PREPARATORY COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT APPROVES WORK PROGRAMME FOR TWO-WEEK SESSION
Press Release
L/2838
PREPARATORY COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT APPROVES WORK PROGRAMME FOR TWO-WEEK SESSION
19970804 The Preparatory Committee on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court this morning approved its programme of work for its current two-week session, concentrating discussions in two working groups.In his opening statement to the fourth session, Chairman Adriaan Bos (Netherlands) said there was a great deal of work to be done before the Diplomatic Conference, to be convened in June and July of 1998 in Rome. Mr. Bos also expressed appreciation of the work done outside the formal meetings by the non-governmental organizations. He stressed the need for efficiency during the next two weeks in order to narrow the differences on the topics to be discussed, and to come up with proposals "as concrete as possible" for the Diplomatic Conference.
He proposed that the first working group, which would meet in the mornings, concentrate on the topics of complementarity and the trigger mechanism. Mr. Bos himself would chair this group. (The issue of complementarity involves the relationship between the international criminal court and national jurisdictions. The trigger mechanism refers to the question of what, or which actors could initiate or "trigger" court proceedings -- Member States, the United Nations Security Council and/or the Court prosecutor. For further information, see Press Release L/2837.) The second working group, meeting in the afternoon, would discuss procedural matters and would be chaired by Sylvia Fernandez de Gurmendi (Argentina), vice-chairperson of the Preparatory Committee.
Chairman Bos indicated that the present work programme would be kept flexible, in the light of progress made; it was also possible that the working group on procedural questions might need more time. Should that be the case, more time would be allocated to that group. He also hoped there would be time to finish the informal discussion on general principles of Criminal Law, which was discussed during the most recent session by an informal group chaired by Per Saland (Sweden).
International Criminal Court - 2 - Press Release L/2838 1st Meeting (AM) 4 August 1997
Discussions would concentrate on specific texts of the original text prepared by the International Law Commission, Mr. Bos said, in order to make the necessary progress.
The officers of the Preparatory Committee had been approached by members of the ad hoc International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda who had offered their assistance, Mr. Bos said. The Committee's officers had discussed the matter and had decided to invite them informally to the working groups' meetings where, as 'resource persons', they could relate their experiences to specific points under discussion. Judge Gabrielle McDonald, he said, had mentioned her specific interest in briefing the court. Mr. Bos suggested that the plenary reconvene at 12:30 p.m. on Monday, 11 August at 12:30 p.m. to hear the judge's views.
Hubert Legal (France) said the participation of members from the Yugoslavia and Rwanda Tribunals would be useful in the deliberations. However, it was important to remember that judges of international tribunals did not always have similar views on procedural matters. In that context, he asked if their participation in the deliberations would be in their individual capacity or as Tribunal representatives.
The Chairman replied that they would participate in their personal capacity.
The next meeting of the Preparatory Committee will take at a time to be announced.
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