Newsletter on the campaigns of the Transnational Radical Party
- N·7, October 20, 1996
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* Editor: Sandro Ottoni, Ilica 8 - 10000 Zagreb (Croatia) -
Tel/Fax. +385-1-277.959 - e-mail S.Ottoni@agora.stm.it -
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Published in English, French, Spanish, Italian, Russian and Croatian.
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Dear friends,
" Civilization asks whether law is so laggard as to be utterly helpless to deal with crimes of this magnitude by criminals of this order of importance.
It does not expect that you can make war impossible. It does expect that your juridical action will put the forces of International Law, its precepts, its prohibitions, and, most of all, its sanctions, on the side of peace, so that men and women of good will, in all countries, may have leave to live by no man's leave, underneath the law."
Robert H. Jackson made his opening argument in this way, fifty years ago,
at the beginning of the Nuremburg Trials. Since then, until only few years ago, the possibility of instituting an International Tribunal seemed to exist only within the limits of the most noble utopia. No genocide, no war crime, or no crime against humanity was able to stir the
states and the powers of the world.
In 1989, with the initiative of the small country of Trinidad and Tobago, the question was once again proposed to the UN, initiating the mechanism that first created the ad hoc tribunal on crimes in the ex-Jugoslavia and Rwanda and then leading to the call for the creation of an International Criminal Court. More than anything else, it was the public opinion around the world - that of the citizens of good will - that exerted a pressure of enormous range, and insured that the initiative would continue with increased vigor. Now this public opinion, with the passage of time since the massacres in Bosnia and Rwanda, has lessened.
It is now, after an enormous and fruitful effort by the Preparatory Committee instituted by the UN on the Tribunal, that an official proposal document has emerged that indicates for the first time a definite date for the institution of the Court: 1998.
For this reason, and also because we are so close to reaching our objective, we turn ourselves over to world public opinion, to the parliaments and governments of every country of the UN, so that with them we may, with renewed energy, launch the institution of the first effective international jurisdiction. Only in this way will we be able to overcome the opposition, resistance, and doubt. Only in this way will the 51st session of the UN be able to adopt the resolution, in many ways revolutionary, that indicates a date for the Diplomatic Conference for the Treaty of the Tribunal.
At this time, with initiatives directed towards national and global institutions and the promotion of an appeal to the Parliamentarians, political, and cultural figures, we are attempting to raise the necessary funds that will allow us to buy paid advertising in several newspapers of international importance.
With only a few days remaining before the beginning of the 51st session of the United Nations, we must once again ask of everyone an exceptional effort, a final drive to overcome this, our last obstacle: every signature that is collected, every inscription and contribution to this campaign will be decisive.
Good Work!
INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT
PREPARATORY WORK, THE INITIATIVES OF THE TRANSNATIONAL RADICAL PARTY, AND THE ACTUAL SITUATION
Since the creation of the United Nations, the Commission for International Rights (ILC) was appointed to codify the juridical principles to which the court in Nuremburg referred. The work of the ILC
proceeded in alternating phases, and was blocked by the rise of the Cold War and definitively abandoned for almost forty years.
In 1989, with the changes in the international political situation and the affirmation, with the help of the French government, of the right to interference for humanitarian purposes, and again following a specific initiative in Trinidad and Tobago, the effort to create an International
justice Tribunal was revived. In 1992, resulting from the pressure of massive war crimes in Croatia, in Bosnia Herzegovina and Kossov, and following the controversy surrounding the extraditions in Lebanon, numerous nations took a position in favor of the institution of a International Court. Consequently, the United Nations newly appointed an International Law Commission for the elaboration of a statutory project.
In 1993, thanks also to a mobilization of the Transnational Radical Party which consigned to the Secretary of the United Nations a list of 25,000
signatures of Parliamentarians, intellectuals, and citizens of the world,
a tribunal was instituted for the criminals of the ex-Yugoslavia, signalling in this way a further stage of the affirmation of a new international jurisdiction.
- Before these significant new events, the Transnational Radical Party, still in 1993, started a campaign for the signing of an Institutional Conference of the Permanent International Tribunal. In 1994 there occurred numerous radical initiatives in the national and European Parliaments and also towards the governments; various resolutions were subscribed to by hundreds of European mayors, Parliamentarians, and popular personalities; the mayor of Sarajevo, Muhamed Kreseljakovic, radical member, promoted with the slogan "No Peace without Justice" a march on Rome on occasion of the Catholic Easter, in which thousands of people and representatives of various European cities participated; the hon. Emma Bonino, then secretary of the TRP, obtaining a substantial delegation of representation to the UN from the Italian government, nominated Italy to host the Conference and re-launched the urgent drive by requesting more precise dates; in the end pages were published in the New York Times (financed by an extraordinary
subscription) with an appeal for the creation of an International Tribunal. While receiving these requests, in November of that same year, the 49th session of the United Nations entrusted to an ad hoc committee, successively nominated the "Preparatory Committee," the re-elaboration of a rough draft of statutes for the International Tribunal. The work of the Preparatory Committee, effectively formed in 1995, has consented until now to reach a maximum agreement on the definition of the three fundamental crimes on which to found the competence of the Tribunal, these being crimes against humanity, genocide, and war crimes, reserving also the right to include successive requests for new categories.
