ICC Reaches Ratification Number and Will Come into Effect

On April 11, 2002, delegates from 10 countries deposited instruments of ratification, bringing to 66 the number of countries that have done so. Because a minimum of 60 ratifications is required to bring the International Criminal Court into forces, the event marks an achievement for supporters of the ICC (notwithstanding the opposition of some powers, such as the U.S. and Peoples Republic of China). The ICC has been wholeheartedly welcome by most democratic countries, U.S. lawyers’ associations and human rights groups. However, the Bush Administration, which boycotted a ceremony at U.N. headquarters on April 11 at which the 10 countries deposited their instruments of ratification, has fiercely opposed the treaty and appears on the verge of not on only renouncing the ICC, but removing the U.S. signature from the Rome Treaty creating it. Already Congress has passed a law passed a law prohibiting Americans at all levels of government from cooperating with it. When the Rome Treaty was signed in the summer of 1998, many diplomats and observers thought it would take a decade or more for the required 60 countries to ratify it in their parliaments, a process that in many cases involved extensive legislative amendments.