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INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT ESTABLISHED

UNITED NATIONS, April 11, 2002 (LSN.ca) - At a ceremony at United Nations headquarters this morning, the required instruments of ratification for the entry into force of the Rome Statute to establish the International Criminal Court were formally lodged by 10 nations. The deposited ratifications of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ireland, Jordan, Mongolia, Niger, Romania, and Slovakia brought the total number of ratifying countries to 66, well above the required 60 needed for the ICC to assume universal jurisdiction.

While the court may prosecute all of its self-defined crimes which occur after July 1, cases will not be heard until after the ICC mechanisms are established. In addition to "war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide" the court will also try the as of yet undefined "crime of aggression." As set out in the Statute, crimes against humanity include "forced pregnancy."

In April LifeSite spoke with Dr. Richard G. Wilkins, Professor of Law at Brigham Young University about the ICC. Professor Wilkins, Managing Director of The World Family Policy Center, is a leading authority on the ICC, and regularly acts as legal counsel for pro-family NGOs (non-governmental organizations) at the United Nations.

Professor Wilkins, former Assistant to the US Solicitor General, told LifeSite that the ICC could eventually be used to try "the Pope or other religious leaders" since issues such as abortion and homosexuality would inevitably fall within the ICC's jurisdiction. "Under the Court's universal and complementary jurisdiction, the Court can and probably will attempt to change social norms in sometimes troublesome areas not admitting of a single, world-wide solution," says Dr. Wilkins. "The International Criminal Court could well become the mechanism by which the Western innovation of judicially (rather than legislatively) crafted social policy - and its accompanying consequences - are exported to the rest of the world. Of all revolutions through the centuries, this is the quietest. Of all the attempts made over the years to foist one group's will on everyone else, this is the most subtle and simultaneously the most far-reaching - the world-wide constitutional convention no one k! new about," he concludes.
See related LifeSite coverage:
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2002/feb/020212.html#2

See the list of ratifying countries from the UN treaty database:
http://untreaty.un.org/ENGLISH/bible/englishinternetbible/partI/chapterXVIII/treaty10.asp

See a web broadcast of the ICC establishment ceremony:
http://www.un.org/law/icc

See Globalists Give Birth to International Criminal Court
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/4/11/144333.shtml
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2002/apr/020411.html#1

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