Mr. President,

Last year this August Body demonstrated the widespread and growing International support for a permanent International Criminal Court when it unanimously adopted resolution 51/207 which set mid 1998 as a date for a diplomatic conference to finalize and adopt a convention for the court. We have been encouraged by the progress made during the last two sessions of the PREPCOM in March and August. We appreciate the generous offer by the Italian government to host the conference. The time has now come for the necessary arrangements for the convening of such a conference to be put in place, and reaffirming the June 1998 date will enable the Italian Government to proceed with the necessary logistical arrangements and ensure that the Court is established before the end of the century. Lesotho fully and unreservedly support the date. We remain convinced that the early establishment of the Court will offer the advantage of a system that aims to serve the common global good by preventing local outbreaks of violence fr

om becoming security crises with global repercussions as well as deter the continued recurrence of genocide and other massive crimes against humanity that have haunted the world since Nuremberg and Tokyo. [...]