Complementarity Project
Upon ratification of the Rome Statute, States Parties assume certain obligations in relation to the International Criminal Court should the Court issue a request for co-operation such as to locate a witness or act on an arrest warrant.
States are therefore encouraged to review national laws to ensure compliance with the ICC and enable their co-operation with the Court.
To date 146 States are signatories to the Rome Statute of which 100 have ratified the Statute. Amongst the 100 States Parties, almost half have some form of implementing legislation.
In September 2005 the Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice launched the Complementarity Project in collaboration with the University of Sydney, Australia to monitor, assess and advocate for use of the Rome Statute and implementing legislation to promote women’s human rights internationally and within national jurisdictions.
During the course of the project we will:
- Review existing implementing legislation from a gender perspective and assess implementation of the complementarity principle;
- Compare ratifications and types of implementing legislation between regions and different legal systems;
- Assess and monitor use of the Rome Statute and the domestic implementing legislation to promote women’s human rights within countries;
- Assess, monitor and advocate for use of the Rome Statute for law reform to promote women’s human rights including (but not limited to) violence against women;
- Monitor use of the Rome Statute by national legal practitioners and judiciary towards the development of domestic jurisprudence;
- Assess use of the Statute and implementing legislation to:
- Promote the rights of victims;
- Increase the number of women and overall gender competence of appointments to national judicial posts;
- Introduce or strengthen reparations and compensation mechanisms for victims of serious crimes including sexualized and gender based violations;
- Support law reform efforts by governments and human rights bodies towards land reform and reform of inheritance laws through compliance with the Statute including the reparations mechanism of the ICC Trust Fund for Victims.