AT THE 3RD CONFERENCE "INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT AND RUSSIA'S POSITION"

Moscow, November 9, 2000

Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends,

I suppose, many of those present know that the Radical Party which I represent (a non-governmental organization with a first category consultative status at the UN), together with its associated organization - the International Committee "No Peace Without Justice", is one of the members-founders of the International coalition of non-governmental organizations to support the International Criminal Court (ICC). Since 1991 the fight for establishment of a supranational body of international justice - at first, the tribunal ad hoc for the crimes committed in former Yugoslavia, then - a permanent international tribunal for war crimes and crimes against humanity - has always been in the focus of the activities of the Radical Party, including its activities in Russia. In particular, in 1993 we collected in Russia 533 signatures of deputies, political figures, workers of culture under the intenational appeal to establish a special tribunal for crimes committed in former Yugoslavia. A year later, the same (or even gr

eater) number of well-known Russian figures signed our another appeal - to support the permanent International Criminal Court (in total we managed to collect about 50 thousand signatures worldwide). Thus, we think that we made some contribution to the adoption of the Statute of the ICC in Rome, on July 17, 1998. On November 20, at the special forum in the European Parliament we announced the launch of the international campaign aimed at the ratification of the Statute of the ICC by 60 states, which is necessary for this Statute to come into force.

I mention all this here not to boast of our merits in the past but to make it clear to the participants of the conference what kind of actions we use in our fight and, consequently, what kind of decisions I'm going to propose to the attention of the participants of the conference.

So, on September 12 the Russian Federation signed the Rome Statute of the ICC, having become the 118th state acceding to this international treaty. In total 115 states signed the Statute of the ICC. For the present it is ratified by 22 states only.

The prospects of the ratification of the Rome Statute by the Federal Assembly can probably be outlined more professionally by other participants of the conference. I'll try to outline our vision of what we could undertake to support the ratification of the Statute by the Russian parliament - we, radicals, members of the Russian coalition to support the ICC, other organizations, all those who fight for the right to life and the life of rights, doing their utmost in order that this new body of the international criminal law enter into force as soon as possible, that no war criminal feel safe anymore - whether in former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Sierra-Leone, Chechnya or in any other part of the world.

So, what could be the specific, "technical" stages of the civil campaign for the ratification of the ICC in our country?

1. Request to the Chairman of the Government concerning the term of the introduction of the bill on ratification.

It is generally known that only the Government can introduce drafts of federal laws of the Russian Federation on ratification of the international treaties into the State Duma. Therefore, the Government should become our addressee at the first stage of the campaign. In my opinion, for this purpose it's necessary to organize a deputy request to the Chairman of the Government concerning the term of the introduction of the bill on ratification of the Rome Statute to the State Duma. In any case, it should be better that this request be voted at the meeting of the chamber and become thus not a request of one separate deputy but, if the chamber adopts it, a request of the State Duma as a whole.

The first is very simple to realize. The second - is much more difficult. However, the initiative itself to introduce the draft of the correspondent resolution, after due covering in the media, will become a first political initiative within the framework of the campaign for the ratification, and the results of the voting will be a kind of "reconnaisance in force".

2. Collection of the signatures of the VIP under the appeal for the ratification

Simultaneously with the initiative in the State Duma addressed to the Government, it's necessary, in my opinion, to begin the collection of signatures of Russian political figures (including deputies of the State Duma), lawyers, workers of culture and businessmen under the appeal for the soonest ratification of the Rome Statute by Russia.

The collection of the signatures should apparently be conducted in traditional way which we used many times: sending of letters and faxes to the addresses from our data base of the addresses of VIP (beginning from those who in the past supported analogous initiatives of the Radical Party), a series of phone calls and delivering of the signatures by fax or by mail. Approximate cost of such initiative will be about 600 dollars (expenses to send 4500 letters). The Radical Party is ready to shoulder a part of mailing expenses and the technical support of this initiative.

Having achieved the minimum of 100 signatures of the VIP, we should, while continuing this stage of the campaign, pass to the next one.

3. Publication of the appeal and signatures of Russian figures who

supported it

It seems that the only way to publish in the printed media the full text of the appeal, list of signatures and contacts of the organizers of the initiative is to put it as an advertisement. We should choose for the publication one of the all-national "serious" social and political newspapers: "Izvestiya", "Segodnya" or "Nezavisimaya Gazeta". The publication itself can be timed to some important stage in the ratification process: say, to the term of the examination of the bill in the Duma committee for international affaires or directly to the voting itself at the plenary meeting. The publication should be preceded by a press-conference with the participation of the organizers of the initiative and some most famous figures from those who signed the appeal.

It should be mentioned beforehand: the cost of this initiative will be rather high. So, a publication of an advertisement the size of 1/2 page in the "Segodnya" costs 4200 dollars, in the "Nezavisimaya Gazeta" - 4500 dollars. Owing to our financial situation, the TRP can shoulder only a small part of the expenses on publication. It is necessary, therefore, to think out very seriously who, what organizations, funds or persons could sponsor this initiative.

One of possible decisions of this problem (at least in order to collect a part of necessary means) could be a subscription: a public campaign to collect means for the publication of the appeal, a campaign that could be named "Operation Izvestiya", for example. This campaign should begin, of course, only after and in the case if the negotiations on free publication with editorial offices end in smoke.

