The Court Will Investigate Libya as the US Senate Praises the UN Referral

The ICC announced today that the ICC prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo, has opened a formal investigation into the situation in Libya. The UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1970 on Saturday, Feb. 26, which referred the situation to the prosecutor, thereby granting the court jurisdiction over alleged crimes committed in Libya since Feb. 15. The resolution did not, and could not, require the ICC to act. Since the Security Council referred the situation, under the court’s Rome Statute, the prosecutor did not need the permission of the Pre-Trial Chamber to open an investigation. However, the prosecutor will not necessarily be able to proceed quickly, given the difficulty of doing investigations in Libya and the challenges of an ongoing conflict there. More information is available at http://www.icc-cpi.int/Menus/Go?id=3eee2e2a-2618-4d66-8ecb-c95beccc300c&lan=en-GB.