Crime of aggression

A Crime of Aggression is a specific type of crime where a person plans, initiates, or executes an act of aggression using state military force that violates the Charter of the United Nations. The act is judged as a violation on based on its character, gravity, and scale.

Acts of aggression include invasion, military occupation, annexation by the use of force, bombardment, and military blockade of ports.

The Crime of Aggression is a crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The definitions and the conditions for the exercise of jurisdiction over this crime were adopted by consensus at the 2010 Kampala Review Conference by the States Parties to the Court.

In 1998, at the Rome Conference that adopted the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court ("the Statute"), the crime was included as one of the crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court (Article 5.1) and over which any State that becomes party to the Statute accepts the Court’s jurisdiction (Article 12.1). However, participants to the Rome Conference could not agree on the definition of the crime nor on further conditions for the Court’s exercise of jurisdiction; the Statute did not allow the Court to exercise such jurisdiction until these outstanding issues were solved (Article 5.2). At the 2010 Review Conference ("the Conference"), States Parties agreed by consensus to adopt resolution RC/Res.6 accepting the amendments to the Statute adding the definition of the crime and the conditions for the exercise of jurisdiction over this crime.

Under the Statute, the definition of "crime of aggression" is stated as follows:

Under the Statute, the conditions for the exercise of jurisdiction for the "crime of aggression" by the Court are as defined below. With these provisions, the Court may exercise its jurisdiction over the "crime of aggression" in one or all of the following ways.

Exercise of jurisdiction over the crime of aggression (State referral, proprio motu)

Exercise of jurisdiction over the crime of aggression (Security Council referral)

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