THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Ten years ago, the treaty that created the International Criminal Court came into force, creating the world’s first permanent war-crimes tribunal.
But as the anniversary was marked Sunday, allegations of state-sponsored atrocities in Syria are piling up and the court stands powerless to intervene, while the first person it indicted, Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony, is still at large, and his militia, the Lord’s Resistance Army, continues its reign of terror.
The court’s founding treaty, the Rome Statute, came into force July 1, 2002. It says the Hague-based tribunal is “determined to put an end to impunity for the perpetrators” of atrocities.
Ad hoc tribunals set up to prosecute the perpetrators of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in individual conflicts such as the wars in the former Yugoslavia and Sierra Leone have succeeded in putting on trial the most senior political and military leaders — from Radovan Karadzic to Charles Taylor. But the permanent ICC has started just three trials and convicted only one person, Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga.
Experts say to give it time: The U.N.’s Yugoslav war-crimes tribunal also started off prosecuting minor suspects and took more than a decade to get its hands on the likes of Karadzic and former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic, who are now standing trial in The Hague.
“It’s a fledgling organization,” said professor Michael Scharf of the Case Western Reserve University School of Law in Cleveland. “The expectations for an organization like that historically have to be reasonable because they really don’t hit their stride until the second 10 years or even third 10 years.”
The court has opened seven investigations and issued 20 arrest warrants for suspects ranging from Kony and the top commanders of the Lord’s Resistance Army to Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. Prosecutors say that the very fact the likes of Al-Bashir and late Libyan dictator Moammar Khadafy have been indicted is a major step toward ending impunity for leaders who use violence against their own people.
However, the court has been criticized for so far opening investigations only in Africa. Its prosecutors have cases in Uganda, Congo, the Central African Republic, Sudan, Kenya, Libya and Ivory Coast.
“That absolutely has to change in its next 10 years,” Scharf said. “Because it’s not going to be seen as an international court if it’s only looking at one continent.”
