Chapter 11
In: Contemporary Issues Facing the International Criminal Court
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Securing the accountability of one particular kind of international organization, namely international courts, raises unique issues, as is suggested by ongoing efforts to establish supervisory mechanisms within the International Criminal Court (icc). The Independent Oversight Mechanism (iom) for the icc, as originally proposed, would have enabled a subsidiary of the Court’s political organ, namely the Assembly of States Parties, to have independent investigatory capacity over members of the staff of the Prosecutor of the icc without the need for prior approval of the Prosecutor. This would have been inconsistent with the provisions of the Rome Statute granting the independence of the Office of the Prosecutor and would have been unwise. The proposed iom contains other uncertainties or ambiguities that should be resolved. International lawyers need to devote attention to these institutional matters lest the independence of the Prosecutor, and of the Court itself, be undermined.