Working at the UK mission to the UN in New York often meant late nights. But only once was I in the office until three in the morning.
It was the morning after the night before, the night the Security Council had voted, around midnight, to refer the crisis in Darfur to the International Criminal Court, the first such referral to the recently created court.
It had been a nerve-wracking day, the culmination of months of patient diplomacy and pressure to build a majority in the Court for action and to avoid a US veto, which was a real threat at the time.
In reporting the day’s events to London after the momentous vote, I wrote that the Council decision would not in itself bring peace or justice to Darfur. Subsequent events have sadly proved that right. Just this week our government criticised the decision of Nigeria, an ICC member, to host a visit by the President of Sudan, an ICC indictee.
More broadly, much has changed since 2005 – for better and worse.
The Court has tried and resolved cases. But its authority remains contested and it is not yet the universal body its founders conceived it to be.
Wrongly, it is seen by some as an instrument intended to be applied to the Rest, but not the West.
Today, the World Day of International Criminal Justice, the UK government is launching a new strategy to support the work of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Our aim is to ensure that the ICC retains its independence, delivers justice, increases its membership, builds more support for its decisions from States and from the United Nations Security Council, gains wider regional support and completes its work more efficiently.
The strategy is available at: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/foreign-commonwealth-office