Letter to the 65 UN Missions of the State Members of the ACP-EUDear Ambassador,
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 a fact sheet we prepared on the International Criminal Court as well as the resolution passed by the ACP-UE of the Lome' Convention last week . The ACP-UE equality assembly (which comprises 65 African, Pacific, and Carribean nations, as well as the fifteen member states of the European Union), reunited in assembly in Luxembourg and approved the resolution of the Transnational Radical Party and of the "No Peace Without Justice" International Committee, which was presented by Bernard Castagnede of the Radical European Alliance, requesting that the 51st General Assembly of the United Nations renew the mandate of the Preparatory Committee and establish the convocation of the Plenipotentiary Conference before the end of 1998.
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 MP of the European Parliament
There in no Peace Without Justice Secretary of the
International Committee Transnational Radical Party