NPWJ Press Release on Wednesday 13 August, 1997

The overall goal of No Peace Without Justice (NPWJ) is that the Statute for an effective International Criminal Court is agreed upon at the Diplomatic Conference in Rome in June-July 1998. In order to achieve this goal, and in light of the slow progress of the working group on Rules of Procedure, NPWJ appeals to UN delegates to discuss only questions of principle regarding the Rules of Procedure and to leave matters of detail to be established by the Judges after the statute has been agreed upon, as was done for the ICTY and ICTR. Substantively, an effective court means that four building blocks must be strongly reflected in the spirit of the statute: (1) inherent jurisdiction of the ICC over the core crimes, (2) determination on admissibility exclusively the competence of the Court, (3) the Prosecutor entitled to act ex officio and (4) the Security Council only referring situations to the court rather than preventing the court to proceed with cases brought before it.

The NPWJ International Campaign 1997-8 has organised a series of regional conferences and public initiatives to bring these goals to the attention of the public throughout the world. The International Campaign was launched at a conference held at the S nat in Paris and was hosted by European Commissioner for Humanitarian Affairs, Emma Bonino and French Senator Robert Badinter. Following suit are conferences in: Malta (Mediterranean Region), Uruguay (Latin America), Atlanta, New York and Washington (USA), Senegal (Africa), and in Europe, particularly Italy which is the hosting country for the Diplomatic Conference of Plenipotentiaries in June 1998.

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