In 2012 the International Criminal Court (ICC) celebrates its ten-year anniversary since its establishment. It is fair to say that the current age of the Court reflects its present maturity. At the time of writing, the Court has finally rendered its first verdict, by condemning the Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga for the conscription of child soldiers after a rather wobbly trial that took 6 years. In May 2011, the Court faced another unprecedented challenge. Four witnesses transferred from the Democratic Republic of the Gongo (DRC) to testify in the Lubanga and Katanga & Ngudjoio Chui (hereinafter: Katanga) trials, applied for asylum in the Netherlands. This matter, which was not anticipated in the Statute or secondary sources of IGG law, raises issues concerning the cooperation between the IGG, the Netherlands as host state and the DRG, and raises intriguing questions about the interaction of international criminal law and international refugee law.

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