On July 17th, The Peace Palace Library and The Hague Academy of International Law organized a small event to celebrate International Justice Day. It was the first time a special event was held at the Peace Palace to mark this day. For this special occasion, we invited Dr. Cyril Laucci, legal advisor from the International Criminal Court, to speak to the students. A lively interactive session took place in which students passionately debated their questions and concerns relating to issues in international criminal law.
International Criminal Justice Day was officially established in 2010 to celebrate the anniversary of the coming in to force of the Rome Statute, the founding treaty of the International Criminal Court (ICC). The day is more commonly known as International Justice Day.
The Peace Palace Library and The Hague Academy of International Law felt it was appropriate to pay special attention on the importance of this day by organizing an event for the students of the Summer Course in Public International Law to show continued support for the ICC and the international criminal justice system.
For this occasion, we invited Dr. Cyril Laucci, a legal advisor from the ICC, to hold an interactive session with the students who were allowed to discuss topics of their own choosing. Some of the topics that were discussed were: complementarity, the principle of the presumption of innocence before the International Criminal Court, the jurisdictional hurdles for the ICC to consider the situation on the territory of Palestine and the ICC in the eyes of African nations.
The celebration was ended with a group picture for the Social Media Campaign ‘Justice Matters’ which was launched jointly by the International Criminal Court (ICC) and President of the Assembly of States Parties (ASP).
International Justice Day was a success and many students continued their discussions afterwards while having drinks and snacks in the foyer of the Academy Building.
By C. Alihusain
