CYIL Vol. 7, 2016

CYIL 7 ȍ2016Ȏ THE ICC ARREST WARRANT FOR THE SUDANESE PRESIDENT… • States not Parties to the Rome Statute have no such obligation, but in the case of a request of the Court, they can decide to arrest him. • Member States of the African Union who are States Parties to the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the OAU are also under legal obligation to arrest the Sudanese President, provided that they are States Parties to the Rome Statute. • For practical purposes, in dualist countries it is necessary to check whether the content of the Rome Statute has been thoroughly transformed into domestic law. The Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir was re-elected in April 2015 and he can be expected to travel to other Member States of the African Union in the future again. As the International Criminal Court does not have any enforcement powers at disposal, it fully relies on the cooperation of States Parties to the Rome Statute in order to execute its arrest warrants. Therefore, clarification of the legal obligations of the States Parties represents a significant step on the road to achieving international criminal justice.

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