The ICC’s “Philanthropists”: the Usual Suspects
The International Criminal Court has been dependent on a vast support network of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from the get-go. Long before the United Nations 1998 Rome conference which established the ICC, the UN’s army of NGO activists provided boots on the ground for aggressive lobbying of national governments to support creation of the tribunal. At the Rome conference, the UN brought the raucus NGO rent-a-mob inside the convention site to turn up the pressure on the official national delegates. This correspondent sat in strategy meetings in Rome during which UN officials and NGO leaders coordinated their pressure cooker plans and conspired to neutralize opposition. The NGOs have been absolutely essential to the ICC — every step of the way. It is not an exaggeration to say that without the controlled NGO lobby there would not be an ICC. And the radical “human rights” NGOs are playing an indispensible role in the current campaign to boost the ICC to the next power level.