The President of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute (“the President”), H.E. Tiina Intelmann, welcomed the deposit of the instruments of ratification of the amendments to the Rome Statute on the crime of aggression by Andorra, Cyprus, Slovenia and Uruguay during the High-Level Week of the United Nations General Assembly. The crime of aggression amendment was adopted in a historic consensus at the 2010 Review Conference of the Rome Statute in Kampala, Uganda. The four countries also ratified the amendments pertaining to article 8 of the Rome Statute on war crimes adopted at the same conference.
“The deposit of instruments of ratification by Andorra, Cyprus, Slovenia and Uruguay of the Kampala Amendments brings the number of ratifications of the crime of aggression to eleven. I hope that other States Parties will follow suit and that we will soon see many more ratifications from different regions now that sufficient time has passed to allow domestic procedures to take their course,” stated President Intelmann speaking in New York.
The crime of aggression had been included in the Rome Statute in 1998 while its definition and implementation were deferred to a Review Conference. The amendments adopted in 2010 define the crime of aggression and provide for the conditions for the exercise of jurisdiction over this crime. The Court may exercise jurisdiction over the crime of aggression once thirty States Parties have ratified the amendments and subject to a decision to be taken after 1 January 2017 by the States Parties.