Nations Adopt the Treaty for an International Criminal Court

On 17 July 1998, delegates gathered at the Food and Agriculture Organization headquarters in Rome approved the treaty that established the International Criminal Court. The diplomatic conference, convened by the United Nations General Assembly, concluded five weeks of intense negotiations among representatives of 160 countries alongside non-governmental organizations and observers. The resulting Rome Statute was adopted by a vote of 120 nations in favor, seven against, and 21 abstaining, marking the formal creation of a permanent international criminal tribunal.

Efforts to construct a standing international court had unfolded across the twentieth century. Following the Nuremberg trials of Nazi leaders after the Second World War, the United Nations adopted the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in December 1948 and tasked legal committees with drafting an institutional statute. Cold War rivalries and disagreements regarding the definition of aggression stalled these early attempts for decades. Momentum resumed in December 1989 when Trinidad and Tobago prompted the General Assembly to reopen negotiations. Throughout the 1990s, the United Nations established ad hoc tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, demonstrating the viability of international criminal proceedings and providing models for the Rome draft.