The Preparatory Committee closed the work of its last session on August 30th, 1996 with a recommendation to the General Assembly that asks, on one side, for the extension of the committee until 1998, and on the other, for the fixation, in 1998, of the date of convocation of the Diplomatic Conference of Plenipotentiaries for the institution of an International Justice Tribunal.
- The Transnational Radical Party and the committee "No Peace Without Justice," ONG born of in 1994 for the reason of promoting international campaigns for the institution of the tribunal, are actually employed in a series of pressure initiatives and in the collection of signatures from Parliamentarians throughout the world, until the next session of the United Nations renews the Committee's mandate and confirms the work for the convocation of the institutional conference for the International Tribunal in 1998.
PREPARATORY COMMITTEE FOR THE INSTITUTION OF AN INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL-
AUGUST 1996 SESSION- A FINAL DOCUMENT IS APPROVED
New York - 31.8.96. - In the conclusive document of the August session the Preparatory Committee, in expressing its satisfaction for the work completed, further recommends:
1.(...). 2.(...).
3)... the Preparatory Committee recommends that the General Assembly reaffirms the mandate of the Preparatory Committee and gives the following directions to it:
a) to meet three or four times up to a total of 9 weeks before the diplomatic conference. To organize its work so that it will finalize its work in April of 1998 and so to allow the widest possible participation of States. The work should be done in the form of open-ended working groups, concentrating on the negotiation of proposals with a view to producing a draft consolidated text of a convention, to be submitted to the diplomatic conference. Submission of reports of its debates will not be required. Interpretation will be available to the working groups.
b) the subjects to be dealt with by the Preparatory Committee are:
1. Definition and elements of crimes
2. Principles of criminal law and penalties
3. Organization of the court
4. Procedures
5. Complementarity and trigger mechanism
6. Cooperation with States
7. Establishment of the ICC and relationship with the UN
8. Final clauses and financial matters
9. Other matters.
4. The Preparatory Committee recalls that the General Assembly resolved in resolution 50/46 of 11 December 1995, to decide at its 51st session, in the light of the report of the Preparatory Committee, to decide on the convening of an international conference of plenipotentiaries to finalize and adopt a convention on the establishment of an international criminal court, including on the timing and the duration of the conference.
5. The Preparatory Committee, on the basis of its scheme of work, considers that it is realistic to regard the holding of a diplomatic conference of plenipotentiaries in 1998 as feasible.
* Some delegations expressed reservations on the conclusions of the Preparatory Committee and felt that these conclusions do not prejudge the position of States in the General Assembly.
As can be inferred from the conclusive tone of the document, some nations, among them China, Japan, Cuba, and Indonesia, maintain their opposition to the Institution of the Tribunal and reserve the right to express this contrary opinion fully throughout the work of the Sixth Committee of the General assembly of the UN foreseen for November.
Conversely, support has grown from a number of nations from Europe, and Russia, Australia, Argentina, Canada, South Africa, and New Zealand support the initiative; still opposed to promoting the matter with greater urgency are France, the United Kingdom, India, and the United States, all of whom envision the institution of the tribunal after the year 2000.
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A COMMON POSITION BY BOTH THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE ACP/UE ASSEMBLY
IS NECESSARY FOR THE INSTITUTION OF THE INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL BEFORE 1998. UNANIMOUS VOTE ON THE RADICAL MOTION AT THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT.
* Strasbourg 19.9.96 - The European Parliament has approved a procedure
with urgency and unanimity the following resolution, promised by the Transnational Radical Party:
The European Parliament,
A. having regard to the growing number of war crimes and crimes against humanity being committed in a large number of countries and going unpunished,
B. whereas it is urgently necessary to create the basic core of an impartial international justice system, mainly in order to try war crimes and crimes against humanity wherever they may be committed,
C. whereas significant progress has been made in this direction thanks to the creation and the first concrete actions of the ad hoc international tribunals on former Yugoslavia and Rwanda,
D. welcoming the fact that there is no provision for the death penalty either in the statutes of the ad hoc tribunals or in the draft statutes of the permanent court,
E. whereas the 50th session of the UN General Assembly formally decided in autumn 1995 to instruct a preparatory committee to complete the work on putting the statutes of the international court into their definitive form with a view to enabling the UN to convene the constituent conference of the Permanent International Criminal Court,
F. whereas the preparatory committee closed its last session on 30 August 1996, calling on the UN General Assembly to convene the plenipotentiary diplomatic conference before the end of 1998,
G. whereas in spite of this positive outcome, obtained chiefly as a result of the determination of a large number of Member States of the European Union, there is still strong opposition from some non-member countries as well as reservations from two Member States of the EU,
H. whereas the Italian Government has already stated its willingness to host the plenipotentiary diplomatic conference for the establishment of the Court,
1. Calls on the Council and the Member States to reach a common position as soon as possible on the need to establish the Permanent International Criminal Court, and to act in concert at the 51st General Assembly of the UN to ensure that it renews the mandate of the Preparatory Committee and takes the decision to convene a plenipotentiary diplomatic conference to establish a Permanent International Criminal Court before the end of 1998;
2. Calls, therefore, on the Irish Presidency and the Commission to do all within their power to ensure that the Union speaks with one voice on this important issue;
3. Stresses that the Union must be involved, in budgetary terms, in the efforts to set up the permanent Court;
4. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the governments of the Member States, the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the President of the General Assembly of the United Nations.
