Jenna Heini

There are several large problems facing the ICC but one of the most important ones is
their lack of membership. Of the 193 countries that participate in the UN, 123 of those are under
the jurisdiction of the ICC. Unfortunately, this does not include such superpowers as the United
States, Russia, China, or India. The lack of participation from the major players of the world is
what has been so detrimental to the ICC’s power. The fact that these countries have chosen not to
participate in the ICC suggests that they either don’t believe that this system works or they don’t
trust the ICC to do its job properly. This in turn leads other nations to have a similar distrust and
doubt in the ICC, which is why it has not been influential or impactful in the majority of
international crimes that have occurred.
I think that a solution to this problem would be creating a stipulation that participation in
one organization constitutes participation in the other. By requiring all nations in the United
Nations to also be a part of the ICC, it ensures that the jurisdiction of the ICC is spread across all
six continents. Another solution would to only require the five permanent countries on the UN
Security Council to join the ICC. This would lead to the powerful countries that are not already a
part of the ICC, such as the U.S., China, and Russia, joining it. If these three superpowers
participated in the ICC, it would be taken more seriously by other smaller nations and it would
also cause the ICC to be seen as an organization that works. This partnership would allow the
ICC to function better as a whole because those countries could now apprehend suspects of trials
that enter the ICC.
Another problem facing the ICC is the matter of their jurisdiction over certain
international issues. In many cases, the domestic system of countries and the ICC both believe
that they have the right to go to trial and sentence the perpetrators accordingly. To settle these
disputes, I think that there should be a panel created separate from the ICC and the domestic
court systems. This group would look at each case where both the domestic court and ICC could
have jurisdiction and decide in which court the case should go to trial. The panel would be made
up of three to four judges or other individuals with legal and international experience of different
nationalities. There would also be alternates for cases where the nationality of one of the panel
judges is the same as the country involved in the case. If the panel was created, it would solve
any disputes that occur over jurisdiction of cases and the decision could be made by an unbiased
group separate from both parties.
I think that by focusing on these two major problems, the membership and the
jurisdiction, the ICC can become a more efficient and more effective form of international
justice. There are several other problems to be addressed, but this is a start towards creating a
global court system that can be trusted and is supported around the world.