Only $500,000 have been allocated.

$35 million a year are needed to make the Tribunal operative

ABSTRACT: An account of the meetings held by Emma Bonino (1) in New York as she was waiting to meet Mr Boutros-Ghali: the president in office of the Security Council José Maria Jesus, the president of the General Assembly Samuel R. Insanally, the Secretary-General for legal affairs Fleischauer, the Vice Secretary-General Mrs Gillian Sorensen. With these personalities the meetings focused on the difficulties, especially financial, encountered for the establishment of the ad hoc Tribunal.

(1994 - IL QUOTIDIANO RADICALE, 12 November 1993)

The Radicals' agenda in New York, while awaiting to meet Mr. Boutros-Ghali, have been filled with meetings with the highest U.N. authorities. First and foremost, the meeting between the delegation accompanied by the Italian Ambassador to the U.N. Fulci and the president in charge of the Security Council José Maria Jesus, permanent representatuve of Cape Verde.

The president recalled that the Resolution that established the ad hoc Tribunal was adopted with a unanimous vote despite the initial opposition of a number of Member States. "The presence of your delegation here at the United Nations Headquarters" - Jesus added - "underlines that the vast consent obtained by that decision obtained an equally large approval from the public opinion". It is likely that the Tribunal will be only the "first piece" of a mosaic of initiatives with a view to restoring the international law and human rights. Ambassador Jesus answered the preoccupations raised by the delegation by expressing the hope that the financial questions be solved when the Tribunal will be made operative.

A fast visit of the Headquarters was followed by a meeting with the president of the General Assembly, Samuel R. Insanally from Guyana, who expressed great appreciation for the Radical Party's action on this initiative, also recalling the party's and Pannella's (2) commitment, namely on world hunger. Insanally confirmed the existence of strong resistances by many states on the financing of the ad hoc Tribunal. The Assembly has so far allocated only $500,000, but the President pledged to do all he could to propose a budget based on the proposal of the Secretary-General, who provides for an annual management expense of $35 million. The president also talked about the Permanent U.N. Tribunal on crimes against humanity. In his opinion, the General Assembly could pass a resolution placing a "deadline" for the completion of the activity of the International Law Commission, so that the General Assembly can, in Autumn 1994, pass the statute and open the terms of a convention or treaty, and the Tribunal be inaugurate

d for the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations, in 1995.

A few days earlier, Emma Bonino had met also with the U.N. undersecretary general for legal affairs Fleischauer who, despite the guaranties of the Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali, said that the unsolved problems are far from secondary.

First of all, once again the budget is limited by the insistence of some countries to urge the Court to work with a voluntary fund (as for peacekeeping operations). The final decisions, Fleischauer confirmed, will in any case be more easily made after the constitution of the Tribunal. Then there is the problem of the headquarters. The Dutch government pledged to offer one free of charge but only for three months. What then? The problem needs to be solved, as the questions of the "detention" and protection of witnesses. Fleischauer was the most pessimistic among the authorities met: in his opinion the ad hoc court will not be able to become operative before 6/9 months.

Emma Bonino also met on 29 October with the Vice Secretary-general of the U.N.m Mrs Gillian Sorensen, with whom she had discussed a number of questions relative to the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the U.N. In this context, Emma Bonino had outlined the Radical Party's transnational political initiatives, as well as the characteristics of Agorà telematica with a view to extending the agreements reached with the various U.N. departments.

Translator's notes

(1) BONINO EMMA. (Bra 1948). President of the Radical Party, former member of the European Parliament, as of 1976 member of the Italian Parliament. Among the promoters of the CISA (Information Centre on Sterilization and Abortion) and active militant in the campaign against clandestine abortion. She was tried and acquitted in Florence. Participated in the conduction, on a national and international scale, of the campaign on World Hunger. Among the founding members of "Food and Disarmament International", promoted the circulation of the Manifesto of Nobel Laureates.

(2) PANNELLA MARCO. Pannella Giacinto, known as Marco. (Teramo 1930). Currently President of the Radical Party's Federal Council, which he is one of the founders of. At twenty national university representative of the Liberal Party, at twenty-two President of the UGI, the union of lay university students, at twenty-three President of the UNURI, national union of Italian university students. At twenty-four he advocates, in the context of the students' movement and of the Liberal party, the foundation of the new radical party, which arises in 1954 following the confluence of prestigious intellectuals and minor democratic political groups. He is active in the party, except for a period (1960-1963) in which he is correspondent for "Il Giorno" in Paris, where he established contacts with the Algerian resistance. Back in Italy, he commits himself to the reconstruction of the radical Party, dissolved by its leadership following the advent of the centre-left. Under his indisputable leadership, the party succeeds in

promoting (and winning) relevant civil rights battles, working for the introduction of divorce, conscientious objection, important reforms of family law, etc, in Italy. He struggles for the abrogation of the Concordat between Church and State. Arrested in Sofia in 1968 as he is demonstrating in defence of Czechoslovakia, which has been invaded by Stalin. He opens the party to the newly-born homosexual organizations (FUORI), promotes the formation of the first environmentalist groups. The new radical party organizes difficult campaigns, proposing several referendums (about twenty throughout the years) for the moralization of the country and of politics, against public funds to the parties, against nuclear plants, etc., but in particular for a deep renewal of the administration of justice. Because of these battles, all carried out with strictly nonviolent methods according to the Gandhian model - but Pannella's Gandhi is neither a mystic nor an ideologue; rather, an intransigent and yet flexible politician - h

e has been through trials which he has for the most part won. As of 1976, year in which he first runs for Parliament, he is always elected at the Chamber of Deputies, twice at the Senate, twice at the European Parliament. Several times candidates and local councillor in Rome, Naples, Trieste, Catania, where he carried out exemplary and demonstrative campaigns and initiatives. Whenever necessary, he has resorted to the weapon of the hunger strike, not only in Italy but also in Europe, in particular during the major campaign against world hunger, for which he mobilized one hundred Nobel laureates and preeminent personalities in the fields of science and culture in order to obtain a radical change in the management of the funds allotted to developing countries. On 30 September 1981 he obtains at the European parliament the passage of a resolution in this sense, and after it several other similar laws in the Italian and Belgian Parliament. In January 1987 he runs for President of the European Parliament, obtaini

ng 61 votes. Currently, as the radical party has pledged to no longer compete with its own lists in national elections, he is striving for the creation of a "transnational" cross-party, in view of a federal development of the United States of Europe and with the objective of promoting civil rights throughout the world.