on behalf of the Nordic Countries

SIXTH Committee

Mr Chairman,

I am speaking on behalf of the five Nordic countries, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Sweden and Norway, and my intervetion will be confined to the sections in the Commission's report....

The Nordic countries are of the opiniooooon that the draft Statute before us provides a valuable basis for constructive discussions within the context of a diplomatic conference: The difficult and sensitive task of the International Law Commission has thus been brought to a successful end.

........Mr Chairman,

the establishment of an International criminal court is a project of the utmost importance to the international community. In the wake of the establishment of the ad hoc tribunal for crimes in the former Yugoslavia, and with the prospect of having another ad hoc tribunal for the atrocities committed in Rwanda, the time is ripe to consider the establishment of a permanent and global criminal court.

The world public expects that we act now. We hope that the 6th committee will take decisive action in order to ensure that the momentum achieved on this issue by the ILC will be preserved. We are grateful to the commission for its recommendation. That recommendation should be heeded through a decision to convene a diplomatic conference and to start its preparatory work with a view to an early adoption of a convention on the establishment of an ICC.