Deletion of article 124

In accordance with article 124 of the Statute, a State, on becoming party to the Statute, may declare that, for a period of seven years after the entry into force of the Statute for that State, it does not accept the jurisdiction of the Court with respect to war crimes allegedly committed by its nationals or on its territory. Article 124 stipulates that the provisions of this article shall be reviewed at the Review Conference.

Article 124 was adopted in 1998 to facilitate adherence to the Rome Statute. The question facing the Review Conference is whether such a clause, adopted at a specific historical moment, is still necessary to promote universality of the Rome Statute or whether its retention will give rise to impunity.

Definition of the crime of aggression, elements of the crime, conditions of the exercise of the jurisdiction by the Court

An act of aggression in general terms is considered to be the use of armed force by a State against another, without previous authorization of the United Nations Security Council and without self-defense justification. In the amendment proposal, an individual in a leadership position is criminally responsible for the crime of aggression when planning, preparing, initiating or executing the crime.

The crime of aggression was included in the Rome Statute at the Rome Diplomatic Conference in 1998 among the crimes under the Court’s jurisdiction; however the definition of this crime and the conditions under which the Court can prosecute those committing it were not agreed upon.

Extensive preparatory work on this issue by States Parties concluded in July 2009 and has achieved substantial progress on the definition of the crime. Yet, there is still no agreement on the exercise of jurisdiction by the Court, which mainly concerns the role, if any, that the United Nations Security Council should play in determining whether an act of aggression has been committed before investigations or prosecutions can take place.

The Review Conference offers a renewed attempt to deal with this extremely important and sensitive issue.

Proposal of amendment to article 8

This proposal concerns changes to the provisions of article 8, on war crimes, to include among the acts which constitute war crimes the use of certain weapons (poisoned weapons, gases and certain kind of bullets) in internal armed conflicts. The use of these weapons in international armed conflicts already constitutes war crimes, under the Rome Statute.