International+Criminal+Courts

Article 19 in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states " //Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without// //interference and to seek, recieve and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers//". Genocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction, in a whole or in a part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group. Although many hate groups or even terrorists may find genocide as a form of expressing opinions, it violates Article 3 which states " //Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person//".

In 1944, Raphael Lemkin formed the word "genocide" by combining //geno//( greek meaning race or tribe) with //cide// ( latin meaning killing). Lemkin was a lawyer of Polish-Jewish descent. He campaigned in the League of Nations to ban what he called "barnity" and "vandalism".

 CLICK IMAGE BELOW TO SEE CLIP ON THE HOLOCAUST

I nternational Military Tribune charged top Nazi's with crimes against humanity-the world. Genocide was included in the indictment, but as a descriptive, not a legal term. ** What is the International **    ** Criminal Courts? ** The International Criminal C ourts was established in 2002. It is an independent, permanent court that tries persons accused of the most serious crimes of international concern. The ICC is based on a treaty joined by 108 countries. July 1, 2002 was when the treaty came into being and The Rome Statute of the ICC entered into force. The ICC can only prosecute crimes committed on or after that date. What happens to the crimes committed before that date? As mentioned in the video, the Holocaust occured on January 27, 1945. Decades before the ICC was instituted. Sadly, we have a more recent example of this sort of crime that occured on September 11, 2001.

//Click and see the tragedy of 911// The terrorists of 911 expressed their feelings, opinion, and even imposed region towards us, but they violated our rights in the US. The right to life, liberty, and security.

The Holocaust and 911 are only two examples of crimes gone with out trial. The war is not considered a trial for September 11. Should the Rome Statute of the ICC change so we can go back and trial such cases? Is leaving the past in the past considered justice?

Bibliography Edward 2002-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/genocide Cnn-http://www.un.org/news/facts/ICCfact.htm http://www.metacafe.com/watch/684526/september_11/ Media 2005- http://www.encyclopedia.com/video-discovery_of _theholocaust.htm