The International Criminal Court's Role in Darfur

The International Criminal Court (ICC) played a crucial role in bringing justice to Darfur by issuing arrest warrants for President Omar al-Bashir, who was charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes. The ICC's efforts helped hold the president accountable for his actions and move the nation towards stability and lasting peace.

The Role of the International Criminal Court in Darfur
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The role of the International Criminal Court in Darfur 1
The International criminal Courts investigate the crimes that are concerned with the international
communities like the crimes of genocide, the war crimes and the crimes against humanity. The
individuals who are charged with such crimes are issued a warrant by these courts. The rulings of
the court are applicable in Darfur too.
In Darfur, the International criminal Court is playing an important role in fighting against the
impunity and with the help of international criminal justice, the court is making all those people
responsible and accountable who are who are found to be guilty in the crimes against humanity
and in the war crimes, like President Bashir. The court is helping the nation in preventing such
crimes to happen again.
The main role that the International criminal Court is playing is Darfur is that it is making the
nation move towards the stability and lasting peace. This is done by providing the international
justice and hence ensuring long term peace in the country, making it more stable and ensuring
equitable development in the post conflict societies (Savelsberg, 2017). These are also the
foundations to build a future which is free of violence.
In Darfur, the head of the nation was involved in the war crimes and he was playing against the
humanity. The International criminal Court played an important role in saving the nation from a
bad leader and a traitor. If the court had not made any effort, the country would have been facing

The role of the International Criminal Court in Darfur 2
serious consequences of the actions of a bad ruler and many people would have faced the
atrocities of this.
On March 4th, 2009, an arrest warrant was issued for President Omar al-Bashir by the pre-trial
chamber of the International Criminal Court. He was the president of Sudan and he was charged
with the crimes against humanity and his involvement in the war crimes.
It was questioned that whether the prosecutor of the court has the authority to bring charges
against any head of state i.e. whether there was any kind of immunity that the heads enjoyed
from prosecution? But, this question was denied by the court which was established by the Rome
statute and it was held that the prosecution by International Criminal Court applies to everyone,
no matter what is the official capacity of people are. As per the article 27 of the Rome Statute,
the Presidents were not immune from the prosecution and hence the President Bashir was
arrested.
The warrants were issued because there were reasonable grounds to believe that he committed a
crime within the jurisdiction of the court. The president was help responsible for committing the
crime of genocide under the statute of Rome and thus the chare of crime against humanity and
the involvement in war crimes were considered as very serious offenses internationally. This is
because it caused massive killings, rapes and many other atrocities in Darfur. In addition to this,
the President was charged with the allegations of war crimes like directing the attacks against the
civilians intentionally (Scheffer, 2013).

The role of the International Criminal Court in Darfur 3
The International Criminal Court does not have its own police and national authorities have to
make the arrests on behalf of International Criminal Court. Generally, it is the obligation of the
state parties to Rome Statute that they must comply. Thus, when it came to the arrest of Bashir,
the government of Sudan and all the parties that were involved in conflict were asked to
cooperate fully with the court so that necessary assistance could be provided. Sudan had to make
the arrest of Bashir on the request by Court. Sudan was state party to International Criminal
Court, therefore, it cannot refuse the arrest of Bashir if the court requested (Sonczyk, 2014).
However, the non-state parties do not have to make an arrest if International Criminal Court
requests. So, in case Bashir travels abroad, the other countries were not obligated to arrest him.
The President attended the Arab Summit in Qatar but Qatar was not a party to Rome Statute.
But, if the security council passes a resolution by referring to the situation in Darfur, the
International Criminal Court prosecutor an urge the nonparties to cooperate fully with the court.
So, Qatar had to decide that it would arrest Bashir if the warrant was received from the court.
The state parties to the Rome Statues have to fully cooperate with the International Criminal
Court and if it does not comply, the court may refer the matter to the Assemble of the state
parties so that further action could be taken (Werle, 2014). Thus, a worse situation gets created.
There is no option that the states fail to comply with the International Criminal Court. Also, it is
possible that the court may disown the state from the Rome Statute and with this, the entire law
and order of the country gets disturbed. When there will not be any rules, regulations and
legislation, they may fail to operate successfully and build ties with other states.

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References:
Savelsberg, J. J. (2017). International Criminal Law as One Response to World Suffering:
General Observations and the Case of Darfur. In Alleviating World Suffering (pp. 361-373).
Springer International Publishing.
Scheffer, D. (2013). All the missing souls (1st ed.). Princeton [u.a.]: Princeton Univ. Press. Pg.
200-226
Sonczyk, B. (2014). The anatomy of the war crime of attacking peacekeepers under international
humanitarian law and international criminal law (Doctoral dissertation, University of
Westminster). Pg. 233-238
Werle, G., & Jessberger, F. (2014). Principles of international criminal law. OUP Oxford.