ICC rejects Palestinian request to investigate crimes within its territories

ICC rejects Palestinian request to investigate crimes within its territories.(AlArabiya).The International Criminal Court’s General Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo on Monday said the court will not accept a Palestinian demand to investigate alleged war crimes by Israel since July 2002 until Palestine is recognize as a state by the U.N. General Assembly. “In order to proceed we need the General Assembly of the U.N. accepting Palestine as an observer state. As soon as this is done we can proceed,” Ocampo told Al Arabiya’s New York Bureau Chief Talal al-Haj in an inclusive interview. “There is a problem because In order to proceed I need Palestine recognized as a state because I am not the prosecutor of the world, I am the prosecutor of the countries who accept my jurisdiction. I need a country accepting me and then I investigate the crimes,” the prosecutor said.
In Jan. 22, 2009, the Palestinian Authority (PA) submitted declaration to the International Criminal Court (ICC) under Article 12(3) of the Rome Statute which allows States not party to the Statute to accept the Court’s jurisdiction. The PA’s declaration stated: ‘The Government of Palestine hereby recognizes the jurisdiction of the Court for the purpose of identifying, prosecuting and judging the authors and accomplices of crimes committed on the territory of Palestine since 1 July 2002. As a consequence, the Government of Palestine will cooperate with the Court without delay or exceptions in conformity with Chapter 9.’
The debate since then has focused largely on whether ICC Prosecutor Ocampo first holds the jurisdiction to accept the Palestinian declaration; and second on whether he has the jurisdiction to conduct an investigation on the alleged crimes in the Palestinian territories. The ICC’s jurisdiction is restricted to war crimes or crimes against humanity committed by a country or national of country on said territory. A state not party to the Rome Statute can be brought before the ICC only if it chooses to accept the court’s jurisdiction or if the United Nations Security Council refers a situation to it. Palestine declared its voluntary acceptance of ICC’s jurisdiction in 2009, but whether it should be regarded as a ‘State’ as required by Article 12(3) of Rome Statute has been a matter of debate. In this specific case, Israel rejects ICC jurisdiction in Gaza because the Jewish state is not a party to the Rome Statute. According to a document sent by the ICC’s Office of the Prosecutor to the U.N. Commissioner for Human Rights in January 2010, ‘Some argue that Palestinian statehood is irrelevant to this analysis. Instead, they argue that criminal jurisdiction within Palestine rests with the PNA which can therefore transfer such jurisdiction to the ICC through an ad hoc declaration under Article 12(3) of the Statute.’ Others argue that Palestinian Authority does not possess full criminal jurisdiction within Palestinian territories, as it does not exercise authority over Israeli nationals accused of criminal acts, and therefore it cannot transfer it to the court. In September 2010, the ICC dismissed nearly half of the 8,874 charges of alleged war crimes it received because it said they were outside the court’s jurisdiction. Read the full story here.