By Kebba Secka
The Assembly of States Parties, management oversight and legislative body of the International Criminal Court (ICC), has announced the vacant position of the next ICC Prosecutor who will be succeeding the current Prosecutor.
The term of the present Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, a Gambian national will expire on 15 June 2021. The Assembly of States Parties, acting pursuant to its mandate under Article 112 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (the Rome Statute), has initiated the process for the selection of the next Prosecutor.
The president of the Assembly of States Parties O-Gon Kwon of the Republic of Korea welcomed the vacant announcement of the next ICC Prosecutor.
“With this announcement the Assembly of States Parties, assisted by the Committee on the Election of the Prosecutor, is seeking to attract the most qualified candidates for the position of Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. It is only through a transparent and structured process that the Assembly will be able to select the highest qualified Prosecutor for the Court,” the president said.
In accordance with the Rome Statute, the ICC aims to achieve fair representation of women and men for all positions, representation of the principal legal system of the world for the legal position and equitable geographical representation for positions in the professional category.
The Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) is one of the four principal organs of the ICC. It is an independent organ responsible for examining situations under the jurisdiction of the ICC where genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression appear to have been committed and carrying out investigations and prosecutions against individuals for whom there are reasonable grounds to believe that they are most responsible for those crimes. The OTP is composed of three main Divisions.
The Jurisdiction, Complementarity and Cooperation Division conducts preliminary examinations, provides advice on issues of jurisdiction, admissibility, and cooperation, and coordinates judicial cooperation and external relations for the OTP.
Article 42 Paragraph (3) of the Rome Status sets out the criteria to be fulfilled by candidates aspiring for the position.
The structure of the ICC is an independent international institution governed by the Rome Statutes, it is a permanent, treaty-based international criminal court established to help end impunity by the perpetrators of the most serious crimes of concern to the international community. Its seat is at The Hague in the kingdom of the Netherlands.
