In 1989 Trinidad and Tobago approached the UN General Assembly to re-open discussion
on the establishment of an international narcotics court. The proposal was born of a
frustration with the inability of less developed states to investigate and prosecute
international drug traffickers, and a perceived lack of cooperation between national law
enforcement and judicial agencies.'The proposal provided the impetus to a process which
resulted in the formation of the International Criminal Court (henceforth Court or ICC). After a
decade of negotiations, the Rome Statute of the ICC included the following crimes under the
Court's jurisdiction: crimes against humanity, genocide, war crimes and crimes of
aggression. Narcotic trafficking was excluded from the Statute. In 2009, Trinidad and Tobago
again lobbied for the inclusion of narcotics trafficking under Articles