The Recognition of a Palestinian State to the Joinder to the International Criminal Court

Abstract

Finally, after much ups and downs of the United Nations, Palestine has been recognized as a "non-member observer state" by the organization. Palestine’s recognition by the United Nations led to its accession to various conventions on human rights and humanitarian law. Rome Statute 1998 – the constitutive act of the International Criminal Court – was one of the important documents to which Palestine joined while it made a declaration indicating the admission of the jurisdiction of the Court. Palestine’s joinder to this document provided the possibility of prosecution and trial of the perpetrators of crimes committed under the Court's jurisdiction at the Palestinian territory and against its subjests. The Court's prosecutor is making the preliminary examinations and investigations to find out whether there is the Court’s jurisdiction and a reasonable basis in accordance with the articles of the statute in order to initiate the proceedings. The main question of the present research is on the manner of Palestine’s recognition as a state and the effects associated with its joinder to the International Criminal Court. The most imporstant effect of such joinder is the possibility of referring a situation by the state to the ICC. In this essay, an attempt is made to study the results caused by referring a situation to the Court. Israel will face a cooperation demand but we should not be too optimistic about its cooperation.

Keywords

• palestine
• israel
• the international criminal court
• competence
• cooperation