In its call to governments, the United Nations, other international and regional organizations as well as civil society to help ensure equality of women and end sexual and gender violence, the Platform for Action elaborated upon the need for States to ratify and fully implement human rights treaties and instruments which further this end. The Rome Statute is now one such instrument governments committed to ratify.

The importance of the ICC does not end with the actual creation of the Court and the potential to then begin redressing violations of women’s human rights. The implications for women are even more far-reaching. The process of ratification will require that domestic laws and procedures be in conformity with the Statute, presenting women with another rallying point around which we can mobilize and advocate for reform of discriminatory domestic laws – an aspect of this Court that parallels the commitments to such reforms already contained in the Platform for Action. It is this aspect of the Court – it requisite of national law conformity – which may present the most far-reaching potential for women all over in the long run.

• Ratification
  

Platform for Action

Strategic Objective I.1: Promote and protect the human rights of women, through the full implementation of all human rights instruments…

230(a). Work actively towards ratification of or accession to and implement international and regional human rights treaties Strategic Objective E.3: Promote non-violent forms of conflict resolution and reduce the incidence of human rights abuse in conflict situations
144(a). Consider the ratification of or accession to international instruments containing provisions relative to the protection of women and children in armed conflicts, including the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 1949, the Protocols Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I) and to the Protection of Victims of Non-International armed Conflicts (Protocol II).

While the ICC is not mentioned in the Platform for Action, it is, by its nature, an instrument which governments committed to ratify. At the time the Platform was drafted, much public attention was focused on the work of the ICTY which had been established in 1993 and to a lesser degree on the ICTR which was in the process of being set up. The ICC Statute is an international treaty that both manifests a concern with the “promotion and protection of the human rights of women” and contains “provisions relative to the protection of women and children in armed conflict.” The delineation of core crimes that are within the Court’s jurisdiction was heavily influenced by the Geneva Conventions and – with respect to crimes of sexual and gender violence – by the Platform for Action.

• National Law Reform
  

Platform for Action

124(d). Adopt and/or implement and periodically review and analyse legislation to ensure its effectiveness in eliminating violence against women, emphasizing the prevention of violence and the prosecution of offenders; take measures to ensure the protection of women subjected to violence, access to just and effective remedies, including compensation and indemnification and healing of victims, and rehabilitation of perpetrators;
232(l). Review and amend criminal laws and procedures, as necessary, to eliminate any discrimination against women in order to ensure that criminal law and procedures guarantee women effective protection against, and prosecution of, crimes directed at or disproportionately affecting women, regardless of the relationship between the perpetrator and the victim, and ensure that women defendants, victims and/or witnesses are not revictimized or discriminated against in the investigation and prosecution of crimes.
232(d) Review national laws, including customary laws and legal practices in the areas of family, civil, penal, labour and commercial law in order to ensure the implementation of the principles and procedures of all relevant international human rights instruments by means of national legislation, revoke any remaining laws that discriminate on the basis of sex and remove gender bias in the administration of justice.
232(k) Establish effective mechanisms for investigating violations of the human rights of women perpetrated by any public official and take the necessary punitive legal measures in accordance with national laws;

The Platform for Action emphasized the need for law reform in recognition of the brutal reality of physical and psychological violence women face both privately and publicly and the systemic violence women have endured through biased judicial procedures and domestic remedies. In the worst of cases, such processes do harm by facilitating or condoning such violence, and in many other cases do harm by failing to fully recognize and respond to the experience of women.

The ratification process for the ICC is an aspect that can support and facilitate the reform efforts around discriminatory domestic laws and procedures. Ratification of treaties requires that domestic laws and procedures be in conformity with the treaty ratified. For some treaties, implementing legislation is required. For others, the treaties can be considered self-executing, meaning they have effect upon completion of the State’s ratification process. Some countries require implementing legislation as a matter of course whenever a treaty is ratified.

The Rome Statute is somewhat rare in that it criminalizes certain conduct which many countries have not had occasion to address in their criminal codes. In addition, it sets up a mechanism to investigate, prosecute and punish such conduct that is poised in a delicate balance to national mechanisms. Under the principle of nullen crimen sine lege (“no crime without law”), States Parties will be required to review their domestic criminal laws and fill in the gaps to ensure that the crimes enumerated in the Rome Statute are also prohibited domestically so that potential perpetrators are put on notice as to the criminality of their actions and that they could be prosecuted.