Imagine a world where if you were a certain religion or ethnicity, you were killed. You might think that I am talking about the 15th or 16th century where religious persecution was common. Well guess what, the 20th century has been the bloodiest century ever recorded in history. Over 174 million people have been killed in genocides and mass murders in this past century alone. That's about 2 ½ times the population of the western US.
My topic is whether or not the US should join the International Criminal Court. On Dec. 31, 2000, former president Clinton signed the treaty meaning that the US would have to pursue ratification. However, on May 6, 2002 the Bush Administration "unsigned the treaty."" this was the first time that any country unsigned a United Nations treaty.
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Today I would like to talk to you about what the ICC is and try to dispel some of the reasons that the Bush Administration had stated for the un-signing of the treaty. As well as what I think what we should do. .
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The International Criminal Court (ICC) was created on the basis of the Rome statute, which was a treaty that was created in Rome on July 17, 1998. On April 11, 2002, the ICC became official when it received its sixtieth ratification. Currently, there are 84 countries that have joined the ICC. The International Criminal Court (ICC) is a permanent court that will be based out of The Hague in The Netherlands. It will investigate and bring to justice individuals who commit the most serious violations of international humanitarian law, when countries cannot or will not prosecute the crimes themselves. The crimes that fall under the jurisdiction of the ICC are large scale, affecting hundreds, thousands, or even millions of people. Crimes such as mass executions, murder, rape, forcefully removing people from their homes based on ethnicity, mass torture and mutilations, and the systematic destruction of property of a certain group of people, are all punishable by the ICC.
