The past century witnessed enormous atrocities. Two World Wars devastated large parts of the World and les to extremely high casualties. The perpetrators of these crimes often went unpunished. Shielded by self-imposed amnesties, some of the most cruel and violent dictators enjoyed impunity from punishment. The need for international criminal justice was evident. Asia is home to one of the two cradles of international criminal justice. The famous Tokyo Tribunal, which together with its Nurnberg counterpart laid the foundations for the adjudication by international courts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The two tribunals also sparked the idea of a permanent International Criminal Court. Since then, Asia has played an important role in the advancement of international criminal justice. The prosecutionof war crimes in East Timor through an internationalized court and more recently the establishment of internationalized Extraordinary Chambers in Cambodia aptly demonstrate that Asian countries are willing to bring to justice those responsible for the most heinous crimes. These countries want to continue to fight impunity and rely on the ICC, as an enforcement mechanism and watchdog. An early but unsuccessful attempt to establish an international criminal tribunal can be found in the Versailles peace treaty of 1919. article 227(1) specified that the former German emperor Wilhelm Ⅱ was to be arraigned for ”a supreme offence against international morality and the sanctity of treaties. However, the innovative and ambitious approach of the Versailles peace treaty was not put into practice. WilhelmⅡ sought asylum in the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the country refused to surrender him to the allied. Despite the meagre practical results of the Versailles peace treaty and the inter bellum period, theidea to bring to justice war criminals continued to gain momentum. As early as 1942 the allied powers instituted a war crimes commission, which was charged with the collection of evidence of war crimes and other atrocities. In the wake of the war, two tribunals were set up to try the major war criminals. The main message of these tribunals was famously put in the Nurnberg judgement: “Crimes against international law are committed by men, not by abstract entities, and only by punishing individuals who commit such crimes can the provisions of international law be enforced.” The idea of direct individual criminal responsibility was born. The Nurnberg and Tokyo military tribunals only tried the major war criminals. While the war crimes and atrocities of World War Ⅱ were not comprehensively prosecuted, the track record was much better than after World War. The General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) reaffirmed the Nurnberg principles and a year later requested the International Law Commission (ILC) to draft a Code of Crimes against the Peace and