Antoinette Louw and Anton du Plessis of the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies (ISS) have described the new International Criminal Court decision to criminalize the use of armed forces against another states as complicated, damaging to the institution and not practical.
The crime of aggression seeks to criminalize the use of armed force by one state against another.
ICC chief prosecutor Moreno Ocampo
The experts also questioned the Courts capacity to exercises its jurisdiction over the crime to the international community since it contravenes with the UN charter which allows the UN Security Council to authorize military attacks on states.
The crime of aggression under the jurisdiction of the ICC adopted in the recent ICC review conference held in Kampala has however, been hailed as a step forward for international justice by William Pace, the convener of the Coalition for the ICC.
Pace appealed to all stakeholders involved in international justice to take the new decision with a lot of caution because conditions agreed by states for prosecution of the crime would leave many out of reach of justice.
Uganda Lords Resistance Army Leader Joseph Kony and his deputies are among the people indicted by the ICC for war crimes and crimes against humanity in their over 20 year Northern insurgency which has claimed the lives of ten of thousands of people, thousands of abductions, rape and displacements of millions of people in Northern Uganda, Southern Sudan, DR Congo and Central African Republic.
The recent Juba Peace negotiations between the government of Uganda and the LRA have not reaped any fruits as the LRA leader has continuously failed to sign the agreement citing the ICC indictments against him and his top commanders.