International Criminal Court and the Protection of Witnesses and Victims of torture Globally- "The Rome Statute" 
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Rome Statute of the
International Criminal Court*
* Text of the Rome Statute circulated as document A/CONF.183/9 of 17 July 1998 and corrected by procès-verbaux of 10 November
1998, 12 July 1999, 30 November 1999, 8 May 2000, 17 January 2001 and 16 January 2002. The Statute entered into force on 1 July
2002.
Article 1
The Court
An International Criminal Court (“the Court”) is hereby established. It shall be a
permanent institution and shall have the power to exercise its jurisdiction over persons for the
most serious crimes of international concern, as referred to in this Statute, and shall be
complementary to national criminal jurisdictions. The jurisdiction and functioning of the Court
shall be governed by the provisions of this Statute. Article 2
Relationship of the Court with the United Nations
The Court shall be brought into relationship with the United Nations through an agreement
to be approved by the Assembly of States Parties to this Statute and thereafter concluded by the
President of the Court on its behalf.
Article 3
Seat of the Court
1. The seat of the Court shall be established at The Hague in the Netherlands (“the host
State”).
2. The Court shall enter into a headquarters agreement with the host State, to be approved by
the Assembly of States Parties and thereafter concluded by the President of the Court on its behalf.
3. The Court may sit elsewhere, whenever it considers it desirable, as provided in this
Statute.
Article 4
Legal status and powers of the Court
1. The Court shall have international legal personality. It shall also have such legal capacity
as may be necessary for the exercise of its functions and the fulfilment of its purposes.
2. The Court may exercise its functions and powers, as provided in this Statute, on the
territory of any State Party and, by special agreement, on the territory of any other State.
PART 2. JURISDICTION, ADMISSIBILITY AND APPLICABLE LAW
Article 5
Crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court
1. The jurisdiction of the Court shall be limited to the most serious crimes of concern to the
international community as a whole. The Court has jurisdiction in accordance with this Statute
with respect to the following crimes:
(a) The crime of genocide;
(b) Crimes against humanity;
(c) War crimes;
(d) The crime of aggression.
2. The Court shall exercise jurisdiction over the crime of aggression once a provision is
adopted in accordance with articles 121 and 123 defining the crime and setting out the conditions
under which the Court shall exercise jurisdiction with respect to this crime. Such a provision shall
be consistent with the relevant provisions of the Charter of the United Nations.
Article 6
Genocide
For the purpose of this Statute, “genocide” means any of the following acts committed
with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its
physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
Article 7
Crimes against humanity
1. For the purpose of this Statute, “crime against humanity” means any of the following acts
when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian
population, with knowledge of the attack:
(a) Murder;
(b) Extermination;
(c) Enslavement;
(d) Deportation or forcible transfer of population;
(e) Imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of
fundamental rules of international law;
(f) Torture;
(g) Rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced
sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity;
(h) Persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial,
national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender as defined in paragraph 3, or other grounds that are
universally recognized as impermissible under international law, in connection with any act
referred to in this paragraph or any crime within the jurisdiction of the Court;
(i) Enforced disappearance of persons;
(j) The crime of apartheid;
(k) Other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or
serious injury to body or to mental or physical health.
2. For the purpose of paragraph 1:
(a) “Attack directed against any civilian population” means a course of conduct
involving the multiple commission of acts referred to in paragraph 1 against any civilian
population, pursuant to or in furtherance of a State or organizational policy to commit such attack;
(b) “Extermination” includes the intentional infliction of conditions of life, inter alia
the deprivation of access to food and medicine, calculated to bring about the destruction of part of
a population;
(c) “Enslavement” means the exercise of any or all of the powers attaching to the right
of ownership over a person and includes the exercise of such power in the course of trafficking in
persons, in particular women and children;
(d) “Deportation or forcible transfer of population” means forced displacement of the
persons concerned by expulsion or other coercive acts from the area in which they are lawfully
present, without grounds permitted under international law;
(e) “Torture” means the intentional infliction of severe pain or suffering, whether
physical or mental, upon a person in the custody or under the control of the accused; except that
torture shall not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to, lawful
sanctions;
(f) “Forced pregnancy” means the unlawful confinement of a woman forcibly made
pregnant, with the intent of affecting the ethnic composition of any population or carrying out
other grave violations of international law. This definition shall not in any way be interpreted as
affecting national laws relating to pregnancy;
(g) “Persecution” means the intentional and severe deprivation of fundamental rights
contrary to international law by reason of the identity of the group or collectivity;
(h) “The crime of apartheid” means inhumane acts of a character similar to those
referred to in paragraph 1, committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic
oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and
committed with the intention of maintaining that regime;
(i) “Enforced disappearance of persons” means the arrest, detention or abduction of
persons by, or with the authorization, support or acquiescence of, a State or a political
organization, followed by a refusal to acknowledge that deprivation of freedom or to give
information on the fate or whereabouts of those persons, with the intention of removing them
from the protection of the law for a prolonged period of time.
3. For the purpose of this Statute, it is understood that the term “gender” refers to the two
sexes, male and female, within the context of society. The term “gender” does not indicate any
meaning different from the above.
Article 8
War crimes
1. The Court shall have jurisdiction in respect of war crimes in particular when committed as
part of a plan or policy or as part of a large-scale commission of such crimes.
2. For the purpose of this Statute, “war crimes” means:
(a) Grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, namely, any of the
following acts against persons or property protected under the provisions of the relevant Geneva
Convention:
(i) Wilful killing;
(ii) Torture or inhuman treatment, including biological experiments;
(iii) Wilfully causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or health;
(iv) Extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by
military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly;
(v) Compelling a prisoner of war or other protected person to serve in the
forces of a hostile Power;
(vi) Wilfully depriving a prisoner of war or other protected person of the rights
of fair and regular trial;
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