Extradition and Mutual Legal Assistance in the Draft Convention on Crimes Against Humanity

Working on crimes against humanity, the International Law Commission (ILC) has modelled its draft articles on extradition and mutual assistance on corresponding provisions of the United Nations Conventions against Corruption and Transnational Organized Crime. Nevertheless, some provisions are clearly adapted to the special nature of crimes against humanity. This article seeks to explore how the ILC has navigated between producing a flexible and general framework and adapting the system more specifically to the specificities of crimes against humanity. The ILC has been censured for easily transposing already existing regimes that were not designed for such specific contexts. On closer scrutiny, that criticism is not entirely justified. A comparison with the parallel provisions in the Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) reveals that the ILC’s provisions do not deviate much from the system as adopted by the ICC. This similarity may be indicative of the soundness of the ILC’s approach in construing a framework that may contribute to the improvement of interstate cooperation in the suppression of crimes against humanity.