Information bulletin on the campaigns of the Transnational Radical Party
Issue #17 - June 25, 1998 - SPECIAL ICC
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>> Special edition on
>> the Rome Diplomatic Conference
>> for the establishment of
>> an International Criminal Court
In this issue:
- TRP grants transparency of the Conference works via radio and web,
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- TRP's statement before the Plenary;
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- European Parliament adopts a strong resolution;
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- Press Monitor, UN Rep Marco Cappato in the Washington Post, TRP in Le Monde
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On June 15, the Conference of Plenipotentiaries that will finalize the treaty for the establishment of the permanent court opened its works. Some 135 countries are participating for the 5-week event.
After four years of intense international mobilization the Radical campaign for the fixation of the date for the treaty conference has finally seen its objective become a reality.
The Transnational Radical Party is following the negotiations at Rome with its delegates and is monitoring the plenary session via radio and on internet. A briefcase with documents, literature on TRP and a pocket radio has been distributed to Ambassadors and delegates. Radio Radicale 2 (FM: 107.8 in Italy) is radiocasting the open sessions of the event. Statements delivered by Governments can also be heard via internet on our website: www.radicaparty.org/icc/icc.html. Moreover, our special page on the ICC also monitors the international press and other relevant events related to the establishment of the Court. check it out! Moreover special editions of our TRANSFAX will help you in following the works.
Through its No Peace Without Justice Int'l Campaign, TRP has also distributed newslettrers, commentary to statute as well as a major publication collecting the various draft statutes proposed since the 1980s and a CD Rom.
Thanks to the effort of members and supporters we have been able to impose this important event on the international community's agenda. It is now up to us to insure that this historic conference become the turning point in international justice. We ask you to follow the event via web in order to be ready for eventual action alerts, and to pledge a donation to the Transnational Radical Party and for its political activities at ROME. THANK YOU!
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> TRP'S STATEMENT BEFORE THE PLENARY
In its Capacity of Non-Governmental Organization in Consultative Status with the UN, TRP took the floor last Wednesday. What follows is the full version of the intervention before the Plenary session.
Statement by Marino Busdachin
On behalf of the Transnational Radical Party
UN DIPLOMATIC CONFERENCE ON AN INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT
Rome, June 17, 1998
Mr. President, Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates, Representatives of International Organizations, citizens.
I am proud to be here today to speak on behalf of the TRANSNATIONAL RADICAL PARTY. A NONVIOLENT POLITICAL ORGANIZATIONfully committed in support of an effective United Nations, for a real international justice and for the respect of fundamental civil and human rights.
For the last three years the Transnational Radical Party and No Peace Without Justice International Committee have been campaigning promoting the fixation of a date and a place for the diplomatic conference. From Paris to Montevideo, from Atlanta to Dakar through a series of conferences, declarations and appeals endorsed by thousands of parliamentarians, rulers, opinion makers and people from all over the world we have been able to raise public awareness on the issue and influence the decision making process.
From the struggle against starvation in the South of the world, to the campaign for the ad hoc tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, the process of the establishment of an ICC has been a long journey for the affirmation of the droit d'ingérence for humanitarian reasons began many years ago. We are finally here today for this historic opportunity.
We are aware that the ICC will not be THE solution for all the problems of the world. But we also believe that it will be a powerful tool able to complement politics and diplomacy.
We are all attending this important conference with many great expectations. The biggest of which is the hope that FINALLY justice will never again be separated from peace or sacrificed on the altar of "Realpolitik".
From Auschwitz, to Mathausen, from Katyn to Pol Pot's killing fields we have heard the slogan NEVER AGAIN millions of times as a death bell. This Century has been the bloodiest in the history of mankind with more than 180 million people massacred in some 250 conflicts. 25 of which are going on while we are talking.
We need an ICC. And we need it now. For our human dignity, for our tireless hope for justice, to end this long chain of horrors, genocide, mass starvation, rape and violence of all sorts. We need to end impunity for those responsible for the most heinous crimes, that are at large around the world living their everyday lives in the most peaceful circumstances. We must end all this.
We are outraged, frustrated and angry. Someone would prefer to have a court at any cost, an "alibi" tribunal. But what the world needs is an effective, fair and independent court.
