International Crimes and the Netherland’s Law: Strategy of Implementation

Introduction. The adoption of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court proved to be an important factor that stimulated a radical reform of national laws relating to the prosecution of international crimes. It allowed, on one hand, to considerably improve the mechanism for suppressing most serious violations of human rights the prosecution of which constituted a legitimate interest of both individual States and the international community as a whole, and on the other hand, to adequately implement the obligations of States under the Rome Statute. The Member States of the European Union have an effective experience in ensuring compliance of the national laws with the international treaty provisions concerning genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Among them, the implementation model chosen by the Netherlands deserves particular scrutiny. The authors analyze the all-encompassing nature of this model with the focus on the criminalization of the international crimes, the regulation of matters relating to the criminal jurisdiction, the definition of the general principles of criminal responsibility for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, and the interrelationship between the Law on International Crimes and other similar legal acts.

Materials and methods. Materials used for the analysis include international documents, decisions of international judicial bodies, national legislation and judicial practice of Netherlands and other states, as well as the doctrinal positions of various authors. The methodological basis of the research consists of general scientific and special methods.

Research results. The analysis of the substantive implementation of the Rome Statute by individual EU member states, in particular with the example of the national legislation of the Netherlands, has shown that the criminalization of international crimes at the national level makes a significant contribution to the fight against personal impunity for international crimes pertaining to jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.

Discussion and conclusions. The national legislation of the Netherlands, mainly the International Crimes Act is an attempt to create a legal regime that prevents impunity for perpetrators of international crimes, and also reaffirms that the norms of the Rome Statute are voluminous and fully implemented that allows the Netherlands to carry on an independent prosecution of defendants, excluding the possibility to transfer the case to the ICC.

international crimes, genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, torture, enforced disappearance international criminal court, principle of complementarity, universal jurisdiction

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