November 2, 1995

Statement by H.E. George O. Lamptey

Representative of Ghana to the Sixth Committee

...Useful as the sessions of the Ad Hoc Committee have proved to be, that mechanism should not be utilized to delay the realization of the objective, nor should it usurp functions that should be the realm of plenipotentiaries in concourse.

Thus, the Ghana delegation believes that further theoretical and doctrinal discussions in the framework of an Ad Hoc Committee would be unwarranted and sterile. Consequently, we shall not lend our support to the extension of the mandate of the Ad Hoc Committee.

Mr. Chairman, experience teaches us that on matters such as this, delegations such as here constituted could discuss and argue for years without coming to a conclusion. Certainly, the history of brutality and inhumanity etched in the conscience of humanity since the last World War, and the tragedies that burden us today across the continents demands better than this.

it is only when Envoys fortified with Full Powers, briefed and ready to negotiate at a Plenipotentiaries Conference that the hard bargaining and the give-and-take that finally; achieves compromises and consensus can lead to the culmination of an international treaty as here conceived. Anything else is just a game of cards.

Mr. Chairman, it follows from what I have said above that Ghana supports the establishment of a Preparatory Committee that would meet in one, two or three sessions during 1996 to prepare the necessary drafts to be submitted to a Plenipotentiaries Conference that must convene in 1997 to conclude the Treaty Establishing the International Criminal Court.

Conscious of its historical heritage, Italy has been consistent in its generous offer to host this Plenipotentiaries Conference. Let this equally historic 50th General Assembly decide that 1997 would be the year when another great beginning would be made by man in the establishment of the International Criminal Court.