Unresolved Jurisprudence of Crime against Humanity under Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court

Abstract

Crime against humanity is one of international crimes. The “validity” of this crime as a criminal offence under International Criminal law can be traced to the Rome Statute, which by virtue of Article 7, makes it an offence. The International Criminal Court (ICC) is a court saddled with the responsibility of interpreting and also bringing to book those who have violated international criminal laws. The paper therefore examines how the broad couching of article 7 has brought complexity into the jurisprudence of “crime against humanity” and how it has created interpretation problems; not only to the court, but to victims and accused persons. A good law must be concise, precise and must not be too broad. This article, therefore, argues that an appraisal of Article 7 will go a long way in clarifying the ambiguity created by this article.