The ICC is an independent, permanent court that tries persons accused of the most serious crimes of international concern, namely genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The ICC was established in 1998 in accordance with the Treaty of Rome, joined by 104 countries, including Croatia.
After his meeting with Croatia's Justice Minister Ana Lovrin in Zagreb on Tuesday when he was asked by reporters to comment on Washington's insistence on concluding bilateral agreements with other countries on non-extradition of Americans to that court, Kirsch said that he could not comment on the matter as this was not within the remit of the court.
However, he said that in principle he could say that when concluding a bilateral agreement every (ICC) member-country must take care that the agreement was compatible with its obligations stemming from the ICC statute.
Kirsch ruled out a possibility for the ICC to take over uncompleted cases from the Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) when the latter closes in 2010. He explained that the ICC statute makes it impossible for the International Criminal Court to tackle cases that were committed before the court was established in 1998.
Kirsch and Lovrin agreed that cooperation between Croatia and the ICC was successful.
The minister said that her country was in particular interested in seeing that the crime of aggression be defined as the international law had not yet defined that term. An ICC task force is now working on the issue so that the ICC statute can include it.
During his stay in Zagreb, Kirsch was received by Croatian President Stjepan Mesic on Monday and is to meet top officials of Croatia's Supreme Court and other officials in the country later on Tuesday.