ICC Assembly of States Parties Passes Resolution Adding to List of War Crimes in the Rome Statute (December 14, 2017) [1]
On December 14, 2017, the International Criminal Court Assembly of States Parties passed a resolution [3] that adopted three amendments to Article 8 of the Rome Statute, which added to the list of war crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court and relate to the use of prohibited weapons in armed conflict. The amendments prohibit “Employing weapons, which use microbial or other biological agents, or toxins, whatever their origin or method of production”; “Employing weapons the primary effect of which is to injure by fragments which in the human body escape detection by X-rays”; and “Employing laser weapons specifically designed, as their sole combat function or as one of their combat functions, to cause permanent blindness to unenhanced vision, that is to the naked eye or to the eye with corrective eyesight devices.” Under Article 121 of the Rome Statute, these amendments “shall enter into force for those States Parties which have accepted the amendment one year after the deposit of their instruments of ratification or acceptance” and if a state does not accept the amendments, the new crimes would not apply to that state party’s nationals or on its territory.