Armenia’s Constitutional Court today greenlights the ratification of the Rome Statute by the Parliament.
The High Court ruled today that the Stature corresponds to the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia.
The decision paves the way for Armenia to join the International Criminal Court.
Although Armenia signed the Rome Statute in 1999, in 2004, the Armenian Constitutional Court ruled that the Statute was partially incompatible with the Armenian constitution and could not be ratified.
The ICC is the world’s first permanent international court to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. Central to the Court’s mandate is the principle of complementarity, which holds that the Court will only intervene if national legal systems are unwilling or unable to investigate and prosecute perpetrators of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.