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*Luxembourg, 26.9.96 - During the work of the ACP/UE Equality Assembly
(consisting of 70 nations from Africa, the Caribbean, and Pacific, together with representatives of the European Union) a resolution was approved (and presented by Bernard Castagnede in the name of the Radical Alliance of Europe) that invites the 65 states who are signatories of the convention of Lome' to sustain communally a renewal of the mandate of the Preparatory Committee of the Tribunal and the decision to convoke the Conference before 1998.
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WORLDWIDE PARLIAMENTARY APPEAL TO UNITED NATIONS SECRETARY GENERAL AND MEMBERS OF THE PREPARATORY COMMITTEE ON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AN INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT
The collection of Parliamentary signatures on the appeal continues. Here is the list of the Parliamentarians who, as of October 18th, have signed their support of the initiative:
Adhesions of Members of Parliament from
48 countries: MEPs MPs Total
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Albania - 37 37
Austria 1 8 9
Azerbaijan - 43 43
Belarus - 5 5
Belgium 4 15 19
Belize - 2 2
Benin - 1 1
Bolivia - 1 1
Bulgaria - 23 23
Cambodia - 3 3
Canada - 1 1
Chile - 3 3
Croatia - 24 24
Czech Republic - 2 2
Denmark 1 - 1
El Salvador - 1 1
Finland 1 3 4
France 11 37 48
Georgia - 7 7
Germany 4 18 22
Guatemala - 1 1
Hungary - 3 3
Ireland 1 8 9
Israel - 2 2
Italy 29 65 94
Cote d'Ivoir - 1 1
Kenya - 2 2
Kosova - 17 17
Lebanon - 2 2
Luxembourg 1 5 6
Macedonia - 3 3
Malta - 1 1
Moldova - 2 2
Netherlands 4 12 16
New Zealand - 2 2
Peru - 1 1
Portugal 3 1 4
Romania - 7 7
Russia - 36 36
Slovakia - 2 2
Slovenia - 17 17
Spain 9 - 7
Sweden 5 - 5
Switzerland - 7 7
Tunisia - 1 1
Ukraine - 11 11
United Kingdom 8 5 13
Uruguay - 1 1
Venezuela - 1 1
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Total 82 445 527
* A copy of the appeal may be requested from the editorial office
---------------------REGISTRATION AND CONTRIBUTION FORM------------------
Payment of ...................... (equivalent in dollars...)
- for registration in the Transnational Radical Party 1996 (see quote at
bottom)
- as a contribution to the campaign for ..........................
First Name....................... Last Name.......................
Place and date of Birth.............................
Address (street, city, nation).....................................
.....................................
Tel................ Fax................ E-mail..............
Form of payment:
1. With a credit card:
Credit card Account Number..............................
Card Company........................
Signature............................ Date of Exp............
2. Through a bank (transfer):
Have deposit sent to:
Istituto Bancario di Torino - Sede di Roma-
(Banking Institute of Turin - Roma Office)
(Account #) 1000504169-CAB-03200-ABI-01025
3. By mail (International Money Order):
Transnational Radical Party
Via di Torre Argentina 76
00186 Rome
Italy
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QUOTE 1996: The registration rate varies from nation to nation according to the 1% criteria of the PIL. It follows the relative rate of the nations which have the largest distribution of the bulletin. For the missing months, see the editorship.
Albania 5 USD - Austria 2.400 ATS - Azerbajian 3 USD - Belgium 6.050 BEF-
Bulgaria 8 USD - Canada 280 CAD - Czech Republic 27 USD - Croatia 35 DEM - Denmark 1.440 DKK - France 1.100 FRF - Germany 330 DEM - Hungary 27 USD -Ireland 80 IEP - Italy 365.000 LIT - Netherlands 330 NLG - Poland 23 USD - Portugal 11.600 PTE - Romania 12 USD - Russia 19 USD - Slovenia 85 DEM - Spain 17.600 ESB - Switzerland 500 CHF - Ukraine 13 USD - United Kingdom 120 GBP - United States 260 USD
