Will the International Criminal Court ever impose life imprisonment? - CANCELLED

• In Event: Perceptions and extent of life sentences

Abstract

Since the 1990s, life imprisonment has been the most severe punishment that could be imposed by international courts and tribunals. They have done so fairly regularly, even though it was not always clear that their governing statutes gave them the power to do so. Nor did these bodies at all times define clearly what they meant by life imprisonment. The 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) provides specifically for life sentences, and it adopts a more systematic approach to both their imposition and implementation. The Statute also limits the use of life imprisonment to the punishment of extremely grave crimes and provides for the continued implementation of life sentences to be reconsidered after 25 years. The ICC, however, has never imposed a life sentence and has expressed serious doubts about the compatibility of life imprisonment with human rights. This paper analyses these doubts closely. The paper also considers whether, if the ICC were to convict persons of atrocity crimes committed in current armed conflicts, such as those in Ukraine or in Gaza, it would be willing to sentence them to life imprisonment.

Author

• Dirk van Zyl Smit, University of Nottingham / University of Cape Town