International Journal of Law

Authors
Ali Mohammad Hasan Thynat

Abstract
The history is full of brutal episodes against humanity. Grave violations of human rights, genocide, and mass killings of civilians and abuse of prisoners of wars during armed conflicts are all characterized as international crimes. Apart from mass killings, atrocities and outrages upon human dignity included torture, mass rapes, ethnic cleansing, extermination, summary executions, enforced prostitution and enforced disappearance. Many of these killings and atrocities were the direct result of armed conflicts, ethnic violence and civil wars. The international criminal justice mechanism is expedited when the most serious crimes were committed and the national courts were not being able to act because of the state involvement in the commission of serious international crimes or because of widespread or systematic violence. Therefore, an effective independent justice system is required to promote and maintain international peace. Consequently, United Nations led to a Diplomatic Conference in Rome from 15^th June to 17^th July, 1998 which ultimately paved way for the establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC). The ICC is the world’s first permanent, international judicial body capable of bringing perpetrators to justice and providing redress to victims when states are unable or unwilling to do so. The present study highlights the reason behind the creation of ICC, the structure and the jurisdiction of ICC.