The Effects of the Purposed International Criminal Court The United States of America guarantees its citizens protection against punishment from foreign nations. As Americans, we are lucky in that the Constitution of this great state has a number of measures provided for its citizen’s safety. Being one of the most sovereign nations, meaning we are politically independent from any other nation in the world, our government goes through drastic measures when the rights of one of its citizens is being threatened by a foreign power. On that same note different end of the spectrum the U.S. sees it necessary to “police” the rest of the world, most of the time with out regard to foreign citizen’s rights. Which is why former President Bill Clinton’s signing of the purposed International Criminal Court treaty came as a surprise to the rest of the U.S. congress.On July seventeenth 1998 in Rome, 160 nations decided to establish a permanent Inter-national Criminal Court to try individuals for the most serious offences of global concern, such as genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Many feel the agreement is no less important than the adoption of the United Nations Charter itself and it was hailed by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan as "a giant step forward in the march towards universal human rights and the rule of law." The ICC would be empowered to investigate, try, and punish certain crimes, such as war crimes and the previously mentioned crimes against humanity. Currently, states, which are political actors that retain a defined territory, population and international sovereignty, have primary responsibility for prosecuting these crimes. In exceptional cases, they have been addressed through ad hoc tribunals set up by the United Nations (UN) Security Council. Ad hoc tribunals are set up for specific crimes and given prescribed authority, which prevents them from expanding their original man...
