Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
1 Assistant Professor, Department of International Law, the Institute for Research and Development in the Humanities (SAMT), Tehran, Iran.
2 PhD, Department of International Law, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
Abstract
Introduction
On 5 February 2021, the Pre-Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Court issued a decision on the Prosecution's request pursuant to Article 19 (3) for a ruling on the Court’s territorial jurisdiction in Palestine. Accordingly, the Chamber declared by a two-on-one majority that Palestine, in the sense of a State party to the Statute of the Court, has the status of a Member State and hence the territorial jurisdiction to exercise through the court is available. This decision is very significant previously, in 2009, the Palestinian Minister of Justice had submitted a declaration of acceptance of the jurisdiction of the Court based on Article 12, paragraph 3, of the Statute of the International Criminal Court. But unfortunately According to the Argentine prosecutor, Mr. José Moreno-Ocampo, being a state as a prerequisite for joining the Rome Statute is a matter that is primarily the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the United Nations as the depositary of the Rome Statute. But since he considered examining this issue outside his jurisdiction, the matter remained virtually silent. In light of this precedent, the Palestinian government did not shy away from examining the issue of crimes committed in the occupied Palestinian territory and in January 2015 referred the matter to the Court once again in the same form as in January 2009. The new prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Ms. Bensouda, had a different view on the matter. Based on the research she has conducted on the situation in Palestine, the Prosecutor of the Court believes that Palestine is a state, but to be sure of this, she has asked the Pre-Trial Chamber this question so that she can act with complete certainty regarding the subject matter she is investigating. first requested the Pre-Trial Chamber was requested to announce a decision on the territorial jurisdiction that the Court will have over the situation of Palestine, to pave the way for the situation of Palestine. Despite Palestine's concerns about the Court examining the issue of its statehood and the opinions of opponents, including several States, including Germany, Austria, Australia, and Brazil, submitted their opinions on this issue, it ended with the recognition of Palestine. The importance of the decision lies in the fact that since 2015, when Palestine first issued a declaration to exercise the jurisdiction of the Court in the occupied territories, based on Article 12 (3) of the Statute. One of the most important effects of this decision was the significant role of the President of the International Criminal Court in recognizing Palestine as a state. While Mr. Ocampo, while receiving the opinions of lawyers and various academic circles on the issue of whether or not Palestine is a state, ultimately considered this issue outside her jurisdiction, Ms. Bensouda, while conducting initial research to ascertain the possible future of the Palestinian situation, requested the Pre-Trial Chamber to issue a ruling in this regard.
Materials and Methods
It is a type of basic research that is descriptive-analytical and using library resources as well as using electronic resources including books, articles, dissertations, official conferences related to the subject in Persian and English languages and after raising the issue and clarifying the hypotheses, the data by the research questions in national and international judicial documents and procedures have been searched, collected, summarized and analyzed.
Results and Discussion
This article seeks to examine this important decision and address its important aspects, including what impact the decision has on the further recognition of Palestine as a state in the international community. The questions that we will address in the following are whether the Court, as a court with criminal expertise, is allowed to enter the field of statehood as a subject of general international law, and what criteria have been taken into account in the Court's approach to this issue. There has been much debate in academia and among jurists. The present article seeks to examine this important decision and addresses its significant aspects, among them, what is the effect of the aforementioned decision on the recognition of Palestine as a state in the international community. In this article, we will first describe the Pre-Trial Chamber’s decision and then analyze the various aspects of this ruling to explain the foundations of the Court’s position based on factors such as examining the comparative approach of the Court’s two prosecutors, the Court’s jurisdiction to deal with issues of general international law, and the practical effect of this ruling on establishing the statehood of Palestine. It seems that the Court’s finding in this case is another proof of the statehood of Palestine and paves the way for prosecuting crimes committed in occupied Palestine.
Conclusion
The Court's decision to admit Palestine to the Statute is very significant and precise. The admission of Palestine to the Court is important in two ways: on the one hand, Palestine's membership in the Court is an important step for this country to prove its standing among other states. On the other hand, the Court's action to admit Palestine has enhanced the institution's standing as an independent judicial institution in the international community. It remains to be seen what approach the Court will take in the remaining stages of the proceedings.
Keywords
Main Subjects
فارسی
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