Current and past cases before the International Criminal Court
The ICC’s website provides information on previous and pending cases before the World Court of Justice in The Hague. It is in the nature of things that the ICC does not take action until the crime has happened and people have been murdered and expelled, deprived of their health and a self-determined life. Science and human rights activists are investigating how we can draw conclusions for preventive action from individual cases of human rights violations.
Significance of the testimonies of victims and survivors
The testimonies of the victims and survivors are the sources that tell us what the precursors of violence, terror and systematic genocide are to which people almost everywhere in the world are exposed. Their stories provide the keys to the humane living conditions necessary to prevent systematic persecution and violence in the future.
Like all legal cases of charges of violent crime before criminal courts, those before the International Court of Justice are highly instructive about the possibilities for preventing violence and upholding human rights. It is of the utmost importance to evaluate the testimonies of victims and survivors and not to regard them merely as instruments of evidence to uncover the criminal actions of the accused.
If here the current cases, or as it says on the website of the Court of Justice, “current situations” before the ICC are listed, this is therefore not done with the aim of investigating again the motives and justifications of the accused or defendants. Even if the end of impunity may have a deterrent effect on individuals, punishments alone do not prevent systematic crimes. Neither the level of possible punishment nor its threat have a preventive effect. In other words, deterrence through education in the form of documenting crimes is not enough to prevent crime and serious human rights violations in the future.
The statements of the survivors of genocide and genocide also make it clear that it is not military interventions, but the improvement of environmental and social living conditions alone that can prevent the escalation of violence and systematic state terror, if not completely, then reduce the danger of it in the long term.
Current Situations of the ICC in Den Haag
– Chronologically by date of referral to the Court –
– Georgia
- Dezember 2015
Proprio motu
Eröffnung der Ermittlungen 27. Januar 2016
– Zentralafrikanische Republik (II) (ICC-01/14)
- Mai 2014
Überweisung durch die Zentralafrikanische Republik
Eröffnung der Ermittlungen 24. September 2014
– Mali (ICC-01/12)
- Juli 2012
Überweisung durch Mali
Eröffnung der Ermittlungen 16. Januar 2013
– Elfenbeinküste (ICC-02/11)
- Oktober 2011
Proprio motu
Eröffnung der Ermittlungen 3. Oktober 2011
– Libyen (ICC-01/11)
- Februar 2011
Überweisung durch den UN-Sicherheitsrat
Eröffnung der Ermittlungen 3. März 2011
>Auf der IStGH-Webseite
– Kenia (ICC-01/09)
- März 2010
Proprio motu
Eröffnung der Ermittlungen 31. März 2010
>Auf der IStGH-Webseite
– Sudan (Darfur) (ICC-02/05)
- März 2005
Überweisung durch den UN-Sicherheitsrat
Eröffnung der Ermittlungen 6. Juni 2005
>Auf der IStGH-Webseite
– Zentralafrikanische Republik (ICC-01/05)
- Januar 2005
Überweisung durch due Zentralafrikanische Republik
Eröffnung der Ermittlungen 22. Mai 2007
>Auf der IStGH-Webseite
– Demokratische Republik Kongo (ICC-01/04)
- April 2004
Überweisung durch die Demokratische Republik Kongo
Eröffnung der Ermittlungen 23. Juni 2004
>Auf der IStGH-Webseite
– Uganda (ICC-02/04)
- Januar 2004
Überweisung durch Uganda
Eröffnung der Ermittlungen 29. Juli 2004