PARIS CONFERENCE FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AN INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT

Paris 19-20 June 1997

Senate, Palais du Luxembourg

under the chairmanship of

Emma Bonino, European Commissioner

Robert Badinter, Senator

with the support of

The Open Society Institute

There is an increasing demand, in the international community, that the perpetrators of heinous crimes should be brought to justice. At the same time there is a growing understanding of the vital importance of an effective system of International Justice.

A clear sign of this new attention can be also found in all the resolutions and documents regarding Yugoslavia or Rwanda where the existence and the activities of the two tribunals are mentioned. The 51st UN General Assembly, on December 17th 1996, adopted a resolution that sets the 1997/98 sessions of the Preparatory Committee to finalize the Statute for an International Criminal Court and convene a Diplomatic Conference of Plenipotentiaries for the establishment of such a Court by the end of 1998. Despite these formal achievements, we strongly believe that the struggle for a fair, independent, permanent, International Criminal Court is far from being won.

The convening of the Diplomatic Conference in 1998 - the objective of the 1996 NPWJ International Campaign - does not signify that all the Member States

of the UN are willing to allow the drafting of the statute of a convention

for the establishment of the ICC.

At this stage, it is extremely important to organize an international campaign

in support of the establishment of the Court to maintain the necessary political pressure at both national and international levels while the international climate regarding international crimes is still ripe.