A view of the United Nations Headquarters building in New York City, United States on July 16, 2024. (Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto)
– FIDH joins 85 civil society organisations calling on ICC States Parties, including Canada, France, Japan, New Zealand, and the UK, to support, rather than stall, Rome Statute amendments that would enable the Court to deliver justice for victims of aggression.
– The proposed reform would close critical loopholes that prevent the ICC Office of the Prosecutor from investigating the unlawful use of force.
– This is a vital moment to end double standards and ensure all victims have equal access to justice and accountability.
New York, 8 July 2025. As States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) meet this week in New York, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) joins 85 civil society organisations urging governments to adopt long-overdue amendments that would allow the Court to exercise jurisdiction over the crime of aggression on equal footing with other core crimes - war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.
As France, the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, Japan, and others, seek to postpone harmonisation despite several of them supporting the newly established Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine, this process must not replicate the double standards and political deadlocks that have long plagued the United Nations Security Council. States Parties must ensure that the ICC is able to carry out its mandate independently and impartially.
Unlike the other three core Rome Statute crimes, the ICC’s jurisdiction over the crime of aggression remains severely restricted. States Parties may opt out, and the Office of the Prosecutor is barred from investigating acts of aggression committed by nationals of non-States Parties, even when those acts occur on the territory of a State Party. These carve-outs create glaring accountability gaps that shields powerful states from justice and undermines the integrity of the Rome Statute system. Victims of aggression, including those in Ukraine, Gaza, Armenia, the DRC and elsewhere, deserve the same access to justice as victims of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.
“We are witnessing how the crime of aggression opened a path to hell with countless victims,” emphasised Oleksandra Matviichuk, FIDH Vice President and Head of the Center for Civil Liberties. “The crime of aggression that we are experiencing today, on a daily basis, is not only a violation of the territorial integrity of Ukraine and a gross violation of the UN Charter prohibition [on the use of] force, but also a widespread and systematic crime that affects the life of all Ukrainians [...]. The crime of aggression creates mass victimisation. It’s not of a [lesser] gravity than war crimes or crimes against humanity, as we can testify with our everyday experience here in Ukraine.”
Read the full joint civil society statement here:
