November 1, 1995

Statement delivered by the new Zealand Representative Felicity Wong

...The Governments represented in this room will need to earn their credit too. Last year we had a spirited debate in this Committee about whether we referred the ILC text to a diplomatic conference at which member states could engage in a negotiating process towards a final text. That was not possible given the cautious position of a few. Accordingly the Ad Hoc Committee was something of a compromise which provided a one year opportunity for states to engage in a discussion of the major issues arising out of the ILC text.

Recently we have seen the welcome leadership of the United States, and others, in supporting the general concept of the Court.

The Ad Hoc Committee process has now been completed and we are on the point of moving into a new phase towards establishing a Court. A welcome consensus has emerged that the new phase be described as a Preparatory Committee.

But preparatory for what? In procedural terms a Preparatory Committee prepares for a conference. We would like to see that Conference begin its work in 1997 and it is timely and appropriate for this to be clearly indicated in a resolution this year.

In substantive terms, we believe there is no longer any question as to whether there will be a Court. There will be one. The political reality for reasonable governments is that it would now be indefensible to argue against the establishment of a Court. No state can argue credibly, in the face of the scale of atrocities in Rwanda and Yugoslavia, that there should be no international Court before which such criminals are called to account.