Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes: Protection of Human Rights at the International Criminal Court (Quis custodiet ipsos custodes: zaščita človekovih pravic v postopku pred Mednarodnim kazenskim sodiščem)

Abstract

International criminal law has been long focusing on providing criminal responsibility to perpetrators of international crimes and preventing their impunity, but it also has to provide fair trial at the same time. In connection to this an issue arises, whether the legality of the procedure has to be ensured by external supervision. That became especially relevant with the establishment of a permanent International Criminal Court (the ICC). This paper therefore tries to verify the hypothesis that the Rome Statute includes all the regular mechanisms for protection of the defendant’s rights, but the external supervision is still required. The paper firstly discussed the existing possibility of protection of the defendant’s rights in the ICC − means of invoking or sanctioning violations of these rights through legal remedies, criminal, civil and tort liability or inadmissibility of evidence. Second part of the paper includes thoughts on possibility of the ICC joining the existing universal, regional or national supervisory mechanisms.

Keywords

• Rome Statute
• exclusion of inadmissible evidence
• rights of the accused
• procedural violation
• criminal responsibility
• tort liability
• immunity
• human rights.