Belgium ratifies amendments to the Rome Statute on the crime of aggression and article 8

​The President of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute (“the President”), H.E. Tiina Intelmann, welcomed the deposit of the instruments of ratification of the amendments to the Rome Statute on the crime of aggression by Belgium on 26 November 2013. The crime of aggression amendment was adopted in a historic consensus at the 2010 Review Conference of the Rome Statute in Kampala, Uganda. Belgium also ratified the amendments pertaining to article 8 of the Rome Statute on war crimes adopted at the same conference.

Belgium was the twelfth State Party to ratify the crime of aggression amendment and fifteenth State Party to ratify the amendment to article 8 of the Rome Statute on war crimes. In 2009, Belgium initially submitted the proposal for amendment to article 8 of the Rome Statute, extending the criminalization of the use of certain weapons to non-international armed conflicts.

The crime of aggression had been included in the Rome Statute in 1998 while its definition and implementation were deferred to a Review Conference. The amendments adopted in 2010 define the crime of aggression and provide the conditions for the exercise of jurisdiction over this crime. The Court may exercise jurisdiction over the crime of aggression once thirty States Parties have ratified the amendments and subject to a decision to be taken after 1 January 2017 by the States Parties.