Editing Rome Statute (section)

==Jurisdiction, structure and amendment==
The Rome Statute outlines the ICC's structure and areas of jurisdiction. The ICC can prosecute individuals (but not states or organizations) for four kinds of crimes: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression. These crimes are detailed in Articles 6, 7, 8, and 8 ''bis'' of the Rome Statute, respectively. They must have been committed after 1 July 2002, when the Rome Statute came into effect.

The ICC has jurisdiction over these crimes in three cases: first, if they took place on the territory of a State Party; second, if they were committed by a national of a State Party; or third, if the crimes were referred to the Prosecutor by the UN Security Council. The ICC may begin an investigation before issuing a warrant if the crimes were referred by the UN Security Council or if a State Party requests an investigation. Otherwise, the Prosecutor must seek authorization from a Pre-Trial Chamber of three judges to begin an investigation ''proprio motu'' (on its own initiative). The only type of immunity the ICC recognizes is that it cannot prosecute those under 18 when the crime was committed. In particular, no officials – not even a head of state – are immune from prosecution.

The issue of immunities from the jurisdiction of the Court has become recently relevant, when the Court issued arrest warrants for Russian and Israeli Heads of State, since their immunities are granted from states which are not parties to the Rome Statute. States which have ratified the statute have waived the immunities of their officials with respect to the jurisdiction of the court by accepting the provisions of article 27: 

{{blockquote|Article 27
Irrelevance of official capacity 

1. This Statute shall apply equally to all persons without any distinction based on official capacity. In particular, official capacity as a Head of State or Government, a member of a Government or parliament, an elected representative or a government official shall in no case exempt a person from criminal responsibility under this Statute, nor shall it, in and of itself, constitute a ground for reduction of sentence. 
2. Immunities or special procedural rules which may attach to the official capacity of a person, whether under national or international law, shall not bar the Court from exercising its jurisdiction over such a person.}}

However, according to the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, states which have not ratified a treaty cannot be bound by its provisions, meaning that states such as Russia and Israel have not agreed to waive the immunities of their officials for that purpose. On the other hand, states which are bound to cooperate with the court under part 9 of the Rome Statute, shall comply with any and all cooperation requests of the Court, including arrest warrants for officials of non-state parties. However, article 98 of the Court, which has been used as an argument by state parties defending their non-compliance with arrest warrants as such reads as follows: 
	
{{blockquote|Article 98 
Cooperation with respect to waiver of immunity and consent to surrender 
1.The Court may not proceed with a request for surrender or assistance which would require the requested State to act inconsistently with its obligations under international law with respect to the State or diplomatic immunity of a person or property of a third State, unless the Court can first obtain the cooperation of that third State for the waiver of the immunity.}}

The [[Omar al-Bashir|Al-Bashir]] arrest warrant decisions have shed some light into the apparent conflict between these two articles by establishing two strong arguments in favor of the universality of article 27 and the nonexistence of a conflict with article 98. The first argument, commonly known as "The Security Council route", claims that when a situation is referred to the Court in accordance with article 13(b) of the Rome Statute, the Security Council is placing the state in question in the position of a state party to the Rome Statute, including the waiver of article 27.<ref>{{cite web |last1=de souza dias |first1=Talita |title=The 'Security Council Route' to the Derogation from Personal Head of State Immunity in the Al-Bashir Case: How Explicit must Security Council Resolutions be? |url=<https://www.ejiltalk.org/the-discussion-of-the-security-council-roots-to-the-derogation-from-personal-immunities-in-the-al-bashir-case-how-explicit-must-security-council-resolutions-be/> |website=Blog of the European Journal of International Law |access-date=27 January 2025}}</ref> In the absence of a Security Council referral, the Court has included a plethora of other justifications for its decision. The argument, one of the justifications of the court which was reaffirmed in the decision against Mongolia in 2024, is highlighting the grammatical interpretation of article 98(1). The lack of reference on heads of state in the article, and the clear grammatical meaning that the article applies only to the State or diplomatic immunity of a person or property of a third State, is a strong indicator that the article is not an exception to article 27 for heads of state of  States not Party.<ref>{{cite book |title=Situation in Ukraine (Finding) |date=24 October 2024 |publisher=International Criminal Court |page=paras 35-36 |edition=ICC-01/22 |url=https://www.icc-cpi.int/court-record/icc-01/22-90 |access-date=27 January 2025}}</ref>


The Rome Statute established three bodies: the ICC itself, the Assembly of States Parties (ASP), and the Trust Fund for Victims. The ASP has two subsidiary bodies. These are the Permanent Secretariat, established in 2003, and an elected Bureau which includes a president and vice-president.  The ICC itself has four organs: the Presidency (with mostly administrative responsibilities); the Divisions (the Pre-Trial, Trial, and Appeals judges); the Office of the Prosecutor; and the Registry (whose role is to support the other three organs). The functions of these organs are detailed in Part 4 of the Rome Statute.

Any amendment to the Rome Statute requires the support of a two-thirds majority of the states parties, and an amendment (except those amending the list of crimes) will not enter into force until it has been ratified by seven-eighths of the states parties. A state party which has not ratified such an amendment may withdraw with immediate effect.<ref name=a121>Article 121 of the [http://legal.un.org/icc/statute/99_corr/cstatute.htm Rome Statute] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131019222421/http://legal.un.org/icc/statute/99_corr/cstatute.htm |date=19 October 2013 }}. Retrieved on 18 October 2013.</ref> Any amendment to the list of crimes within the jurisdiction of the court will only apply to those states parties that have ratified it. It does not need a seven-eighths majority of ratifications.<ref name=a121/>