November 2, 1995

Statement by Professor Dr. Gerard Hafner

...Thus, there is still some work ahead of us before the Conference could be convened and, in light of the urgency of the matter, we must use each and every opportunity to perform this task. But this work must differ from that undertaken by the Ad Hoc Committee which has fulfilled its mandate as laid down in Res. 49/53 of the General Assembly. No longer the presentation and reflection of the position of the States is asked for, but work on a text itself is needed which in combination with the ILC draft should then form the basis of the negotiations at the Conference. The common statement of the EU already referred to the need of a Preparatory Committee. My delegation hopes that the Chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee could also serve in such function in this Preparatory Committee. As to the meetings of the Preparatory Committee, my delegation favors three two-week sessions with a clear schedule of the items to be addressed. The short duration of two weeks for the individual sessions would facilitate the allocat

ion of the individual items to the different sessions and ensure that the deliberations on one item could not be extended to the detriment of the other items. This procedure would enable the 51st GA to decide on the precise date and venue of the Conference of Plenipotentiaries, hopefully in 1997, where the Convention on the establishment of the ICC is established, the sooner we are able to prevent crimes of the most cruel nature.