The international criminal court and the principle of complementarity: a comparison of The situation in the democratic republic of the congo and the situation in darfur

Abstract

The purpose of the lnternational Criminal Court (ICC) is to investigate, prosecute and purush the most serious crimes of international concern. These crimes are genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression.r However, paragraph l0 of the preamble to and article I of the Rome Statute of the ICC provide that the jurisdiction of the court shall be complementary to national criminal jurisdictions. This is confirmed by article 17 of the Rome Statute, 'the core provision in relation to complementarity',2 which states that the ICC is able to investigate and prosecute only situations which states are unwilling or unable to investigate or prosecute themselves