[JURIST] The International Criminal Court [official website; JURIST news archive] marked the fifth anniversary of its establishment Monday. Court prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo [official profile] noted that in that time the court has substantially raised local awareness of the right to be protected from war crimes. In an interview with the UN News Service, he said that the large number of simultaneous investigations into regions such as Sudan, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo [JURIST news archives] will bring some of the worst perpetrators of war crimes to justice. Despite the slow pace of investigations, he emphasized that those responsible for the Darfur [JURIST news archive] crisis were destined to be "in the dock in The Hague." The UN News Service has more.

The ICC was established in 2002 with the adoption of the Rome Statute [UN website]. One hundred four countries are now parties to the court. In honoring the anniversary, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon [official website] asked for all states who are not yet parties to consider joining [statement], calling the court "one of the major achievements in international law during the past century."