November 3, 1995

Statement by Mr. Markiyan Z. Kulyk

...Concerning the recommendations of the Ad Hoc Committee about the future work on the establishment of an international criminal court I would like to express support of my delegation to the idea of combining further discussion with drafting, in view of preparing a consolidated text of a convention for an International Criminal Court. In order to accomplish this task a Preparatory Committee should be established. The Committee would have before it all the necessary backgrounds for the successful outcome of its activities. In particular, I mean the draft statute prepared by the International Law Commission, results of the discussions during the two session of the Ad Hoc Committee, contained in the doc. A/50/22, as well as the written comments submitted to the Secretary-General, which constitutes a solid basis for future consideration. It is quite obvious now that the future work of the Preparatory Committee will be organized in several sessions, and in this regard my delegation would like to emphasize the im

portance of clear indication in advance of what parts of the draft statute are to be addressed at each of the next sessions of the Preparatory Committee, in order to allow appropriate experts to attend the meetings.

The delegation of Ukraine also shares the view that we should try to set up a specific date for the convening of a conference of plenipotentiary. I would not enumerate all the pros of the establishment a specific date for the Conference, which were mentioned by the previous speakers, but only add that the UN practice has clearly demonstrated the validity of the old rule that work expands to fill the time available for its completion. Without such a specific deadline we are exposed to risk of being involved into a lengthy discussion which might indefinitely postpone holding a final diplomatic conference on the establishment of an international criminal court.