Subject: (2) POLITICAL INITIATIVES OF THE TRANSNATION RADICAL PARTY
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(2) POLITICAL INITIATIVES OF THE TRANSNATION RADICAL PARTY
by Emma Bonino, Secretary of the Radical Party
Sofia, 15-18 July 1993, Radical Party General Council
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UNITED NATIONS
Permanent International Court
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SUMMARY: International institutions have been discussing the idea of a
permanent International Court for more than fifty years, but it was only in
1989 that the UN General Assembly passed a resolution asking the
International Law Commission (ILC) to develop the relative structure for
setting up of an "International Criminal Court, or other form of
international legal apparatus." In 1992, given the dramatic situation in
the Ex-Yugoslavia and the events in Libya, many nations - including the
European Community in its entirety (with the UK and France participating) -
declared itself in favour of constituting such a Court, and in November
1992 the General Assembly passed a resolution which conferred a mandate on
the ILC, authorizing this body to draw up and give "top priority to a
draft "statute", for proposal at the next Session. In September of this
year, the ILC has to present its report, if not actually the draft statute,
to the General Assembly. If the latter hapens, the General Assembly will
be in a position to invite the Member States to summon a Conference in
order to negotiate a multilateral agreement for the setting up of the
permanent Court.
The statute that the ILC will propose to the General Assembly must list the
international crimes that would come under the jurisdiction of the new
International Court. The Statute will clearly depart from a "modest and
realistic" standpoint; neverthless, it will provide for crimes that can
only be commited with the direct or indirect intervention of the State.
They are obviously politcally-oriented crimes: acts of aggression, crimes
against humanity, genocide and apartheid.
At this point, the priority appears to be to set deadlines and to define
conditions for the convening, at a given date, of an International
Conference under the auspices of the UN for the setting up of the Court.
We could launch a strong parliamentary campaign, involving various actions,
along the lines of initiatives with which we are familiar. We have had a
lot of experience in organizing these and we can use our talent for
mobilization. Our first objective would be to secure the ILC's approval
of the draft statute for the Court by September 1994, at the latest.
Background and update
International institutions have been discussing the idea of a permanent
International Court for over fifty years. The increase in international
crime during the Eighties made it even more necessary to create an
international authority to judge such offences. In 1989, the UN General
Assembly passed a resolution which requested the International Law
Commission (ILC) to develop the relative structure for setting up an
"International Criminal Court, or other form of international legal
apparatus."
On occasion of the 45th and 46th Sessions of the General Assembly (1990 and
1991) the project lost impetus, owing to new resolutions being passed which
simply invited the ILC to continue working on the proposal. The work was
slowed down. more than anything else, by the postions take by a number of
Western powers, and more specifically, the US, the UK and France.
Then in 1992, many nations were forced by the events in the Ex-Yugoslavia
and the controversy over extradition in Libya to publicly take a position -
for the first time - and to come out in favour of the consititution of an
International Court. These countries included Australia, Canada, Columbia,
Japan, Venezuela, Zimbabwe and - quite unexpectedly - the entire European
Community, France and the UK included. At this point, the ILC declared
that it required a new mandate from the UN in order to develop the relative
draft statute. In spite of the resistance put up initially by the US and
the sceptical attitude of China, Indonesia and other developing countries,
the General Assembly passed a resolution in 1992 which invited the ILC to
"continue with its work by giving top priority to the draft statute for a
permanent Criminal Court, which would be considered at the next Session."
Consequently, at the end of this working year, the ILC must present a
report, or an actual draft statute, at the plenary meeting of the General
Assembly in September. In the event that it is a report, the General
Assembly must give the necessary guidelines to the ILC, in order that it
might have the draft statute ready for presentation at the meeting of the
General Assembly to be held in Autumn 1994; if, on the other hand, the
draft statute is presented this September, the General Assemby must invite
Member States to adopt the necessary procedures for convening a Conference,
to be held under the auspices of the UN, in order to negotiate a
multilateral agreement for the setting up of a permanent Court. The
invitation issued to Member States to send in their comments for evaluation
by the ILC during 1994, constitutes an initial step in this direction.
International crime
The statute that the International Law Commission will propose to the UN
General Assembly will contain a list of all the international crimes that
will come under the jurisdiction of the International Court.
When the Member States meet to discussand approve the Convention or Treaty
which will found the Court they will select, from the list, the types of
crime they wish to place under the exclusive, or partial jurisdiction of
this authority.
It should be noted that the work group set up by the ILC compiled a report,
dated 6 July 1992, in which it confirmed that the setting up of the
International Court was a realistic objective, and also affirmed that "any
attempt to found a practicable international court system should be based
on a modest and realistic approach."
(Conventions and International Consuetudinary Law recognize the following
24 categories of transnational crimes: acts of aggression, war crimes,
crimes against humanity, genocide - the principal crimes that will be
judged by the special Court for the Ex-Yugoslavia - slavery and relative
practices, apartheid, illegal human experimentation, torture, unlawful use
of weapons, piracy, hijacking and sabotage of aircraft, assault or
kidnapping of diplomats or of persons who enjoy international protection,
use of civlians as hostages, international drug-trafficking, destruction or
theft of national treasures, theft of nuclear material, illegitimate use of
postal service, damage of international undersea cables, blackmail of
foreign public officials, international trafficking in obscene material,
certain types of environmental damage, forgery.
A number of these crimes cannot be committed without the direct or indirect
intervention of the State. For this reason, they are the most
"politically-oriented": acts of aggression, crimes against humanity,
genocide and apartheid. It is also necessary to add damage to the
environment to this list.)
Possible initiatives
The first thing we must do is to establish the conditions and the precise
date for the convening of a Conference, under the auspices of the UN, for
the constitution of the permanent International Court. We could achieve
this objective by organizing a parliamentary campaign, supported by various
actions, relying on the usual type of political initiative.
The first step would be to exert pressure on the ILC to approve the draft
statute of the Court before September 1994, at the latest.
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