For the purposes of this Treaty, unless the context otherwise requires:
“Court” means the God's Court of the People established by this Treaty.
“State Party” means a State that has ratified, accepted, approved, or acceded to this Treaty and for which this Treaty is in force.
“Person” means any natural person subject to the jurisdiction of the Court.
“Accused” means a person against whom the Court has authorised formal criminal proceedings.
“Victim” means a person who has suffered physical, psychological, emotional, financial, material, or other recognised harm as a direct or indirect result of conduct falling within the jurisdiction of the Court. Where appropriate, the term may include the immediate family or dependants of a person who has died or disappeared as a result of such conduct.
“Child” means a person under eighteen years of age unless a different age is expressly recognised by an applicable international legal instrument or by this Treaty for a specific purpose.
“Genocide” means acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in substantial part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group as such, including killing members of the group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the group's physical destruction, imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group, or forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
“Crimes against humanity” means specified serious acts committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population, with knowledge of the attack, including murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation or forcible transfer, imprisonment or other severe deprivation of liberty, torture, rape and other serious forms of sexual violence, persecution, enforced disappearance, apartheid, and other similarly grave acts recognised under applicable international law.
“War crimes” means serious violations of the laws and customs applicable in international or non-international armed conflict, including grave breaches of applicable international humanitarian law and other conduct recognised as war crimes under applicable international law.
“Human trafficking” means the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring, or receipt of persons through means such as force, threats, coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power, or abuse of vulnerability for the purpose of exploitation.
“Sex trafficking” means trafficking in persons for the purpose of sexual exploitation, including forced prostitution or other forms of sexual exploitation.
“Sexual exploitation or abuse of a child” includes conduct involving the sexual exploitation, abuse, coercion, grooming, trafficking, prostitution, production or distribution of child sexual abuse material, or other serious sexual exploitation of a child.
“Abduction” or “kidnapping” means unlawfully taking, carrying away, confining, or withholding a person against their will or, where the victim is a child or otherwise legally incapable of giving consent, without lawful authority.
“Torture” means the intentional infliction of severe physical or mental pain or suffering upon a person for purposes including obtaining information or a confession, punishment, intimidation, coercion, discrimination, or any purpose prohibited by applicable international law.
“Enforced disappearance” means the arrest, detention, abduction, or other deprivation of liberty by, or with the authorisation, support, or acquiescence of, a State or political organisation, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or concealment of the person's fate or whereabouts, placing the person outside the protection of the law.
“Armed conflict” means a situation of international or non-international armed conflict recognised under applicable international humanitarian law.
“Unlawful use of force” means the use of armed force contrary to the obligations established by applicable international law.
“Serious violation of international law” means conduct of sufficient gravity to constitute a recognised violation of an applicable rule of international law falling within the jurisdiction of the Court.
“Proceedings” includes investigations, preliminary proceedings, hearings, trials, appeals, sentencing proceedings, enforcement proceedings, and other judicial proceedings conducted under the authority of the Court.
“Investigation” means the process by which the Court gathers, examines, preserves, and assesses information and evidence concerning conduct potentially falling within its jurisdiction.
“Judgment” means a formal judicial determination issued by the Court.
“Sentence” means a penalty or other judicial consequence imposed by the Court following a finding of guilt.
“Court Enforcement Officer” means an officer lawfully appointed or authorised under this Treaty or the Rules of the Court to carry out warrants, orders, arrests, transfers, property recovery, confiscation, removal, deportation, or other lawful enforcement functions of the Court.
“Jurisdiction” means the lawful authority of the Court to investigate, prosecute, hear, determine, and where appropriate sentence or otherwise adjudicate a matter or person under this Treaty or another lawful international agreement.
The definitions in this Article shall be interpreted consistently with established principles of international law while remaining capable of development through the lawful decisions, Rules, and amendments of the Court.
Nothing in this Article shall prevent the Court from recognising additional forms of serious criminal conduct where such conduct falls within the Court's lawful jurisdiction and is established in accordance with this Treaty and applicable international law.