Status of Negotiations to Establish an International Criminal Court

The year 1997 was a watershed one for the attempt to establish a permanent International Criminal Court to try individuals accused of committing genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Fulfilling the mandate given to it by the U.N. General Assembly in December 1996, the Preparatory Committee to Establish an International Criminal Court (PrepCom) met for three two-week sessions in 1997 “to draft texts, with a view to preparing a widely acceptable consolidated text of a convention for an international criminal court as a next step towards consideration by a conference of plenipotentiaries... [more]