The independent International Criminal Court (ICC) is a separate entity from the International Court of Justice, which is the judicial branch of The United Nations. The ICC has jurisdiction over a limited number of crimes on an international level.

The Rome Statute grants the International Criminal Court jurisdiction over four types of crime. These include crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and war crimes of aggression.

Many member countries wanted to add terrorism and drug trafficking to the list, but but they could not agree on a definition for 'terrorism. They chose not to include drug trafficking because they felt it might overwhelm the Court's limited resources.

The ICC has 108 member countries. 30 are African states, 14 are Asian states, 16 are from Eastern Europe, 23 from Latin America and the Caribbean, and 25 are from Western Europe and other states. United States is not a member of the court.

The first person to be tried in the court is Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, who was also the first person to be charged. Lubanga, a former member of a militant group in the Democratic Republic of Congo, is accused of enlisting children into the militant group and using them in the fight for the Ituri region of DR Congo. The conflict over Ituri started in 1999 and also involved five other militant groups.BBC NEWS: Profile: DR Congo militia leader Thomas Lubanga