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ePaper created 2015-11-10, 17:27:36 | version 1.33.00
REDACTED Page 189 of 190 presented shows that the situation is manifestly outside the jurisdiction of the Court. While the criteria which set out the jurisdiction of the Court are defined by the Statute, the term “manifestly” set out in the policy paper of the OTP was defined as a matter of internal policy of the OTP pursuant to the proprio motu powers of the Prosecutor under Article 15 to screen situations before the opening of an investigation844 and is not present in the Statute, Elements of Crimes, Rules of Procedure and Evidence.845 Furthermore, as the process of a preliminary examination is unique to the ICC, there are neither “applicable treaties, established principles and rules of international law”, nor national laws that are relevant to the interpretation of the term.846 However, the ordinary meaning of the word according to the Oxford dictionary points to the adverb “manifestly” being defined as “clear or obvious.”847 In this case, it is apparent that if a communication is not clearly outside the jurisdiction of the Court, meaning constitute a plausible hypothesis a preliminary examination should formally be started. Excluding the decision’s timing, the policy provides no discretionary margin to the OTP at this phase. If a situation is not manifestly outside of the Court’s jurisdiction, the OTP has no discretion to ignore it. Therefore, it is submitted that rather than demonstrating that a communication is clearly within the jurisdiction of the Court, a party submitting an Article 15 communication merely has to provide a plausible hypothesis supported by serious information pointing to the fact that the alleged crimes are not clearly outside the jurisdiction of the Court. Any information relating to potential investigations of the crimes by the GoV would only be relevant for the admissibility assessment in Phase 3 of the process. In relation to the assessment of the information provided, the OTP should make an “independent and objective”848 “analysis of information (…) to weigh and to evaluate the content and reliability of the information available to it.” 849 844 OTP. (2015) ICC-01/13-34 p.2, para. 2 845 ICC. Rome Statute. Article 21(1)(a) 846 ICC. Rome Statute. 21(1)(b) and (c) 847 OXFORD DICTIONARIES ONLINE. (2015) Word adjective. “manifest.” Oxford Dictionaries Online. [Online] 27 October. Available at: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/manifest [Accessed 27 October, 2015] 848 OTP. (2013) Policy paper on Preliminary examination. p.15, para. 23. 849 OTP. (2015) ICC-01/13-14-Red (“Situation on Registered Vessels of the Union of the Comoros, the Hellenic Republic and the Kingdom of Cambodia, Public Redacted Version of Prosecution Response to the Application for Review of its Determination under article 53(1)(b) of the Rome Statute”). Office of the