how can a victim of mass crimes have recourse to Justice and how can we prevent atrocious crimes now and in the future the world is taking action against atrocious crimes with support of the International Community including Civil Society groups countries worldwide created an international treaty in 1998 the countries ratifying the treaty started to grow and it took effect in 2002 officially establishing the international criminal court or ICC the court is unique in that it was created by a treaty and not by the United Nations which it cooperates with but remains independent from the ICC tries individuals not countries or organizations for four crimes genocide war crimes crimes against humanity and once the 2010 amendments to the Rome statute take effect the crime of aggression since the IC was established in July 2002 and does not have retroactive jurisdiction the ICC cannot address crimes committed before July 2002 the IC has jurisdiction in these locations first on the territory of States parties or countries that have accepted the icc's jurisdiction second in other countries if the crime crimes are committed by Nationals of States parties or countries that have accepted the Court's Jurisdiction third in other countries if the crimes were referred to the ICC prosecutor by the United Nations security Council pursuant to a resolution adopted under chapter 7 of the UN Charter the ICC does not try every case in these locations countries have the primary responsibility to do so the the ICC does not replace National courts but complements them as a court of last resort it only prosecutes cases when a country is unwilling or unable to do so genuinely the IC conducts work both in the courtroom and in the field and relies on cooperation with countries in order to fulfill its mandate particularly for making arrests transferring arrested persons to the ICC Detention Center in the ha freezing suspects assets and enforcing sentences the Rome statute created three bodies the court the trust frund for victims and the Assembly of States parties which provides oversight management the ICC has four organs first the presidency then the judicial divisions with 18 judges divided in three divisions pre-trial trial and appeals third the office of the prosecutor which is an independent organ of the court and which conducts investigations and brings cases before the court and finally the fourth organ is the icc's registry which provides support so the Court's work runs smoothly the ICC exist to hold people accountable if they commit atrocious crimes thus helping to prevent prevent such crimes from happening again