International Criminal Court Standards in a Context of Transitional Justice

Abstract

Abstract On October 2021, Colombia and the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) of the International Criminal Court (ICC) signed a Cooperation Agreement that closed the preliminary examination opened in 2004. This is the first agreement of its kind. This article analyses the evolution of the OTP’s reasoning in considering whether a state has genuinely administered justice in a transitional context. To do so, it chronologically analyses the Colombian case, which is the first peace process in the world developed entirely under the continued scrutiny of the ICC. Furthermore, the Colombian situation was the ICC’s most extended preliminary examination, influencing in turn, the transitional justice outcomes as well as the position of the OTP. The Cooperation Agreement offers, therefore, an outstanding opportunity to analyse from a practical point of view, debates that have been predominantly theoretical and will have future consequences elsewhere.