ICC jurisdiction in the Gaza Strip. However, on 22 January 2009, the Minister of Justice of Palestinian National Authority, Mr. Ali Khashan, brought to the ICC an ad hoc declaration accepting jurisdiction of the ICC under Article 12(3).
The Office must therefore consider first whether the Palestinian National Authority’s declaration accepting the exercise of jurisdiction by the Court meets statutory requirements.
In addition, according to the principle of complementarity enshrined in the Rome Statute, the ICC is a court of last resort. Even if the ICC has jurisdiction, it cannot intervene if relevant authorities are conducting genuine investigations or prosecutions. The Prosecutor must therefore consider whether there are national proceedings in relation to alleged crimes.