Editing Universal jurisdiction (section)

==International tribunals invoking universal jurisdiction==
[[File:ICC member states.svg|thumb|States parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court
----
{{legend|#00aa00|Parties}}
{{legend|purple|Parties who have subsequently withdrawn}}
{{legend|#eeee00|[[Ratification|Unratified]] signatories}}
{{legend|orange|Signatories who have subsequently withdrawn}}
{{legend|#ff1111|UN member states and observers that have neither signed nor acceded to the Statute}}
]]
Established in [[The Hague]] in 2002, the [[International Criminal Court]] (ICC) is an international tribunal of general jurisdiction (defined by treaty) to prosecute state-members' citizens for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression, as specified by several international agreements, most prominently the [[Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court]] signed in 1998. A serious international crime is outlined in Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal court as a serious criminal act committed as part of a "widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack", including murder, rape, slavery, persecution, extermination, and torture.<ref>UN General Assembly, [https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b3a84.html ''Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court''] (last amended 2010), 17 July 1998, {{ISBN|92-9227-227-6}}.</ref>  Universal jurisdiction over the crimes enumerated in the Rome Statute was rejected by the signing parties, however universal jurisdiction is what allows the United Nations Security Council to refer specific situations to the ICC.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://lawcat.berkeley.edu/record/1120461 |doi=10.15779/Z385W7H |journal=Berkeley Journal of International Law |volume=24 |issue=2 |year=2006 |title=The U.N. Security Council's Referral of the Crimes in Darfur to the International Criminal Court in Light of U.S. Opposition to the Court: Implications for the International Criminal Court's Functions and Status |first=Corrina |last=Heyder |pages=650–671 |access-date=27 February 2022}}</ref> This has only happened with Darfur (2005) and Libya (2011).

In addition the United Nations has set up geographically specific courts to investigate and prosecute crimes against humanity under a theory of universal jurisdiction, such as the [[International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda]] (1994), and the [[International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia]] (1993).

The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia investigates war crimes that took place in the Balkans in the 1990s. It convicted former Bosnian Serb leader [[Radovan Karadžić]] on 10 charges relating to directing murders, purges and other abuses against civilians, including genocide in connection with the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica; he was sentenced to 40 years in prison.<ref>{{cite news |author=Brian Murphy  |title=U.N. tribunal finds former Bosnia Serb leader guilty of genocide |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/un-tribunal-finds-former-bosnia-serb-leader-guilty-of-genocide/2016/03/24/1a9f1066-f1c9-11e5-85a6-2132cf446d0a_story.html?hpid=hp_rhp-top-table-main_karadzic_11am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=24 March 2016 |access-date=2016-03-24}}</ref>