In July 2025, an extraordinary Assembly of States Parties will convene to review the Kampala amendments on the crime of aggression, specifically Articles 8 bis, 15 bis and 15 ter of the Rome Statute. This occasion presents an opportunity to reassess the ICC’s jurisdictional provisions. The need for harmonising jurisdiction across all four core crimes of the ICC was already emphasised in the Nuremberg Declaration on the Crime of Aggression.
The German Federal Foreign Office strongly supports reforming the ICC Statute. To build momentum for this initiative, conferences were held in Brasília and São Paulo on 25 and 27 March. Academy Director Professor Dr Christoph Safferling participated in these discussions, underscoring that the proposed reform is not a reaction to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, but rather a necessary step to uphold the Nuremberg Principles in their entirety—something the ICC’s current framework fails to achieve. (bk)