UNITED NATIONS/CONFERENCE ON THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT: SPEECH OF MARINO BUSDACHIN

New York, December 1, 1997

Because we are very late, and before presenting the 1997-1998 No Peace Without Justice Campaign, I would like to say thank you to the Open Society Institute and the European Union for supporting the No Peace Without Justice International Campaign and this event.

What to so many people once appeared as an impossible undertaking has now become a reality. At least it seems so. During the last years, each and every political tactic was exhausted in order to delay, hinder, or destroy the progress of the proceeding of the establishment of an ICC. After fifty years, from Nuremberg, there is finally a momentum, and we are finally getting closer to our objective. In light of the enormous work done by the UN Preparatory Committee, whose achievements have been previously noted today, I believe that controversial juridical issues are far from being unsolvable. Other speakers have already noted that it is just a matter of political choices, and these political choices are eagerly awaited. And we believe that we all hope they will be made in the direction we would like.

At the same time, we should expect that some states will attempt to delay the progress of the PrepCom and in the longer perspective, maybe to obstruct the eventual adoption of the final statute of the diplomatic conference in Rome next year.

The creation of the International Criminal Court is the central goal of No Peace Without Justice since 1992; the 1997-98 campaign in support of the establishment of the ICC was officially launched held in Paris last June by Emma Bonino, Robert Badinter, and Boutros Boutros Ghali together with many other international personalities. An international appeal was launched in support of an ICC, and in connection with the Transnational Radical Party, a Parliamentary petition has been disseminated around the world. So far over six hundred members of parliament have endorsed the document. From Paris to New York, No Peace Without Justice has organized a series of conferences in Malta for the Mediterranean region, in Montevideo, Uruguay for Latin America. Both of these conferences, also thanks the active participation of people, many of whom are here today, were successful events that gathered politicians, decision makers and the public. Some countries decided to use the No Peace Without Justice conferences to declare

for their first time their favorable position in support of the court, giving the opportunity to the media to educate civil society on the matter.

Other conferences were organized in Rome, Brussels, Siracusa, and Atlanta, in partnership with former President Carter and the Carter Center. Today, here at the headquarters of the United Nations, a delegation of the signatories of the International Appeals which I mentioned before, was received by the UN Secretary General and by the President of the UN General Assembly. Among the supporters of the appeals there are prominent international personalities and members of the parliaments of more than seventy countries.

Now, if we can be quite optimistic for the probability of obtaining the diplomatic conference in June, we must be very concerned about the level of compromise that will be reached in obtaining an effective global court. The task that No Peace Without justice International Committee is that of promoting synergy and collaboration at the political and parliamentary level, as well as among the international organizations and Non-Governmental Organizations. We must convince the member states of the UN that the time to face the facts is upon us.

We must accept the challenge of the next century, the new millennium. The world must trust the power of law and not the law of the strongest. Thank you