Powers of the ICC
From Mr Graham Stewart Sir: Chris Harmer (Letters, 18 August) accuses me of 'misrepresenting' the powers of the permanent International Criminal Court in my article 'Above the law' (4 August). She makes three claims: that the wording of the court's statute is intended to avoid prosecuting those who did not intentionally kill civilians; that the ICC will only intervene if national jurisdictions fail to do so first: and that the UN Security Council can freeze an ICC investigation.
Since these very points (including a rather less selective quotation from the statute) actually appear in my article, I am afraid that it is Ms Harmer who is guilty of the sin of omission. On any reasonable reading, the ICC statute's wording does go on to embrace collateral damage to civilian life as grounds for prosecution. Ms Harmer's two other claims also need to be heavily qualified. It is up to the ICC to decide whether due process has taken place in national courts. The agreement of all seven permanent members of the UN Security Council is needed in order to put an ICC investigation on ice, and even this suspension lasts for only a year.
Clearly an ICC so constructed will have major implications for the future conduct of peacekeeping missions and armed intervention.
Graham Stewart
London NW8
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