American Servicemembers' Protection Act
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The American Servicemembers' Protection Act (ASPA) is a United States federal law introduced by United States Senator Jesse Helms as an amendment to the Defense Authorization Act and passed in August 2002 by the Congress. The stated purpose of the amendment was "to protect United States military personnel and other elected and appointed officials of the United States government against criminal prosecution by an international criminal court to which the United States is not party".
The amendment is intended to weaken the position of the International Criminal Court in The Hague as it allows the U.S. government to save U.S. citizens from extradition to the ICC, and also authorizes "any necessary action", as Helms put it, "to free U.S. soldiers improperly handed over to that Court". This led opponents of the act to dub it The Hague Invasion Act.[1][2]
Furthermore, it contained prohibitions on the U.S. providing military aid to countries which had ratified the treaty establishing the court; however, there were a number of exceptions to this, including NATO members, major non-NATO ally, and countries which entered into an agreement with the United States not to hand over U.S. nationals to the Court. ASPA also excluded any military aid that the U.S. President certified to be in the U.S. national interest.
[edit] External links
- HR4775 Title II: ASPA
- Helms Introduces Amendment to Protect Servicemen From International Criminal Court
- Transcript of Helms's introduction of the amendment
[edit] References
- ^ U.S.: 'Hague Invasion Act' Becomes Law. Human Rights News
- ^ John Sutherland: Who are America's real enemies? The Guardian, July 8, 2002
