12 June 1997

INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT PROMISES UNIVERSAL JUSTICE,

SECRETARY-GENERAL TELLS INTERNATIONAL BAR ASSOCIATION

Kofi Annan Says Genocide, 'Now Word of Our Time', Is Heinous Reality

Calling for Historic

Response

Following is the statement of Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the

International Bar Association

in New York on 11 June:

I am very pleased to have the opportunity to address your assembly on the

occasion of the fiftieth

anniversary of the International Bar Association.

And allow me to quote President Robinson of Ireland's recent address to the

graduating class of

Yale Law School: "The world needs lawyers more than the world is willing to

admit."

As you reflect on the accomplishments of your institution over the last

half-century, so too are

we reflecting on ours and how we may refine its purpose and its mission. We

are reforming our

United Nations, conscious of our heritage, committed to its principles and

faithful to its

foundation. That foundation is the law.

It is the idea that the behaviour of States and the relations between them

shall be governed by one

law, equal and applicable to all. It is the commitment to the peaceful,

negotiated settlement of

disputes. It is the fervent hope that human rights and fundamental freedoms

may be extended to

all the peoples of the United Nations.

That is our inheritance. That is the legacy that we seek to bring to life

every day in every corner

of the world. It is our solemn duty and our highest calling.

What can we do in our time to answer this calling? How can we improve our

service to the

globe? Where can we refine, where can we refocus, where can we reinvigorate

the United

Nations?

Those are the questions that lie at the heart of our current reform effort.

The answers, I believe,

will chart the path of our United Nations for years to come.

We are living through a remarkable period in the advancement of

international law. Great strides

have been made in refining its writ, expanding its reach and enforcing its

mandate.

The challenges of the future -- narcotics, disease, crime and international

terrorism -- are

increasingly recognized as transnational challenges. As that recognition

has grown, so too has

the realization that international law is a vital tool in the global effort

to meet tomorrow's

challenges.

The response to our common challenges must not only be global, but also

unified. Through the

United Nations, Member States have coordinated legal measures and

established lasting norms

for State behaviour and inter-State relations.

The United Nations has ever since its inception been at the forefront of

codifying international

norms. Indeed, we celebrate this year the fiftieth anniversary of the

International Law

Commission.

The Charter of the United Nations envisioned a profound role in the area of

international law,

calling upon the General Assembly -- and I quote: "to initiate studies and

make recommendations

for the purpose of ... encouraging the progressive development of

international law and its

codification."

Over the last 50 years, the International Law Commission has pursued this

mission with great

success, setting forth basic rules in most of the key areas of

international law. These rules have,

in turn, served as the basis for global treaties, governing State

activities in fields such as maritime

navigation, marine oil extraction and the provision of drinking water.

Indeed some of these treaties -- such as those regulating diplomatic

matters -- may be said to

form the very foundation of the practice of international relations.

Tonight I would like to share with you my ideas on one vital aspect of the

United Nations

aspirations for international law -- an aspect that I personally have great

hopes for: the creation of

an International Criminal Court.

There can be no global justice unless the worst of crimes -- crimes against

humanity -- are subject

to the law. In this age more than ever do we

- 3 - Press Release SG/SM/6257 12 June 1997

recognize that the crime of genocide against one people truly is an assault

on us all -- a crime

against humanity.

The establishment of an international criminal court will ensure that

humanity's response

will be swift and will be just.

For nearly half a century -- almost as long as the United Nations has been

in existence -- the

General Assembly has recognized the need to establish such a court to

prosecute and punish

persons responsible for crimes such as genocide.

Many thought, no doubt, that the horrors of the Second World War -- the

camps, the cruelty, the

exterminations, the Holocaust -- could never happen again.

And yet they have. In Cambodia, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in Rwanda. Our

time -- this

decade even -- has shown us that man's capacity for evil knows no limits.

Genocide -- the destruction of an entire people on the basis of ethnic or

national origins -- is now

a word of our time, too, a heinous reality that calls for a historic response.

In the absence of an international criminal court, the Security Council

acted to establish two

ad hoc international tribunals, for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda.

These tribunals have

made significant progress and are setting an important precedent. War

criminals can and will be

brought to justice.

They cannot complete their task, however, without the swift and complete

arrest of all indicted

criminals. I would like to use this occasion, once again, to call on all

countries concerned to

surrender suspects within their jurisdiction. True justice demands no less.

May I also take this occasion to applaud strongly the frank and candid

appeals made by my friend

United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on the subject of war

crimes during her

recent visit to the Balkans.

Peace and justice are indivisible. They are indivisible in the former

Yugoslavia, in Rwanda -- in

all post-conflict situations where the dawn of peace must begin with the

light of justice.

The international criminal court is the symbol of our highest hopes for

this unity of peace

and justice. It is a vital part of an emerging system of international

human rights protection. It

will ensure that indicted criminals suspected of genocide in any country

can be tried and

convicted.

- 4 - Press Release SG/SM/6257 12 June 1997

Great progress has been made since the 1994 draft statute on an

international criminal court

prepared by the International Law Commission. The General Assembly has

decided to convene a

conference of plenipotentiaries in 1998 to adopt a convention on the

establishment of an

international criminal court.

That conference will coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption

of the Convention on

the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. I cannot think of a

more solemn, more

significant occasion for the world to take the final step towards global

justice. The creation of an

international criminal court will not only complete the vision of the

Genocide Convention: it

will bring that vision into reality.

In the prospect of an international criminal court lies the promise of

universal justice. That is the simple and soaring hope of this vision. We

are close to its realization. We will do our part to see it through till

the end.

We ask you, as lawyers and tribunes of justice to do yours in our struggle

to ensure that no ruler, no State, no junta and no army anywhere can abuse

human rights with impunity.

Only then will the innocents of distant wars and conflicts know that they,

too, may sleep under the cover of justice; that they, too, have rights and

that those who violate those rights will be punished.

Allow me to conclude by congratulating you, the representatives of the

International Bar, on the fiftieth anniversary of your association. May the

next 50 years be as fruitful and progressive as the last.