THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT AND ITS ROLE IN THE PROSECUTION OF GENOCIDE

THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT AND ITS ROLE IN THE PROSECUTION OF GENOCIDE

BY

CHAPTER ONE
CONCEPT OF CRIMES AND THE NECESSITY OF THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT

Introduction
The history of mankind is a chronicle of bloodshed and violence among people with competing interests, ideologies and aspirations. In the face of the calamitous historical records, one might be tempted to conclude that ingrained practices are inexorable and unalterable and that the final arbiter of irreconcilable disputes between sovereign states will remain the power of armed might.
However, significant changes have taken place which points a striking fact that the old ways are not necessarily immutable, and in a thermonuclear world, the illogical deduction that the violent past is merely prologue to the future might turn out to be man's most suicidal error. The dire need for justice to take its full course cannot be over-flogged or over-emphasized:
But there can be no peace without justice, no justice without law, and no meaningful law without a court to decide what is just and fair under any given circumstance. The process of codification, adjudication and enforcement is as vital to a tranquil international community as it is to any independent national state".