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International Justice
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LCHR and International Justice
The Lawyers Committee’s work on International
Justice is organized under three objectives:
1. To ensure that strong and effective International Justice
Mechanisms, including the International Criminal Court, are established
The Lawyers Committee has been a leading voice in the creation of
the International Criminal Court (ICC). In so doing, the Lawyers
Committee’s approach has focused on building coalitions and
consensus to solve complex problems of international justice.
The Lawyers Committee was deeply involved in the three-year process
that led up to the 1998 Rome Conference, when the world’s
governments met to adopt a treaty to establish the ICC. The Lawyers
Committee published a series of briefing papers analyzing the most
problematic issues confronting negotiators, which were widely distributed
to government delegates around the world. It actively participated
in the UN Preparatory Committee meetings preceding Rome, consulting
with key delegates on a wide range of issues relating to the Court
and its composition. The Lawyers Committee’s goal throughout
was to mobilize support for a strong and credible Court capable
of breaking the cycle of impunity and deterring future atrocities.
After the Rome Conference, the Lawyers Committee participated actively
in the successive ICC Preparatory Commissions sessions that drafted
the Rules of Procedure and Evidence and the Elements of Crimes and
a range of other key documents relating to the functioning of the
court, which were approved by the ASP in September 2002. With the
objective of working to ensure that a strong and effective ICC is
established, the IJ Program is currently working for the nomination
and election of the best possible first bench of judges and a Prosecutor
for the court Click here
to learn more about elections and nominations, to contribute
to the development of an effective ICC criminal bar and a workable
Code of Conduct for counsel before the court Click here
to learn more about lawyers before the ICC,and to help to secure
an appropriate role for victims in the court process.
The Lawyers Committee views working together with other civil society
groups around the world as extremely important, and is an active
member of the steering committee of the NGO Coalition for an International
Criminal Court (CICC) that has effectively worked with participating
governments to preserve the integrity of the Rome Statute.
2. To ensure that national courts are able
to fulfill their obligations both to hold perpetrators to account
themselves and to cooperate with the ICC
The ICC will be the cornerstone of a global system of international
justice. Building this new system will require that both national
and international systems undergo changes if they are work together
credibly and effectively. Having spent the last several years steeped
in these debates, the Lawyers Committee believes that justice is
best served when it is carried out at the national level, with national
courts, truth commissions and other mechanisms, dispensing the most
expeditious justice and the most meaningful redress for victims.
That said, the international system must be prepared to play an
active role in this regard when national systems are unwilling or
unable to do so.
The drafters of the ICC Statute envisioned that national courts
would prosecute a majority of these cases. Yet many national justice
systems are not equipped for this task, with national laws lagging
behind international standards. The ratification process provides
a unique opportunity to incorporate international crimes into their
national criminal codes, to strengthen human rights protections
at the national level, and to develop the capacity to make their
courts available as a venue for the exercise of universal jurisdiction.
The Lawyers Committee’s International Justice Program works
to move forward implementing legislation under the Rome Statute
in many countries, with a particular focus on West and Central Africa.
This work includes building civil society coalitions, analyzing
domestic legislation, engaging with governments to create political
will and working with local partners to organize workshops and push
forward the process of drafting and adopting legislation. Click
here to learn more about our implementation work.
3. To build support for international justice
in the United States
The Lawyers Committee believes that it is in the interest of both
the United States and the International Criminal Court to have the
United States play an active and positive role in global justice
within the framework of the treaty drafted in Rome. This is why
the IJ Program works to build support for international justice,
including the ICC, in the United States. Click
here to learn more about the U.S. role in relation to the ICC
The U.S. has posed challenges to the principle of impartial accountability
that the ICC is designed to establish. On the other hand, the U.S.
has also played a positive role in other aspects of the international
justice system, notably its support for the ad hoc international
criminal tribunals for former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. The Lawyers
Committee has worked to increase awareness of concerns about the
U.S. stance on the Court, to engage the Administration and a wider
constituency within the U.S. on the ICC and wider international
justice issues.
Drawing on its extensive experience and record of
achievement in this area, the Lawyers Committee is dedicated to
overcoming the obstacles - whether political, legal, or practical
- to creating a workable international justice system. It
is engaged in a multi-year effort to lay the foundations, nationally
and internationally, for a system to hold dictators and other perpetrators
of gross violations accountable for their crimes. The Lawyers Committee
is calling on governments to ratify the ICC treaty, to adopt effective
legislation to implement the ICC Statute, and to ensure that the
International Criminal Court has the resources necessary to carry
out its mission.
Our Experts
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