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The UN Security Council and the International Criminal Court

A research project of the UC Irvine School of Law and the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations that seeks to improve UN Security Council support of the International Criminal Court

The United Nations Security Council has an ambiguous relationship with the International Criminal Court (ICC). The Security Council has injected the ICC into major international crises – Sudan and Libya – twice in six years. But its support in those cases and others has in fact been tepid, at best.  What the ICC most needs from the Security Council it has been unable to get: enforcement of arrest warrants; sanctions on governments that flout ICC warrants; and consistent political, diplomatic, financial, and logistical support for investigations and prosecutions.

What factors influence Security Council decisions with respect to the International Criminal Court?  To what extent are such outcomes driven by dynamics among the Member States on the Council itself (or influential Members outside the Council)?   To what extent are they driven by the interests, goals, and policies of individual states?  What are the principal influences and policymaking processes for key governments?

With the generous support of Humanity United, UC Irvine and UCLA have already devoted considerable effort to exploring these questions, conducting research in New York, London, Moscow, and Beijing. In late November 2012, UCI will host a workshop in Southern California, bringing together a group of some of the most distinguished diplomats, academics, and activists in the field to build a strategy for improved Security Council support of the Court. The workshop itself will aim especially to drill down into the dynamics on the Council and the policy objectives of key Member States of the UN, including the Members of the African Union, China, Russia, and the P3.  During the first part of 2013, the project will publish and disseminate a Security Council strategy along with specific studies related to the politics of international justice.

For more information about the conference, schedule, participants and suggested readings, click here.

Published: Wednesday, November 28, 2012