The International Criminal Court and Darfur: A Role in Justice

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has played a significant role in addressing the atrocities committed in Darfur, Sudan. The ICC issued an arrest warrant for President Omar al-Bashir, charging him with crimes against humanity and war crimes. The court's jurisdiction was upheld, denying Bashir's immunity as head of state, and reasonable grounds existed to believe he committed genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. However, the ICC relies on national authorities to make arrests, which can be challenging when states refuse cooperation. The case highlights the importance of international law in holding leaders accountable for their actions and the need for states to comply with ICC requests.

The role of the International Criminal Court in Darfur
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The role of the International Criminal Court in Darfur 1
In the past ten years, the International criminal Court has shown remarkable achievements. 108
States Parties are there presently and 12 arrest warrants have been issued by the Judges. Thus,
four people have been in custody. The investigations have been opened in four of the cases that
are, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Darfur in the Sudan, and the Central
African Republic (Savelsberg, 2017).
When an investigation is conducted by the Prosecutor of international Criminal Court during a
conflict or after that, he faces the claims that the peace is shattered due to his actions. In such
situations, there is just one goal that the competing public policy goals must get reconciled. For
this, the starting point is the recognition that the leaders of the warring parties who are
responsible for atrocities are viewing the prosecution by the ICC as one of the few credible
threats. To ensure this, it is required by ICC that the convictions to demonstrate the credibility
and effectiveness is demonstrated by the court and the prosecutions are getting trumped by the
processes of peace. Thus, the value of the court as deterrent gets compromised. Thus, the role of
International Criminal Court is very important.
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,

The role of the International Criminal Court in Darfur 2
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 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

The role of the International Criminal Court in Darfur 3
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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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.