HEADQUARTERS PRESS CONFERENCE ON INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT

The entry into force of the International Criminal Court would let prospective perpetrators know that the international community had moved significantly to provide redress to their would-be victims, President A.N.R. Robinson of Trinidad and Tobago told correspondents at Headquarters this afternoon.

At a press conference organized by Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA), President Robinson said that the Statute of the International Criminal Court provided protection against genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, including extensive crimes against women and other defenceless people.

The President, who introduced the motion to institute the International Criminal Court before the General Assembly in 1989, recalled the initial hostility of many countries to the very idea of such a court, regarding it as a would-be infringement of sovereignty.  However, the Court would have no jurisdiction over countries, but only over persons who committed the most egregious crimes.

He said that during that time, PGA had provided an important platform in the promotion of the Court, opening doors and facilitating meetings with representatives of different countries.

Also present was Hans Corell, Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs.  He said that as an independent institution governed by its own Statute, the Court would have its own Assembly of States parties, which would make its decisions, elect its judges and select the Prosecutor.

He said that besides the agreement of cooperation between the Court and the United Nations an important element of the Statute was the right of the Security Council to report situations to the Court.  In a situation similar to that in the former Yugoslavia or Rwanda, the Council could take a decision to ask the Court to address that situation.

Cherif Bassiouni, President of the International Human Rights Institute, De Paul University, said that in the age of globalization, it was hard to believe that there could be global communications, as well as a global economy and financial system, and yet global justice was marginalized.  In an age of increased interdependence between governments and peoples, it was impossible to exclude concerns of international criminal justice from that interdependence.

He cautioned that much of the remaining practical work in building the Court would have little media interest or attention.  Its future would depend less on the idealism of the past than on the pragmatic realism of those who would make it work in the future, he said.

Addressing the press conference via video link from the Quirinale Presidential Palace in Rome, Emma Bonino, a Member of the European Parliament and President of No Peace Without Justice, said that following today's first step in globalizing justice, it was necessary to push forward to globalize human rights and democracy.

It would be an uphill struggle, she said, emphasizing the need for pride in what had been achieved while also finding the strength to go forward.  She said that on 17 July, the Government of Italy and No Peace Without Justice would host in Rome the first informal gathering of all the Member States that had ratified the Statute of the International Criminal Court.

Also present was Edmund Wellenstein, Director-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, host country of the International Criminal Court.  He said it was important to realize that there was a gap between 1 July, when the Court would formally come into existence, and the moment when it would have judges and prosecutors, probably next May or June.  Within that period, practical means must be found to put the Court into operation as of 1 July.

Two important elements in that task required special attention, he said.  One was spreading the word about the International Criminal Court in order to encourage countries that had not yet ratified the Statute to do so and to explain how the Court would work in practice.  Also, it should also be possible as of 1 July for the Court to receive documents that may be instrumental in future cases.

PGA Secretary-General Shazia Rafi announced that the group's annual forum this year, to be hosted by the Canadian Parliament, would discuss the issue of forming an assembly of parliamentarians for the International Criminal Court.

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