Question
Asked 7 May 2021

What is the position on the status of the International Instrument relating to the crime if aggression ?

Aggression is one of the core international crimes as Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity and war crimes.

Popular answers (1)

Faruk Hadžić
Independent Researcher
The answer to the question over whom the Courts have jurisdiction with respect to aggression is to be found in Rome rather than in Kampala, or even in New York.
3 Recommendations

All Answers (2)

The 15 December 2017 Assembly of States Parties to the ICC adopted a resolution by consensus, to activate the jurisdiction of the court over the crime of aggression from 17 July 2018 for ICC member states which have ratified the Rome Statute and the amendments on the Crime of aggression. It does not permit retrospective effect and ICC’s prosecutorial power is limited to crime committee one year after ratification or accepted by at least 30 states parties to the statute. Exercise of jurisdiction in two situations:
i. In the case of a RS State Party referral (Article 15 bis): the Court allows to exercise jurisdiction if the amendments have entered into force for both States Parties involved, victim and aggressor.
ii. UN Security Council referrals (Article 15 ter): the Court is able to exercise jurisdiction over crimes committed on the territories or by nationals of States Parties and non-states parties.
when exercised via state referral or proprio motu (initiated by the prosecutor) states parties have option to Opt-out jurisdiction by submitting a declaration, but it must be submitted before the act of aggression is committed.
2 Recommendations
Faruk Hadžić
Independent Researcher
The answer to the question over whom the Courts have jurisdiction with respect to aggression is to be found in Rome rather than in Kampala, or even in New York.
3 Recommendations

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What do you think of White Supremacy?
Question
3 answers
  • Edward J TehovnikEdward J Tehovnik
On White Supremacy:
The obsession as to whether human-kind is fundamentally bad or good has preoccupied scholars for millennia. This can be traced back to the Catholic theologian, Augustine (354-430), who believed that men and women are basically bad, all born into original sin, and therefore require close supervision by which to cleanse their souls. In the enlightened age, intellectuals such as Rousseau (1712-1778) came up with the counter argument defending the premise that human-kind is basically good, an ethos that has been adopted by many liberal societies of today even if only by lip-service. We know that if one wants an economy that is maximally uncreative and unproductive, totalitarianism (left or right driven) is the best political system by which to achieve this. Here a minority of the population under its leadership employs all the state’s resources to control the majority under the assumption that the majority has ‘bad habits’ that must be altered and if not possible contained using police-state tactics. Such a society is unsustainable, as we witnessed with the disintegration of the Soviet Union in December 1991.
So, what about White Supremacy. This viewpoint has a long history in the United State going back to the age of slavery [1620 to 1865] when Black people (including their children) were sold and killed like cattle. At its zenith in 1860, some 13% of the US population, 4 million people of a population of 31 million, were enslaved. Shortly after the passage of the 13th Amendment (which was meant to end slavery in 1865) segments of the White population resisted this policy by forming the Ku Klux Klan who adopted an Augustine-viewpoint that led to the mass lynching of mainly Black males that continued well into the mid-20th Century. According to the Equal Justice Initiative (2017), 4084 African-Americans were lynched between 1877 and 1950, mainly in the Southern United States. In the 1960’s three acts were passed by Congress to remedy this bad history: the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Civil Rights Act of 1968.
Now let us fast forward to the Age of Trump (2016-2020). Donald Trump, an Independent, became a Republican so that he could win the presidential election in November 2016. His madness, which includes racism, bigotry, and contempt for women, is expressed regularly via Twitter and Fox News. This madness has now been amplified by the recent killing of an African American man, George Floyd, who was caught on camera being suffocated by a Minneapolis police officer. With Christian Bible in hand and in front of St. Johns church in Washington DC, Trump declared (much like Hitler did during his rallies in the 30 and 40’s) that he would impose law and order on the masses who are protesting the killing of George Floyd. So far, 10,000 protesters have been arrested by police (Aljazeera, June 4, 2020). The ~ 25,000 White Supremacist of America are standing by to see whether Trump can create an opportunity for them to return America to its roots: by having a large segment of the population (mainly immigrant and non-White) be put under the control of a White minority to satisfy (unbeknown to them) the dictates of the Catholic theologian, Augustine (354-430). If you believe in humanity and its sustainability, you can never allow this to happen since this is a recipe to continuous warfare, much like what goes on in the Middle East today.

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