ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to explore the International Criminal Court (ICC) as an institution within the machinery of the international human rights legal framework. It examines the development of the ICC, and notes international criminal law’s shared heritage with international human rights law, insofar as both bodies of law were developed in the aftermath of World War II. The chapter discusses the interplay between human rights and the International Criminal Court, in particular examining the role of human rights organisations in providing evidence for ICC trials, and human rights law’s status as a source of law before the ICC. The ICC can only have jurisdiction over a case where a domestic state having jurisdiction over the same case is either unwilling or unable to put the accused on trial. The ICC has jurisdiction over the crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