Distinguished delegates, we trust you. We trust you because, before the world public opinion, we believe you will be able to face all the inherent difficulties and the resistance of those who say that the world is not ready for such a court, to resist those who are here to jeopardize the responsible and patient work of hundreds of thousand of individuals and organizations during the last fifty years.
Distinguished delegates, we are waiting for a court that will work and bring to justice war criminals, a court in which the Prosecutor will be able to initiate investigations, in whichfunds will come from the regular budget of the United Nations, but at the same time an institution independent within the UN system.
We are not expecting THE PERFECT COURT. But an effective one.
A Court that in perspective will establish the principle of a new dimension of national sovereignty AND OVERCOME THE PRINCIPLE OF NON INTERFERENCE. We should PASS FROM the LAW OF THE RULERS TO THE RULE OF LAW, and honor the principle of the right to life and the life of rights.
Merci Monsieur le President
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>THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT SUPPORTS NEGOTIATIONS FOR AN INDEPENDENT AND EFFECTIVE COURT
Under the Initiative of the EP intergroup Amici Curiae, lead by Gianfranco Dell'Alba, MEP, Co-Chair of the group with the President of the Liberal Group, Gijs DE VRIES, the Strasbourg session of the EP has adopted a strong resolution outlining the guidelines for Member States in the negotiations.
Declaration of Olivier Dupuis, Member of the European Parliament and Secretary of the Transnational Radical Party:
"It is of great importance that the European Parliament expresses its position in such a strong and determined manner, during the on-going negotiations in Rome, in which the MEPs were not allowed to participate as observers. It is also very important that the Parliament calls for universality and transparency of the negotiations and the continued participation of the international legal community and civil society.
In this crucial moment, when, after 50 years of hesitation, the world is close to mark this century with setting up a cornerstone for the Rule of Law, to grant the Right to Life and the Life of the Rights to each and every human being, the Transnational Radical Party urges all delegates to the Diplomatic Conference to do their utmost for the establishment of an effective International Criminal Court that we all hoped and worked for.
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> RESOLUTION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT
The European Parliament,
- having regard to its previous resolutions on an International Criminal Court,
A. whereas it is necessary to establish a permanent International Criminal Court to complement national legal systems and to end the impunity enjoyed by perpetrators of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes,
B. whereas the UN Commission on Human Rights strongly supports the establishment of such a Court,
C. whereas the preparatory phase for the establishment of the International Criminal Court was completed at the last session of the UN Preparatory Committee from 16 March to 3 April 1998,
D. welcoming the increased participation of states in the negotiating process, and hoping to see an ever greater participation of states from all regions fully represented at the Rome Diplomatic Conference,
E. whereas the Diplomatic Conference of Plenipotentiaries for the Establishment of an International Criminal Court is being held in Rome from 15 June to 17 July 1998,
F. whereas the Member States and the European Commission delegation taking part in the Rome Diplomatic Conference can play a critical role in ensuring a successful conclusion of the Diplomatic Conference in Rome and welcoming the increased convergence of EU Member States' positions,
G. welcoming the offer by the Government of the Netherlands to host the permanent International Criminal Court,
1. Calls on the Rome Diplomatic Conference to take the historic opportunity to conclude the text of a Statute for an independent, fair and effective International Criminal Court;
2. Calls on the Member States, the Council and the Commission representatives to be active in ensuring a successful outcome, i.e. the establishment of an effective International Criminal Court, and not to compromise on essential points of principle in efforts to conciliate reluctant states;
3. Stresses that the Statute of the permanent International Criminal Court to be finalised at the Rome Conference, in order to represent an effective complement to national judicial systems, must provide for:
a) an independent prosecutor able to initiate and conduct investigations and prosecutions, on an own-initiative basis, in situations where the core crimes under the jurisdiction of the court have been committed,
b) the Court's inherent and universal jurisdiction on the core crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes without any state consent requirement,
c) a good working relationship with the existing International Courts already established in The Hague,
d) a constructive relationship with the United Nations, and in particular with the Security Council, in full recognition of their respective roles and competences,
e) the obligation of States Parties to comply without delay with orders and decisions of the Court,
f) the highest standards of respect for the rights of the accused and of the suspects and the protection of the interests of victims and witnesses,
g) the guarantee of long-term financing to ensure the Court'sself-reliance and independence from any external pressure;
4. Stresses furthermore that the Court's jurisdiction over the core crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes should apply to the same range of criminal acts whether they are committed in international or intranational armed conflict;
5. Calls on the Council and the Member States to ensure the universality and transparency of the negotiations and the continued participation of the international legal community and civil society;
6. 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, the President of the United Nations General Assembly and the President of the UN Diplomatic Conference for the establishment of the International Criminal Court.
