ABSTRACT
Historically, Christianity did not contribute much to the development of basic principles of criminal law. However, in proceedings that culminated in the creation of the International Criminal Court (ICC), representatives of religiously based organizations in the NGO Coalition for the International Criminal Court did raise their concerns in order to uphold principles of justice in the functional instruments of the ICC. As far as official delegations at the Rome Conference are concerned, special mention must be made of representatives of the Holy See, who contributed much to the precise definitions of the conceptual distinctions and legal vocabulary that signified the crimes within the jurisdiction of the ICC so as to ensure that basic doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church would not be implicated. This culminated, for example, in a meticulous definition of the concept of gender, and a clear distinction between enforced and forced conduct. Due to interventions by the Holy See, special arrangements have been included in the ICC Statute to protect the priest-penitent relationship of confessions.
