After ratification by 60 countries, the Rome Statute took effect, creating the first permanent international tribunal capable of prosecuting individuals for the gravest crimes under international law. Based in The Hague, the court complements national justice systems, stepping in only when states are unwilling or unable to prosecute. The United States, China, and Russia notably declined to join.
The idea of a permanent court to try perpetrators of genocide had circulated since the Nuremberg trials, but it took the atrocities of Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s to generate the political will. Delegates finalized the Rome Statute in July 1998 after intense negotiation, and it required 60 ratifications to take effect—a threshold reached in April 2002, triggering the court's birth on this date.
The ICC's jurisdiction is deliberately narrow and its power limited: it can only prosecute crimes committed after 2002, generally within member states or by their nationals, and only when domestic courts fail to act. Its first arrest warrant, issued in 2005, targeted Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony; its early caseload focused heavily on African conflicts, drawing criticism that the court disproportionately targeted the continent.
Major powers stayed outside its reach. The United States under George W. Bush actively opposed the court, fearing prosecutions of American soldiers, while Russia and China never ratified the statute. Despite these gaps, the ICC has indicted heads of state, including Sudan's Omar al-Bashir and, in 2023, Russia's Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine.