The Security Council's power to defer ICC cases under Article 16 of the Rome Statute

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Periodical article

Title:	The Security Council's power to defer ICC cases under Article 16 of the Rome Statute
Author:	Obura, Ken
Year:	2011
Periodical:	Journal of African and international law (ISSN 1821-620X)
Volume:	4
Issue:	3
Pages:	563-588
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Africa
Subjects:	UN Security Council International Criminal Court international agreements legal procedure
Abstract:	Article 16 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), 1998, allows the United Nations Security Council to defer investigations and prosecutions of cases brought before the ICC for a renewable period of 12 months if it determines that an investigation or prosecution would interfere with efforts to resolve a threat to peace, a breach of peace or an act of aggression under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations. So far, the Security Council has been ambivalent in its use of this provision. It pre-emptively invoked the provision in favour of UN peacekeepers from the ICC's non-party States but outrightly refused to accede to the request on behalf of Omar al-Bashir of Sudan, demurred over Kenya's request and ignored Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army demand. The present article examines the circumstances under which Article 16 should be invoked by analysing the legal terrain within which the Security Council is authorized to act under Article 16. Notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract]