Letter to the 15 Member States of the European Union at the United Nations

Dear Ambassador, 30 September 1996

We are writing to you in the hope of enlisting your support with regards to the establishment of an International Criminal Court. We would like to ask that you, as the representative of your country to the United Nations, actively demonstrate your commitment to the court at this critical point in time.

We are of the opinion that, with the substantive progress made at the past Ad Hoc Committee and Preparatory Committee meetings on this issue, it is now vital to maintain the momentum achieved at these meetings by convening a Diplomatic Conference of plenipotentiaries.

We were pleased to note that in the most recent recommendation of the Preparatory Committee meeting to the General Assembly, a 1998 date for the convening of such a Diplomatic Conference was proposed. This recommendation however, is undoubtedly subject to attack from countries opposed to the early establishment of such a court. We therefore call on you to strongly voice your support of the recommendation in order to ensure that the 1998 date is in fact set.

We are enclosing the resolutions passed by the European Union as well as the ACP-UE of the Lome' Convention* last week, on our initiative, confirming their support for the convening of such a Conference in 1998, as well as a fact sheet we prepared on the International Criminal Court.

We thank you for the important contribution your country will make to the early establishment of this court.

Sincerely yours,

Marino Busdachin Olivier Dupuis

Secretary General Member of the European Parliament

There in no Peace Without Justice Secretary of the

International Committee Transnational Radical Party

* The ACP-UE comprises 65 African, Pacific and Carribean nations, as well as the fifteen states of the European Union.