The Jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court and the Crime of Genocide

This paper offers a doctrinal analysis of the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC) with specific reference to the crime of genocide, tracing its legal, historical, and institutional development. Beginning with the evolution of international criminal law from the Nuremberg trials and the Genocide Convention of 1948 through to the establishment of the ICC by the Rome Statute (1998), the study examines the Court’s subject-matter, territorial, personal, and temporal jurisdiction. It highlights how genocide, defined under Article 6 of the Statute, requires proof of the special intent to destroy a protected group in whole or in part. The paper critically evaluates the challenges in prosecuting genocide before the ICC, including jurisdictional gaps for non-State Parties, Security Council politics, difficulties in proving genocidal intent, state non-cooperation, and enforcement of arrest warrants. By reviewing landmark cases such as Prosecutor v. Lubanga, the Darfur referrals and the indictment of Omar al-Bashir, as well as the ongoing situations in Myanmar, Ukraine, and Palestine, it demonstrates how the ICC has both expanded and been constrained in practice. It also considers the complementarity principle, state cooperation, and political pressures that shape the Court’s ability to act effectively. Recent developments up to 2025, including arrest warrants against sitting heads of state such as Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu, underscore both the reach and the controversies of the Court. The analysis concludes that while the ICC has not yet secured a conviction for genocide, it has fundamentally altered expectations of accountability for mass atrocities, even as it continues to navigate the tension between law, sovereignty, and international politics.