October 23, 1997

Statement by Dr. Farooo Hassan, Member of the Pakistan Delegation

Mr. Chairman,

This topic has acquired importance in recent times as a result of events in certain parts of the world, particularly in Europe and Africa, where individuals accused of genocide and human rights violations were neither prosecuted by their State nor was there an existing international mechanism to bring them to justice. Th e result was the establishment of the two International Criminal Tribunals by the Security Council. In order to cater for such situations, the International Law Commission was requested by the General Assembly to undertake consideration of this subject on priority basis. To further examine the draft prepared by the International Law Commission, first the Ad-Hoc Committee and later the Preparatory Committee was established to prepare the ground for holding of a conference for the adoption of a statute.

We support the conference of plenipotentiaries be held in Rome in the summer of 1998. [...]