October 23, 1997

Statement by Mr. John Holmes of the delegation of Canada

[...] We recognize that much work lies ahead, and we are committed to working with others in the next two Prep Corn meetings and informal intersessional meetings to accomplish as much as possible. With the progress made at the remaining meetings it should be possible to conclude the work on the Statute without an excessively long Diplomatic Conference.

Throughout the Prep Corn meetings, we have benefited from the helpful contribution of non-governmental organizations, and we strongly believe they should participate in the Diplomatic Conference in the same manner. The sharing of expertise of members of the Tribunals has also been of great value and we hope that this precedent will continue. We express once again our gratitude to Italy for its generous offer to host the Diplomatic Conference, and we look forward to a successful diplomatic conference next June in Rome. We also welcome the recent offer of the Netherlands to host the ICC once it is established. [...]