Oct. 31, 1996

STATEMENT BY THE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE UNITED KINGDOM

Mr. Chairman

[...] Although the Preparatory Committee has more than proved its usefulness, the proposals before the Committee are not yet in a form to ensure a successful conference. The merits of the very many new proposals which emerged during the August Preparatory Committee deserve to be given very careful and detailed consideration in advance of any conference. Even those proposals which have long been on the table have not yet been fully discussed.

There are a number of issues which will no doubt be resolved only once we are at a conference. But there are many areas which need much more discussion, and a narrowing of the options, before we can sensibly take final decisions on the relevant provisions of the Statute. Those issues which in our view still need in-depth discussion, and on which there has been little or no negotiation, are: the definition of the crimes within the jurisdiction of the court, the elements of crimes and the principles of criminal law, the organization of the court and its procedure, and the provisions on cooperation by States with the court.

We were therefore glad to support the recommendation of the Preparatory Committee at its last session that up to nine more weeks were required for preparatory work. We imagine that we shall need every day of those nine weeks. At the finalization of this work, and as the Preparatory Committee noted, it is foreseeable that there should be a conference in 1998. We believe, therefore, that the Assembly should set a date in 1998 for a conference. At the next session of the General Assembly we shall need to review the progress made by the Preparatory Committee in its session in 1997.

[...] we said in our intervention in this debate last year that we must work towards consensus in preparing a draft of a convention which will serve as the basic text of a conference to adopt a Statute for the court. This still needs to be done. We must now use the limited time available to us in the coming months of serious negotiations, with the aim of going into a conference with workable basic text and of ensuring that the Statute of a court has the maximum chance of achieving general support. The United Kingdom remains committed to that goal.

Thank you Mr Chairmans