ICC RATIFICATION 2000 - Issue no. 1, 10 October 1999

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Newsletter for parliamentarians and citizens on the campaign for the ratification by the year 2000 of the Statute of the International Criminal Court

Published by the Transnational Radical Party and by No Peace Without Justice, in French, English, Italian and Spanish.

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- Chief Editor: Olivier Dupuis - Parlement européen - Rue Wiertz 60 - 1047 Brussels (B)

- Editorial staff: Marco Perduca, Paolo Atzori, Mariacarmen Colitti

Tel: +32-2-230.41.21 - Fax: +32-2-230.36.70

Mailto:pr.bruxelles@agora.stm.it - http://www.radicalparty.org - Telnet:agora.stm.it

- Layout: A.Novi

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In this issue:

-> First members of the international parliamentary network for the approval of the Statute

-> Draft parliamentary question for the Minister of Foreign Affairs

-> Latest signees of the Statute

-> News from Foreign Ministries

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>>> WITH 456 DAYS TO GO TO THE END OF THE YEAR 2000, THE STATUTE FOR THE INSTITUTION OF THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT (ICC) MUST BE RATIFIED BY 56 COUNTRIES

Dear Friends,

About forty parliamentarians from Central and South America have already joined the international network for the ratification of the Statute of the International Criminal Court. The parliamentarians who have signed are from the following countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela. We take the opportunity to thank them, in the hope that this newsletter will help to reinforce our common campaign for effective international justice. In the meantime our job of informing parliamentarians continues. In the last few days we have contacted parliamentarians from over 30 parliaments, and we are about to contact the members of another 10. The aim of this newsletter is to inform, but also to provide a series of concrete instruments to facilitate and accelerate the process of ratification of the statute of the ICC, parliamentary question and motions on the issue, and also proposals for the political "management " of the process as well as bills for ratific

ation.

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>>> DRAFT PARLIAMENTARY QUESTION TO THE MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS ON THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT

On 18 July 1998, in Rome, the Diplomatic Conference of Plenipotentiaries - in which a delegation from our country took an active part - adopted the Statute of the International Criminal Court, the first permanent supranational court in the history of mankind, with competence for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. This decision was one of the most important stages on the road to the institution of effective international justice to put an end to the impunity of war criminals.

The International Criminal Court will only become operative when the Statute has been ratified by 60 countries. At the moment 86 countries have signed the Statute, while 4 countries (Senegal, Trinidad and Tobago, San Marino and Italy) have ratified the Treaty of Rome.

Can the Minister please provide detailed information on the progress of the process of ratification in our country? Can the Minister tell us when the bill for ratification will be voted on in our parliament? In order to speed up the whole process, has the Minister considered the possibility of separating the ratification procedure itself from the process of adaptation of the legislation of our country?

(Names of parliamentarians who have signed)

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>>> NEWS FROM THE LATEST PREPARATORY COMMITTEE OF THE UNITED NATIONS

The second session of the Preparatory Committee was held from 26 July to 13 August 1999 at the United Nations in New York. The task of the Committee is to draft proposals regarding two instruments that will be necessary for the operation of the Court, namely the rules of procedure and evidence and the elements of crimes over which the Court will have jurisdiction. The Committee has also been charged with defining the crime of aggression, as laid down by article 5, paragraph 2 of the Statute of the Court.

Rules of procedure and evidence

In the context of rules of procedure and evidence, the issues debated regarded various parts of the Statute, namely Part 4, on the composition and administration of the Court, Part 5 (investigations and exercise of penal action), Parts 6 and 8, regarding the appeal process and the review of sentences respectively.

Three main lines of argument emerged during the debate:

1) The rights of the accused against the rights of the Court to have as much access as possible to testimonies and evidence, on the basis of which to reach its verdict;

2) The rights of the accused against the rights of victims within the trial;

3) To decide whether to establish the rules as precisely as possible or to allow the judges wide discretionary power in the application of such rules or also in their formulation ex novo.

In the course of the debate, reference was made several times to the need to guarantee the Court access to as much evidence as possible in order to reach its verdicts.

Elements of crimes

As far as elements of crimes are concerned, the Committee considered war crimes (article 8 of the Statute), the discussion of which had already begun in the last session (16-26 February 1999). It was decided to divide the remaining provisions on war crimes into nine groups, on the basis of common constituent elements: provisions of humanitarian law and human rights, provisions relating to the Hague Law, provisions on the conduct of war, provisions on weapons.

Discussion of the crime of aggression

With regard to the definition of the crime of aggression, the coodinator of proceedings proposed that a working group should not be set up immediatey. His position was opposed firmly by the group of Arab States and Iran, whose delegation, speaking on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), reminded the plenary assembly that Resolution F constitutes an imperative in its request to the Preparatory Committee to define aggression. Since many states favoured discussion in an informal framework, no agreement was found. For this reason the Chairman of the Committee, Ambassador Philippe Kirsch, proposed the establishment of an ad hoc working group in the course of the next session (29 November - 17 December 1999), also laying down the timetable of discussion.

All the proposals regarding the crime of aggression presented by the delegations to the Preparatory Committee (1996-1998) by Italy and Egypt jointly and by Germany were gathered together in a single working document. This document also includes all the proposals drafted at the Diplomatic Conference held in Rome from 15 June to 17 July 1998: the proposal of the Group of Arab States together with Iran and the proposals of Armenia and Cameroon.

Mariacarmen Colitti

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>>> THE LATEST SIGNEES OF THE STATUTE OF THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT

SANTA LUCIA: 27 August 1999

BANGLADESH: 16 September 1999, becoming the 86th country to sign

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>>> NEWS FROM FOREIGN MINISTRIES

The Council of Ministers of Ghana has decided to ratify the Statute. The ratification procedure is now in the hands of Parliament, which should vote on the issue during the next session, which begins in October.

The Icelandic Foreign Ministry is finalising a draft resolution for the ratification of the Statute which will be presented to Parliament during its next session. The Government of Lesotho intends to conclude the preparatory proceedings and to present the ratification bill to Parliament before the end of the year.

The Government of Liechtenstein will present the ratification bill to Parliament at the beginning of next year.