State Parties
As of July 2012, 121 states are states parties to the Statute of the Court, including all of South America, nearly all of Europe and roughly half the countries in Africa. A further 32 countries, including Russia, have signed but not ratified the Rome Statute; one of them, Ivory Coast, has accepted the Court's jurisdiction. The law of treaties obliges these states to refrain from “acts which would defeat the object and purpose” of the treaty until they declare they do not intend to become a party to the treaty. Three of these states—Israel, Sudan and the United States—have informed the UN Secretary General that they no longer intend to become states parties and, as such, have no legal obligations arising from their former representatives' signature of the Statute. 41 United Nations member states have neither signed nor ratified or acceded to the Rome Statute; some of them, including China and India, are critical of the Court. The Palestinian National Authority, which neither is nor represents a United Nations member state, has formally accepted the jurisdiction of the Court. On 3 April 2012, the ICC Prosecutor declared himself unable to determine that Palestine is a "state" for the purposes of the Rome Statute.
Read more about this topic: International Criminal Court
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