In light of the very unfortunate defeat of the esteemed delegate from Sionis Prioratus' ICJ proposal (Justice for All) on the floor of this Assembly, I have decided to draft my own proposal in a comparatively meager attempt to further international justice.
Please note that my proposal is much more narrowly focused than those authored by Sionis Prioratus and Glen-Rhodes. This sacrifices many useful and, I feel, needed functions of an international court, but is also likely to increase its support. (Something is better than nothing, one could say, and, while I would much prefer S-P's excellent proposal to mine, the time for it has evidently not yet come.)
(Human rights / significant)
The Assembled Nations of the World,
APPALLED that sapient beings are still subjected to genocide, war crimes and other atrocities;
VEXED that there now exists no international justice system by which to try the perpetrators of these heinous crimes should their home nations refuse to do so;
DEFINING, for the purpose of this resolution:
A. "Genocide" as any act intended to destroy, in whole or in part, any group of sapient beings on the basis of a shared ancestry, nationality, ethnicity, religion, race, culture, sex, gender, sexual orientation, age or age range or any other identifiable real or perceived characteristic
B. "War crimes" as any of the following committed as part of armed conflict:
1. Military actions that intentionally target civilians, resulting in civilian casualties
2. Murder, torture or other cruel or degrading treatment of prisoners of war or surrendered enemies
3. Mass internment or use for slave labor of civilians
4. Excessive destruction of occupied areas or natural resources
5. The use of nuclear, chemical, biological or radiological weapons against a civilian population with foreknowledge of likely civilian casualties
C. "Crimes against humanity" as any of the following committed as part of a systematic attack on a population of sapient beings:
1. Murder
2. Torture or other cruel, degrading or inhumane treatment
3. Forced sterilization or acts of sexual violence
4. Forced population transfer;
hereby ESTABLISH the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the purpose of bringing to justice those responsible for the above crimes;
AUTHORIZE the ICC to issue arrest warrants for any person ("wanted person") suspected of these crimes if their home jurisdiction refuses to bring them to justice, unless an extant WA resolution requires they be tried elsewhere;
INSIST that no warrant be issued by the ICC without probable cause;
REQUIRE member states to arrest wanted persons within their jurisdictions and extradite them to the ICC;
STRONGLY URGE member states to pursue the extradition of wanted persons not under their jurisdictions by all legal and peaceful means;
TASK the ICC with trying those accused and sentencing those convicted, subject to the following:
A. The ICC shall contract with a member state to hold pre-trial detainees ("defendants") and to house, for the duration of their sentences, those convicted by the ICC ("convicts") and sentenced to incarceration
B. Defendants have the following rights: a reasonably speedy trial, competent legal representation, to call witnesses on their behalf and examine witnesses against them, to refuse to incriminate themselves and to fully understand and participate in the proceedings
C. The ICC shall not convict a defendant without proof of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt
D. An acquitted defendant shall be immediately and unconditionally released to their nation of origin or, if that nation will not accept them, another consenting nation
E. Once acquitted by the ICC, no person shall be retried by the ICC for the same offense
F. The ICC shall never impose the death penalty
G. Convicts shall have the right to present to the ICC exculpatory evidence that was not available at trial; the ICC may reverse a conviction at any time
H. The ICC shall establish such rules and regulations, not conflicting with this resolution, concerning its operations as it sees fit, consistent with the principles of fairness and justice.
Character count: 3,393
A few additional notes:
When I write "nation," instead of "member state," I mean any nation, including non-member states.
My definition of genocide is broader than that in the Convention Against Genocide (GAR 38).
Technically, this proposal as written allows the ICC to issue arrest warrants for the citizens of non-member states (I have
(OOC:)
Also, regarding the phrase "crimes against humanity:" I know that many nations are roleplayed as having non-human sapient residents. I've written the definition for crimes against humanity to include them. I'm hesitant to abandon the phrase itself because it's such a well-known RL phrase that many NS players will recognize, and because the alternatives I can think of are unwieldy and, frankly, sound stupid.
I beg Your Excellencies to keep in mind that this proposal in its current state is a very rough draft, and I would be honored by any comments and suggestions from my esteemed colleagues. I am in no particular hurry to submit this proposal.