The Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) has released a statement calling on all state parties of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to push for an amendment of how the ICC prosecutes the crime of aggression.
Dated April 9, the statement noted that this call was necessitated by a worrying trend over the past few years, making the reform crucial and overdue. "We respectfully call on all states parties to take the steps required to amend the International Criminal Court's jurisdiction over the crime of aggression," part of the statement read. "What the international community needs is a legal framework that can end impunity and effectively deter state leaderships from waging aggressive wars and other acts of aggression.
To work towards these goals, the ICC must be able to prosecute the crime of aggression under the same conditions that exist for the other three core international crimes." A session underway at Trial Chamber III of the International Criminal Court Photo/ICC According to the ICC, a crime of aggression refers to the planning, preparation, initiation, or execution of an act of aggression by a person in a position to exercise control over a state's political or military action, which constitutes a manifest violation of the UN Charter.
Although this is one of the crimes prosecutable by the ICC, the statement by KHRC claimed that the legal framework prosecuting the crime is too limited and unclear in comparison to the other three core international crimes. "The current legal framework for the prosecution of the crime of aggression is too limited and leads to glaring accountability gaps.
