PREPARATORY COMMITTEE CONVENES FINAL SESSION BEFORE JUNE/JULY ROME CONFERENCE ON ESTABLISHING INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT

Press Release
L/2859

PREPARATORY COMMITTEE CONVENES FINAL SESSION BEFORE JUNE/JULY ROME CONFERENCE ON ESTABLISHING INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT

The Preparatory Committee on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court convened its sixth session this morning and immediately went into informal consultations on whether there should be instruments other than the statute of the court.

This is the Committee's final session before the United Nations Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court, scheduled for 15 June to 10 July in Rome.

Before the Preparatory Committee is a report of an inter-sessional meeting held in Zutphen, Netherlands, containing a complete set of articles that consolidate negotiations on the court's statute carried out over the past two years, and which are based on a draft statute originally submitted by the International Law Commission.

Opening the session this morning, Adriaan Bos (Netherlands), Chairman of the Preparatory Committee, welcomed delegations to "this crucial phase" of the Committee's work. He said there was growing interest in the establishment of an international criminal court. Since the Preparatory Committee's last meeting in December 1997, a series of regional meetings on the court had been held in Senegal and Guatemala. The European Parliament had also held discussions about the court. He also referred to the January Zutphen meeting which was attended by officers of the Preparatory Committee and the chairmen of its working groups, as well as coordinators and Secretariat officials. The purpose of that meeting was to organize, in a more coherent manner, the results of discussions on the court starting in the Ad Hoc Committee established by the General Assembly in 1994 and subsequently in the Preparatory Committee. The outcome of those discussions had been consolidated in the text before the Preparatory Committee. The document would be the basis for discussions in the coming weeks in preparation for submission of a text to the Conference.

He said the consolidated text served as "an eye opener", showing clearly what still needed to be done. Maximum effort should be made to reduce the text further in an acceptable manner. That was the challenge the Preparatory

- 2 - Press Release L/2859 16 March 1998

Committee would face in the coming weeks. He invited delegations to approach the chairman if they had specific suggestions to accelerate the Preparatory Committee's work, or if they had certain concerns about the text. That could be of help in the preparatory work for the diplomatic conference. The stage for long speeches had passed and time must be used expeditiously.

Before the adjournment, Peter Tomka (Slovakia) was elected a Vice- Chairman of the Preparatory Committee to replace Marek Madej (Poland). (For background on the Committee's session, see Press Release L/2858 of 13 March.)

* *** *