| Abstract |
: |
The Act passed by the Belgian Parliament on 25 May 2000 ratified the Statute of the
International Criminal Court (ICC Statute), signed in Rome on 17 July 1998. In
passing this enactment, Belgium recognized its obligations under international law to
bring its domestic law into line with the provisions of the ICC Statute.
This paper shall first attempt to set out the established principles of Belgian
legislation in the field of international humanitarian law, as in force when the Statute
was ratified. It shall then go on to address the question of the conformity (or
non-conformity) of the offences provided for under Belgian law with those outlined in
the ICC Statute, making particular reference to the subsequent statutory amendments
introduced with the entry into force of the Act of 23 April 2003 (the 2003 Act).The
various grounds for defences shall be examined in a similar manner. Attention will
also be drawn to the provisions of the 2003 Act, by which the Belgian Parliament
expressly tried to combine the principle of universal jurisdiction, which is enshrined in
Belgian law, with the principle of complementarity provided for by the ICC Statute.
Finally, the provisions of the Draft Bill on cooperation with the ICC, recently placed
before the Belgian Parliament, will be examined. |
