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 Post-'Signature Suspension',
Generally |
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Subsequent to the May 6, 2002 ICC policy announcement by the
administration that it suspending the US signature on
the Statute, the administration has said that:
- It will continue to have a leadership role in promoting
international justice, but will devote its resources to
supporting domestic or combined domestic/international tribunals
such as the Special Court in Sierra Leone, and as a last
resort, to the creation of ad hoc courts by the Security
Council.
- It plans to amend federal law to expand US ability to
initiate domestic prosecutions.
- It plans to actively negotiate bilateral non-surrender
(so-called Article 98[2]) agreements "with every country
in the world, regardless of whether they have signed or
ratified the ICC, regardless of whether they intend to in
the future."
- It "will regard as illegitimate any attempt by the court
or state parties to the treaty to assert the ICC's jurisdiction
over American citizens" and "will taken the actions necessary
to ensure that [its] efforts to meet [its] global security
committments and protect Americans are not impaired by the
potential for investigations, inquiry, or prosecution by
the International Criminal Court, whose jurisdiction does
not extend to Americans and which [it does] not accept."
- It will "respect the right of other states to be part
of the ICC" but "they in turn must respect [its] decision
not to be bound by jurisdictional claims to which [it] has
not consented.
- Amb. Pierre Prosper has said that the US has not ruled
out the possibility that it will allow the Security Council
to refer cases to the Court when it is in the US interest,
but he has also said that that "the ICC should not expect
any support or cooperation from the United States government."
With the Security Council referral of the Darfur situation to the ICC, there has been a confusion in the official US position towards the Court. The United States has attempted to explain this as an exceptional situation that marks no change to the US position on the Court. However, the US agreement on the referral seriously and permanently undercuts basic American arguments against the Court: that it will be ineffective and useless; worsen, or not assist, the resolution of conflicts; and that it will inevitably be politicized. Moreover, groups in the US whose opposition to the Court the administration previously feared assured it of their support for the referral.
In addition, then US Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick made postive comments on the role of the ICC in Sudan during a May 27, 2006 press briefing, stating that the Court's work sends "a signal about accountability" and is "a useful deterrence... and allows us to emphasize a tool about the need to stop violence." Click here for excerpts of his statement and an article in the Sudan Tribune.
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AMICC
factsheet: Chronology of US Opposition to the International Criminal Court: From 'Signature Suspension' to Immunity Agreements to Darfur,
October 28, 2008 |
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John B. Bellinger III, Legal Adviser, US Department of State, Lecture at World Legal Forum, International Court of Justice, The Hague, The Netherlands, December 10, 2007 |
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Lincoln P. Bloomfield, Jr., Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs, Post-Election Strategies Priorities for the United States, Remarks at the Chatham House Conference on Matching Capabilities to Commitments -- Can Europe Deliver?, December 6, 2004 |
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Mark P. Lagon, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of International Organization Affairs, A UN that Lives Up to Its Founding Principles: The US Agenda at the UN General Assembly, Hudson Institute, September 13, 2004 (see ICC section on page 3) |
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Statement
of the Delegation of the United States upon the adoption
by the Organization of American States General Assembly
of Resolution AG/RES. 2039 (XXXIV-O/04), Promotion
of the International Criminal Court, June 8, 2004 (see
annex for US statement) |
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John
Negroponte, US Ambassador to the UN, Testimony Before
a Subcommittee of the US House of Representatives, April
1, 2004 |
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Secretary
of State Colin Powell, Interview by European newspaper
journalists," November 25, 2003 |
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John
R. Bolton, Under Secretary for Arms Control and International
Security, Remarks at the American Enterprise Institute,
"American Justice and the International Criminal Court,"
November 3, 2003 |
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Lincoln
P. Bloomfield, Jr., Assistant Secretary for Political-Military
Affairs, Remarks to the Parliamentarians for Global Action,
Consultative Assembly of Parliamentarians for the ICC
and the Rule of Law United Nations, New York, September
12, 2003 |
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State
Department Factsheet: Frequently
Asked Questions About the US Government's Policy Regarding
the ICC, July 30, 2003 |
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Statement
of the Delegation of the United States upon the adoption
by the Organization of American States General Assembly
of Resolution AG/RES. 1929 (XXXIII-O/03), Promotion
of the International Criminal Court, June 10, 2003 (see
annex for US statement) |
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John
R. Bolton, Under Secretary for Arms Control and International
Security "The United States and the International Criminal
Court", remarks to the Federalist Society, Washington,
D.C., November 14, 2002 (NOTE: This speech is similar
to one delivered to the Aspen Institute in Berlin, Germany
on September 16, 2002, see below) |
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Statement
by Nicholas Rostow, General Counsel, US Mission to the
United Nations, at the Fifty-seventh session of the United
Nations General Assembly, Sixth Committee, on the
International Criminal Court, October 14, 2002 |
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Excerpt
from the new National Security Strategy of the United
States of America (p. 31), released September 2002 |
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John
R. Bolton, Under Secretary for Arms Control and International
Security "The United States and the International Criminal
Court," remarks at the Aspen Institute, Berlin, Germany,
September 16, 2002 |
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"US
Policy Regarding the International Criminal Court," Jennifer
Elsea, Legislative Attorney, American Law Division, Congressional
Research Service, September 3, 2002 |
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Ambassador-at-Large
for War Crimes Issues Pierre Prosper Remarks to the Simon
Bond International Wannsee Seminar, Berlin, July 9,
2002 |
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Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld Statement on the ICC, News Briefing at the Foreign Press Center, June 22, 2002 |
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Marc Grossman, Under Secretary for Political Affairs, "American Foreign Policy and the International Criminal Court, Remarks to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, May 6, 2002 |
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US
Department of State Fact Sheet: "The International Criminal
Court", Office of War Crimes Issues, May 6, 2002 |
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