INTRODUCTION

Hardly a week goes by without pictures and reports of atrocities committed around the globe. Frequently, those atrocities amount to crimes the international community views as the most serious and heinous ones and for which it has voiced its unanimous condemnation at multiple occasions, namely the crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Those atrocity crimes fall within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, which, after a decade of judicial activities, has delivered a significant contribution to the fight against impunity. Nevertheless, the core of the criminal system as enshrined in the Rome Statute is based on the principle of complementarity, under which the International Criminal Court is only called to play a subsidiary role and supplement the domestic investigation and prosecution of atrocity crimes. The primary responsibility to bring the perpetrators of these atrocity crimes to trial therefore rests with states. The General Assembly recently recalled the complementary nature of the International Criminal Court and the corollary responsibility of states to domestically investigate and prosecute atrocity crimes, and emphasised, in this context, ‘the importance of international cooperation and judicial assistance in conducting effective investigations and prosecutions’.

Due to the very nature of atrocity crimes however, suspects, witnesses and evidence do not find themselves on the territory of a single state. Suspects may have found safe haven in a foreign country, witnesses may have fled and been granted refugee status far away from home, evidence may be scattered all over the world. Mutual legal assistance and extradition are therefore crucial tools in the investigation and prosecution of atrocity crimes at the domestic level. Without an effective level of cooperation between states, the fight against impunity for atrocity crimes stands the risk of remaining an abstract reality, which is simply not acceptable.

In contrast with some recent treaties that have been adopted, for instance under the auspices of the United Nations in the fields of corruption or transnational organised crime, and which contain a set of procedural provisions dealing explicitly and in a detailed manner with mutual legal assistance and extradition, the international legal framework for cooperation in relation with atrocity crimes remains inadequate.