>> PRESS MONITOR
TRP leads international informal diplomacy, Washington Post says. Full version of the article: www.radicalparty.org/icc/icc.html
The Washington Post - World News
Thursday, June 18, 1998
CLOUT WITHOUT A COUNTRY: THE POWER OF INTERNATIONAL LOBBIES
By Charles Trueheart
Washington Post Foreign Service
ROME, June 17-- At 27, shambling and Kennedyesque, Marco Cappato navigates the diplomatic world with all the confidence and authority of a nation's ambassador.
His nation is only an office, a cell phone and a global network of like-minded human rights activists. But Cappato and No Peace Without Justice, the young organization he represent, at the United Nations, have had more of a role than many countries in shaping the debate here over creating a permanent world court to try war criminals for genocide.
Cappato's group has done high-impact, work-lobbing to set a firm date for the Rome conference now under way here, collecting the signatures of legislators, writing newspaper broadsides, securing the Dalai Lama's blessing, educating diplomats and jurists, working the media, monitoring the negotiation and even placing a few of its own people on national delegations to the diplomatic conference.
"The influence of France on African counties has been effective," Cappato said. "Why shouldn't we be just as effective?"
Delegates of several major powers acknowledge that No Peace Without Justice and some 200 other non-governmental international lobbies are agenda-setting players in the late-century world of global summits on big issues like genocide, women's rights, population and the earth.
"Let me tell you, they are very, very, very important here," said one Western ambassador with grudging admiration.
[...] "In my judgment, this is a new diplomacy" he told reporters here. "We at the U.N. travel the world encouraging participatory democracy. I think we should apply a bit of it to ourselves." [...] They are supplying, free of charge, the demand of smaller, poorer countries who want a negotiating voice here but don't have the resources to support their participation. [...] Interest in establishing a permanent court was quickened four years ago when U-N. criminal tribunals were established to investigate war crimes in what had been Yugoslavia and Rwanda. A loose coalition of academics, jurists and human rights organizations persuaded the United Nations to put the issue on its agenda.
Activists for an international criminal court described regional conferences they organized starting in 1995, often working closely with local NGOs and state governments. Lawyers and diplomats, including many of the people who eventually would constitute a major bloc of votes at this conference of more than 150 nations, were invited, often with all expenses paid, to seminars on the proposed International Criminal Court.
No Peace Without Justice went even further. It has provided more than a score of Countries - Cappato named only Senegal - with delegates themselves, skilled people from another country serving national delegations as legal advisers, with their expenses paid by the NGO.
In effect, the NGOs are providing their expertise to needy governments.
"Privatizing ideas can be good, especially for the weaker nations who don't have the means to be informed," said Cappato, whose group is an offshoot of Italy's Transnational Radical Party. [...] NGOs have been around a long time-the Red Cross got its start in 1863 - but came into their own modern political juggernaut in 199 at the Earth Summit in Rio Janeiro. They have brought their agendas to bear on a dozen major conferences since. Their greatest triumph was the negotiation in Oslo to ban land mines. The achievement won the NGO coalition that lobbied for a land mine ban and its American leader, Jody Williams, the Nobel Peace Prize.
ARTICOLO DI LE MONDE
THE NGOs SUPPORT AN INDEPENDENT INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT
by Claire Trean
Le Monde, wednesday June 17, 1998
[...] The transnational Radical Party (to which belongs Emma Bonino, fervent supporter of the Court who has largely contributed in order to ensure that the last negotiations being held in Rome) has created a Web Site and is distributing little radios that broadcast the whole debate. [...].
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