PRESS BRIEFING ON INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT

"We are now working the vision of a permanent International Criminal Court into a tangible reality", the President of the Court's governing body told correspondents, pointing out that the Court would start functioning in March 2003.

Speaking this afternoon at the noon briefing, Zeid Ra'ad Zeid Al-Hussein (Jordan), the President of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, said "That we will encounter obstacles along the way is to be expected…however, the inescapable logic governing the need for such a Court, the justness of its cause is the surest guarantee that one day it will enjoy universal acceptance and the full support of the entire international community.  That is what fills us with confidence." 

With agreement reached on a procedure for the nomination and election of judges to the Court, the Assembly of States Parties, which has been meeting from

3 to 10 September, had now completed virtually all its tasks for the session and would formally adopt its decisions on Monday, 9 September, he said.  At that meeting, the Assembly also expected to announce the date and venue of its next session, at which the judges would be elected and the Director of Common Services would be appointed.  That Director would have the responsibility of actually setting up the Court physically until a Court Registrar was selected.

 The Secretary-General was scheduled to address the Assembly at its closing session on Tuesday morning, he added.  The high-level general debate of the meeting would occur on Monday and Tuesday morning as well.

Asked about the controversy over the procedure for the nomination of judges,  Al-Hussein said guidelines had been recommended.  There was initially a fear on the part of some that due consideration would not be given to the Statute's call for respect for the principles of gender balance and geographic representation on the bench, in addition to the primary requirements of merit and expertise.

Countries had been informally requested by the President not to bring the common practice of reciprocal agreements or trading or swapping of votes into the International Criminal Court regime concerning the nomination and election of ICC judges.  The ICC election had to be unique in character.  

A lot of countries had withheld the nominations of judges until there was a clearer picture of the nomination procedure, he said, adding that now formal nominations would probably begin in earnest on Monday.

He told another correspondent that there were no similar specific procedures for the election of a Prosecutor.  He believed that soon names of potential candidates, suggested by States, would be floated to see if consensus built up around any.

A correspondent asked what the Assembly intended to do about the United States pursuit of bilateral article 98 agreements -- did the Assembly have a common position?

The Assembly had not met on the matter, although a number of States parties had met informally in a side meeting.  "And our position is very much driven by what Hannah Moore once said, 'Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal'.  Our eyes are on the goal -- which is to build this Court and that is what we are doing and have been doing the past few days", he said.

* *** *