The provisions for guaranteeing the right to fair trial in the Rome Statute are a model for national courts and the Preamble emphasizes that one of the purposes of the International Criminal Court (ICC) is ‘to guarantee lasting respect for the enforcement of international justice’. However, as explained in this article, when viewed against contemporary humanitarian law and international human rights standards, amongst other the Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers,  there are a number of serious weaknesses which will need to be addressed in the rules of the ICC or in its practice to ensure that all persons affected by the ICC are treated fairly.