The Iran War's War Crimes Investigation Has Already Begun — Here Is What the ICC Is Doing

International legal experts have begun documenting potential war crimes in the Iran war. Here is what the ICC is examining and whether it has jurisdiction over US and Israeli commanders.

The specific combination of strikes on the Pasteur Institute (a century-old medical research institution), 600+ educational facilities damaged, the particular bridge-civilian-infrastructure debate, and the specific Bushehr nuclear plant targeting has created the particular international legal examination that the International Criminal Court and independent international legal experts are conducting as the war continues.

For the specific ICC jurisdiction question: the United States is not a signatory to the Rome Statute that created the ICC, meaning the court has no specific jurisdiction over American commanders for crimes committed by US forces against Iranian nationals. Israel withdrew its signature in 2002. The specific legal mechanism for accountability therefore involves either the particular UN Security Council referral (whose Russian and Chinese veto block it) or the specific universal jurisdiction claims that some individual European states exercise.

For the Pasteur Institute's specific legal significance: its 1920 founding, the particular hundred-year record of exclusively civilian medical research, and the specific 'dual use' justification that US officials offered — that it had biological research capacity — creates the particular international humanitarian law case whose specific evidence will be the subject of the post-war legal examination that war crimes investigations always produce.

For the 600 schools dimension: the Wikipedia Iran war article confirms Iran's statement that '600 schools and education centres have been hit' — a specific figure whose particular meaning in international humanitarian law depends on the specific evidence about whether those schools were being used for military purposes at the time of specific strikes, which is the particular 'dual use' question that every school strike investigation requires.

For what comes after: the specific pattern of previous conflict investigations — Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria — is that accountability mechanisms develop over years or decades rather than during active conflict. The specific 2026 Iran war's documentation is being assembled by NGOs, Iranian legal authorities, and specific international monitors whose particular records will provide the specific evidentiary foundation for whatever accountability mechanisms the post-war international order makes available.