“Over the past decade, there has undoubtedly been a growing momentum towards the ‘internationalisation’ of justice, with the global community outraged at terrible crimes that, in the past, would have largely gone unpunished because of a lack of political will,” Freeland said. “Setting up the ICC was an extremely important step towards ending the era of impunity for international crimes that largely prevailed from the end of World War Two until the 1990s.”

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The ICC was established in July 2002 to hear cases against those accused of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the undefined crime of aggression. Freeland said he was “honoured” by the appointment.