THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT – SOME REFLECTIONS

Abstract

I took office seven years ago as the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. Over those years, I have seen remarkable developments, the creation of a global judicial institution from scratch, the development of our operations in all regions of the world, mainly in conflict areas, the setting up of key jurisprudence on modes of liability, complementarity, criminal procedure as well as on victims' participation before the Court. Today I would like to focus on how the work of this Court can contribute to the prevention of massive crimes. Crimes we thought, over and over, would never happen again, only to see them occur, again and again, before our eyes: genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. How can we maximize the preventive impact of our work? How can we ensure that the crimes committed in Georgia during the summer of 2008, in Guinea in the fall of 2009 are not repeated? How can we stop current crimes in Darfur? How can we prevent a new cycle of violence during the next elections in Kenya scheduled for 2012? How can we support Colombia's efforts to end half a century of violence?