4. Collection of the signatures of the citizens under the appeal for the ratification

After the publication in some way (a half of page in the "Izvestiya" or at least a webpage in the Internet and a press-conference) of the first hundred signatures of the VIP it's necessary to pass to the second stage of the campaign: the collection of signatures under the appeal for the ratification among all citizens who support this initiative.

Within the framework of this initiative first of all we have to engage into the collection of the signatures all those who in the past signed our appeals for the establishment of the tribunal, and also present and former members and supporters of the Radical Party and the Antimilitarist Radical Association in different regions of Russia, by sending them the signature lists by mail. The cost of this mailing (4654 addresses) will be approximately 600 dollars.

Our traditional collection of signatures on street tables in winter conditions will be very complicated, but we could undertake certain efforts in this aspect organizing collection of signatures in lobbies of the high educational institutions, at least in Moscow.

I'm sure that a certain valuable contribution can be brought by the "Soldiers' Mothers of Saint-Petersbourgh", founders of the Russian coalition to support the ICC. They could organize the collection of signatures among the guests of their meetings for the parents of the draftees.

One more important instrument for the collection of signatures can be the Internet. The Radical Party can organize on its website a corresponding on-line form and processing the joinings sent this way. It should be noted, however, that certain investments in the advertising of the correspondent webpage are necessary to make it an efficient instrument. The experience of the ARA and our campaign for the abolition of the draft shows that the most economical and efficient way is to paste up stickers with the URL of the site and phone number in the public transport and other crowded places. The cost of pasting up 10 thousand stickers is approximately 540 dollars.

One more source of signatures in the case of publication of the text of the appeal in the media will be readers' letters sent to the address and fax indicated in the publication. We shouldn't overestimate the amount of such letters. The role of the publication in the media is different.

All the above mentioned methods can bring, as a result of this petition campaign, from several thousands to several tens of thousands of signatures depending on the period of time when this initiative is conducted.

The Radical Party is going to shoulder the coordination of the work on the collection and processing the signatures (in particular, the addition of the addresses and phones of the people who signed the appeal to the data base).

The signatures collected during the campaign will be then oficially transmitted to the State Duma, more exactly - to the reception office of the Chairman of the State Duma. The transmission of the signatures should be carried out in the appropriate way and get a due covering in the media, therefore it will become a powerful action within the framework of the campaign for the ratification of the Statute of the ICC.

5. Manifestations to support the ratification

The transmission of the signatures to the Duma in any case should be accompanied by a manifestation to support the ratification, addressed to the State Duma. The demonstrations should also be timed to the examination of the bill on ratification at the meetings of the State Duma and the Council of the Federation.

A demonstration of 10-20 persons near the building of the State Duma in the Okhotny Ryad doesn't cost almost anything and in any moment can be carried out by the Radical Party alone or by any other organization. But the organization of more crowded manifestation (up to several hundreds of participants) at the same place will involve additional expenses up to thousand and a half dollars (sound engineering, design, advertising in the media, distribution of the stickers and leaflets etc.).

Of course, the Radical Party in any case will carry out public actions for the ratification of the ICC addressed to the deputies. However, it depends on the efforts of other organizations to what extent our manifestations to support the ratification of the ICC will be crowded and efficient.

So, I described - as far as possible in details and with some figures that can help us to make a notion of possible cost of this civil campaign to support the ratification - some possible steps we could undertake together.

Despite the fact that the government has in the present Duma better position comparing with the previous parliaments, I don't feel like overestimating the readiness of the deputies to vote for the ratification of the Rome Statute. For this reason I'm sure that the civil campaign to support the ratification of the ICC, an obvious demonstration of the fact that in our country there are forces actively supporting the soonest implementation of this body of international law, would be a matter of great significance.

One more important moment. If we really want to promote a wide, efficient or at least noticeable campaign, we have to overcome some "academic" character of the whole discussion concerning "The ICC and Russia". We must do everything possible to involve in our common work not only the political parties on which we can rely in the State Duma (the "Union of the Right Forces" and the "Yabloko", in the first hand), not only other human rights organizations (such as the "Memorial", the movement "For the Human Rights", the "Human Rights Network", the Union of the Committees of Soldiers' Mothers of Russia, the Committee for the anti-war actions, regional human rights organizations and groups), but also the most "common" citizens, who walk along the streets, take the metro, read newspapers and who, though they are not used to take part in politics or public activities, want not less than us that the war crimes, crimes against the humanity, the most terrible crimes of the elapsing XX century, cease to be unpunished at

last.

And if we want to go along this way, this today's conference must become not a formal action, but a departure point for a long, hard and laborious daily work in cooperation of all the organizations and people who would like to shoulder the obligations within the framework of the campaign for the soonest ratification of the Statute of the ICC by our country.

Thank you for your atention. I wish a succesful work to all of us.

_________________________________

Transnational Radical Party

Moscow Office

Pechatnikov Pereulok 6

103045 Moscow, Russia

Tel. & fax +7-095-208.1805

mailto:rp.moscow@radicalparty.org

www.RadicalParty.org