Mr. Olivier Dupuis

Member of European Parliament

Secretary-General of Transnational Radical Party

European Parliament

Rue Wiertz

B-1047 Brussels

August 17, 1999

Distinguished Mr. Secretary General,

Thank You very much for Your letter of August 3, 1999 regarding the International Criminal Court, whose establishment I consider to be the most important achievement for humanity of our time. For this reason I have spoken, among other issues, about the importance of a rapid establishment of the International Criminal Court in the framework of the meeting of the Troika during the Austrian Presidency in the second half of the year 1998.

Actually, Austria has signed the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court on October 7, 1998. The preparation for its formal ratification by Austria is fully under way. The competent Austrian authorities are engaged in - as quick as possible but given the importance of this instrument also careful - preparation of the ratification of the Statute.

As one of the most important stages in this process, the representatives of Germany, Switzerland and Austria have met from the 10th till 12th May and from the 16th to 17th July 1999 in Bern and Vienna in a translation conference to prepare a common translation of the Statute in the German language. This translation should be definitely completed in the middle of September 1999.

Although the ratification of the Statute requires some more technical details to be solved, Austria will not lose time to join as soon as possible this important human rights instrument.

Sincere regards,

Wolfang Schussel

Minister for Foreign Affairs