NO PEACE WITHOUT JUSTICE AND THE TRANSNATIONAL RADICAL PARTY URGE FOR SIGNATURE AND RATIFICATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT (ICC)

Rome/New York July 26, 1999 - No Peace Without Justice and the Transnational Radical Party welcome all the delegates who take part in the second session of the UN Preparatory Commission for the ICC. In this session, as during the Diplomatic Conference in Rome and at the last ICC PrepCom, No Peace Without Justice will provide pro bono legal assistance to several delegations.

We call on all States to do their utmost to make the Court effective as soon as possible and we urge them to make progress on the negotiations which will be on the rules of procedure and evidence and on the elements of crimes that the Court will eventually apply in its work.

And we renew our appeal to all UN Member States to make the signature and ratification of the ICC Rome Treaty a priority in their political agendas.

No Peace Without Justice and the Transnational Radical Party congratulate the Governments of Senegal, Trinidad and Tobago and San Marino for having ratified the Rome Statute and also the Government of Italy which is going to deposit the instruments of ratification at this session of the PrepCom.

During the last years all four States were strongly supported by No Peace Without Justice and the Transnational Radical Party under the leadership of the Honourable Emma Bonino to actively participate in the process of the establishment of the ICC. A series of intergovernmental regional conferences and events, such as the Pan-African Conference in Dakar in February and the Mediterranean Conference in Malta in September 1998 and, most recently, the Caribbean Conference in Trinidad and Tobago made these countries the most active within the international community for the reform of international law.

We wish all delegates a good session, and invite all States to promptly complete the annex to the Statute: waiting more will mean give further impulse to impunity for the most heinous crimes; humanity needs to bring to justice war criminals!

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