The ICC will be a permanent court that will investigate and bring to justice individuals who commit the most serious violations of international humanitarian law, namely war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. The ICC will enter into force once sixty states have ratified the Rome Statute. Currently 29 have ratified and 139 States have signed the Rome Statute. Seventeen out of nineteen NATO states have signed the treaty and five have already ratified, including Security Council member France.
Most observers expect the court to come into existence within the next two or three years.
The Court will be composed of 18 Judges, an independent Office of the Prosecutor, and the Office of the Registrar. Judges and the Prosecutor will be elected by the representatives of the member-states to the ICC in the Assembly of State Parties, who will be able to remove Judges and Prosecutors who do not meet the high standards of performance demanded by the Statute. The ICC, however, will not supplant national jurisdiction. It will only be able take action in situations where national courts are either unwilling or unable to investigate or prosecute alleged war criminals. Unfortunately in some countries, as a result of conflict and social and political collapse, courts are not capable of dealing with these types of crimes or of providing a fair trial.