The International Criminal Court And The Discharge Of Modern Human Rights Regime: The Legal Challeng

Abstract

The disunity of the modem world is a fact; but so, in truer sense, is its unity. The essential and manifold solidarity, coupled with necessity of securing the rule of law and the elimination of war, constitutes a harmony of interest which has been basis more real and tangible than the illusion of the sentimentalists or the hypocrisy of those satisfied with the existing status quo. The ultimate harmony of interests which within the state finds expression in the estimation of private violence is not misleading invention of nineteenth century liberalism. 1 More impmiant is that he was among the very early proponents for an establishment of an International Criminal Court to try perpetrators of these heinous crimes. 1.2 Introduction As the global community settles in to take account of the successes so far registered in the struggle for human liberty especially in the area of safeguarding human rights, certain realities keep on rearing their ugly heads. These are the realities that, although a mile stone has been registered in the human rights front especially since the end of World War II, the world cannot be said to be a haven for peace as such free from human rights violation. Another said reality is that behind much of the savagery of modern history lies untold impunity by the traditional stateactors and non-actors. Tyrants commit large scale of inhuman acts, including ones perpetrated against civilians in the form of gross human rights abuse such as genocide. Too often, tyrannical regimes use violence 1 Hersch Lauleipacht. speaking at Chatham House in 1941, as bombs fell over Covent1y and his family was being destroyed by the Nazis in Poland. 1 and intimidation to shut down any prospect of domestic prosecution. Over the past decade, however, a slowly emerging system of international justice has begun to break this pattern of impunity in national courts in Europe and United States of America. In the recent past, especially in the years succeeding the Cold Wm· era,2 the rivalry led to "worrying arms" race which fueled tension of the possibility of break-up of world legal order. However, the rivalry was contained as socialism significantly lost suppmi, the international community has taken unprecedented steps to limit the impunity, all too often associated with human rights atrocities; manslaughter, forced dislocation of ethnic groups, tmiure, and rape as a weapon of war: while rape has been treated traditionally simply as an act physical assault, International Jurisprudence as regards human rights is fast changing and rape is today appreciated as a crime against humanity in case it is done under circumstances of hostilities.