International Human Rights Law Challenges to the New International Criminal Court: The Search and Seizure Right to Privacy

Late in the evening of Friday, July 17, 1998, at a United Nations facility in Rome, Italy, after five weeks of indefatigable, strained negotiations, 120 nations endorsed a treaty to establish a permanent International Criminal Court (ICC) to sit in the Hague, Netherlands with jurisdiction to try perpetrators of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and aggression. The Court will be established after sixty states have adhered to the Rome Statute, and will function fully after the Assembly of States Parties adopts collateral documents, including the ICC Rules of Procedure and Evidence and the ICC Elements of Crimes, finalized drafts of which were approved at the conclusion of the fifth session of the Preparatory Commission for the Establishment of an International Criminal Court.