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Why is the International Criminal Court described as a court of last resort?

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Railway tracks lead to the brick entrance building and guard tower of Auschwitz Birkenau concentration camp near Oswiecim, Poland. — Genocide Freight train tracks leading to Auschwitz-Birkenau, Nazi Germany's largest concentration camp, near Oświęcim, Poland.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is described as a court of last resort because it operates under the principle of complementarity, which recognizes the primacy of national criminal jurisdictions.1

The court is authorized to intervene and proceed with a case only after it has determined that domestic legal systems are either unable or unwilling to genuinely prosecute individuals for serious crimes, such as genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. By design, the ICC serves as a secondary mechanism to ensure accountability when a state's own justice system fails to address these grave offenses, thereby upholding the ethical principle that those responsible for the most heinous international crimes must not escape justice due to domestic inaction or obstruction.1