Prosecuting the Use of Chemical Weapons in Syria by the International Criminal Court

Document Type : academic

Authors

1 Associate professor, law department, faculty of international law and human rights, Mofid University

2 International Law Instructor, Islamic Azad university of Dashtestan, Iran

Abstract

The Syrian Arab Republic has been the scene of political protests since early 2011, which soon became a non-international armed conflict. In these clashes, chemical weapons were used, the most important of which happened on 21August 2013, with more than 1,400 people killed. Legally speaking, it was argued whether the use of chemical weapons (CW) in the internal conflicts of Syria was considered an international crime under the Court’s jurisdiction, in light of the fact that the use of CW was not counted as a crime in the Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC); and is it possible for the Court to exercise jurisdiction over Syria's situation in light of the fact that Syriais not a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court? In this paper, the researchers have considered the use of CW in Syria's internal conflicts as a war crime, by analyzing the subject, interpreting the Statute and applying it to elements of the crimes under the jurisdiction of the ICC. Also, the study indicates that, according to the amendments to the Statute of the ICC in Kampala, Uganda, in June 2010, if the Security Council refers the "situation" of Syria to the ICC, it will be possible for the Court to exercise its jurisdiction.

Keywords

References

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History

  • Receive Date: 14 October 2017
  • Revise Date: 11 November 2017
  • Accept Date: 31 December 2017

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