CONVENING A DIPLOMATIC CONFERENCE AS RHE REAL STEP TO ESTABLISH AN

INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT

Proposals and comments for the Preparatory Committee on the establishment of an International Criminal Court

CONVENING THE DIPLOMATIC CONFERENCE

No Peace Without Justice and the Transnational Radical Party are deeply convinced that the course of international events is urging for the convening of a diplomatic conference.

We recognize that the great work done by the ad hoc and Preparatory Committees encourages a demand for a diplomatic conference.

We are acutely aware of the fact that there are still a few technical issues that need to reach a major consensus, however time is running out.

NPWJ/TRP believe that the Preparatory Committee should not avoid the fixing of a date in its final documents for the matter to be addressed at the 51st Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations.

In the most recent PrepCom there has been a large amount of high quality work done, a greater inclusion and diversity of the participating countries and an increased number of governments in favour of the establishment of the ICC. Considering this factors, we are deeply convinced that it is now the time to call a Diplomatic Conference by the end of 1997.

At this point in the debate there are only a few elements left to be incorporated into a consolidated text. In our opinion it is reasonable to assume that the Diplomatic conference can resolve these issues. It is important to recall that other succesful conferences (such as UNIDO1 and UNESCO) started without a consolidated text.

There is a great urgency to establish a number of new ad hoc tribunals to deal with the situations in countries such as Burundi and Liberia. The current U.N. budget could not accomodate the creation of such tribunals.

The most powerful and economically viable way to deter breaches of international law is through an effective International Criminal Court.

It is our opinion that only a plenipotentiary conference can solve some different approaches on technical and political questions. We are strongly convinced that discussions and debates are necessary and inevitable, but we are also aware of the fact that they can go on for an indefinite time. Moreover, there are no guarantees that certain points, considered or solved during the Preparatory Committee, will not re-emerge during a diplomatic conference.

Since Nuremberg and for the last fifty years, the most distinguished jurists and experts of international law, the International Law Commission, the 6th Committee of the General Assembly and the Security Council have discussed the urgency for an international court. Thanks to this work and discussions we are now in the right momentum and we should take advantage of the opportunities presented.

For all these reasons we affirm the necessity of a plenipotentiary conference, which should be the place for further discussion and implementation of a text.

We thank the Italian Government which for the third year in a row has offered to host the Conference, and we hope that the General Assembly will take advantage of this offer.

We know that there are countries in favour and others against an international jurisdiction. It is our opinion that all the governments which support the establishment of the ICC should concentrate their efforts on the political aspects of the matter, rather than raise further technical or procedural issues.

No Peace Without Justice and the Transnationl Radical Party remain convinced that the United Nations should start a process of reforms toward the democratization the the institution itself. The first concrete step in this direction could be that the ICC Statute become a significant part of the U.N. Charter.

As regards specific issues No Peace Without Justice and the Transnational Radical Party want to highlight the following points:

JURISDICTION

Article 20 of the ICC draft statute provides that the court should have jurisdiction over: genocide, aggression, serious violations of the laws and customs applicable in armed conflict, crimes against humanity and crimes provided in treaties listed in the Annex to the statute, such as the Geneva Conventions and Torture Conventions, or conventions dealing with international drug trafficking or terrorism.

NPWJ/TRP believe that such a large competence would undermine the acceptance of the ICC by the majority of the delegations, and require a very long time for adequate ratification.

NPWJ/TRP agree with the opinion largely emerged from the discussion during the first session of the Preparatory Committee on the limitation of the Court's jurisdiction to the three "core crimes": genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

These crimes should be strictly defined in the Statute, in order to guarantee the effectiveness and the strengthens of the new international institution.

AGGRESSION

We urge for the definition of aggression, starting from the work done in the ad hoc and preparatory committees, to be completed in order to have it eventually included in the Statute of the ICC as a core crime.

NPWJ/TRP believe that only with the inclusion of Aggression as core crime the ICC will be completely effective in facing the most dramatic and tragic crimial events all over the world.

TRIAL IN ABSENTIA

Recalling article 37 of the ILC draft statute, we affirm the principle that "as a general rule, the accused should be present during the trial", but we invite the delegations to consider, as the exception that confirms this rule, that the Prosecutor should consider the possibility to proceed in absentia only if:

- the accused continuously and expressly impedes the trigger mechanism or the starting of the proceeding.

- as stated in the ILC draft Statute Art.37, 2c, "after the commencement of the trial the accused has escaped from lawful custody under this Statute or has violated the terms of bails."

DEATH PENALTY

We absolutely support the decision taken by the Security Council on establishing the two ad hoc Tribunals which do not include the capital punishment.

As regards punishments, NPWJ/TRP radically opposes the position expressed by some countries to include death penalty in the Preparatory Committee's draft.

We are strongly convinced that an institution, whose aim is to protect and strengthen human rights principles and rules, must firmly exclude capital punishment from its Statute.

The purpose of a permanent International Criminal Court is to achieve justice and not to pursue revenge. We are deeply convinced that there won't be any Peace without Justice, and justice and the use of the death penalty are incompatible.

NOTES ABOUT "THERE IS NO PEACE WITHOUT JUSTICE"

No Peace Without Justice is an international committee of parliamentarians, mayors and citizens, founded in 1994 in order to support the creation of a new international justice.

The Goals of the committee are:

- the creation of a new international system of guarantee and jurisdiction;

- the reform and development of international organizations at both regional and global level;

- the institution, by the United Nations' General Assembly, of a Permanent International Court for Crimes against mankind, and the calling of a international plenipotentiary conference sponsored by the U. N.;

- promoting public support for financing and adopting the national legislations for the ad hoc Tribunals in the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda;

- controlling the application of the human rights to an equitable justice in the legislation of the State party;

- controlling the application of the human rights to an equitable justice in the legislation of the member states.

In order to pursue its' objectives, the Committee organizes conferences, educational projects, media campaigns, parliamentary actions and other types of activities.

"No Peace without Justice" is federated to the Transnational Radical Party (TRP), a nongovernmental organization with consultative status (Category 1) with the ECOSOC of the United Nations.

The TRP is a transdivisional cross-party international orgnization, it does not run for national political elections. It is a Gandhian nonviolent organization that promotes international political campaigns on:

- the establishment of a permanent International Criminal Court and support on the ad hoc tribunals (ICTFY and ICTR);

- antiprohibitionist policies on drugs - against the black market on the narco-mafias' illicit trafficking;

- the abolishment of capital punishment all over the world;

- the right to language, supporting the use of the international language (e.g. Esperanto) as the auxiliary language of international institution and organizations.

- the respect of Human rights, particularly in non-democratic countries.

- a democratic reform of the United Nation.