ABSTRACT: Information on the Italian Chamber's passage of a resolution introduced by Emma Bonino, asking the government to support the creation of an international penal court for crimes against humanity. The Radical Party's initiative in the framework of the "No peace without justice" campaign.

(L'OPINIONE, 2 June 1994)

Last morning the Chamber foreign affairs committee with a unanimous vote passed a resolution on the situation in Rwanda, promoted among others by Emma Bonino, and namely one point: "binds the government to support and promote the institution of an international penal court for crimes against humanity".

At the initiative of the Radical Party, hundreds of MPs in many countries are signing a resolution addressed to the governments of each country to ask them to undertake all adequate institutional and diplomatic initiatives so that the United Nations General Assembly may, in its 49th session, solve any remaining political problems and decide to establish the International Penal Court.

The creation of an International Penal Court would allow the community of the states, which is unable of a common action on international crises, to provide itself with a first instrument of international justice to punish those who commit crimes against humanity. An auxiliary body of the United Nations, the International Law Commission, formed by 34 international juridical experts, is discussing the draft statute of the International Penal Court, which should then be forwarded for approval to the United Nations General Assembly. Emma Bonino, secretary of the Radical Party, accompanied by Ken Graham, secretary of Parliamentarians for Global Action and by Filippo di Robilant, treasurer of "No peace without justice", recently met in Geneva with the president and the most authoritative members of the International Law Commission. The "technical" possibility for the ILC to approve the draft statute is beyond question. The remaining problems are of a political nature. First, the persistence of the principle of na

tional sovereignty: the creation of an International Penal Court would force each state to set aside part of its sovereignty, delegating it to a super partes law administered by super partes judges. Another political problem is the costs. There is a precedent in this respect: it took 10 months after its creation by the Security Council (May 1993) for the Fifth United Nations Commissions to decide, in early April, and also following a hunger strike enacted by hundreds of European citizens and by Olivier Dupuis, president of the Radical Party's General Council, to decide the budget for the current year of the Court's activity. Also, what crimes should be court have jurisdiction over? Emma Bonino suggested to the members of the commission to include genocide and war crimes among them, with the option of stretching the list of crimes and offences subsequently. In the face of the tragedies that are taking place, it is imperative for the international community to have the immediate possibility of prosecuting pers

ons who commit horrendous war crimes. A world with such widespread violence is a world without the rule of law. It is the rule of law that must be created here and now for the future generations. This task, which is the specific task of legislators and governments, lies in the hands of each one of us as well. There can be no peace without justice. The international committee we have formed pursues ambitious goals, yet we are aware of the fact that no objective can be reached without the participation of all those who feel the urgent need to affirm not a generic peace, but a peace combined with justice. For that reason, we ask everyone to join in as soon as possible: the yearly membership fee is Lit. 100.000; the promoting partner fee is Lit. 1.000.000. The address of No peace Without Justice is:

Via di Torre Argentina 76 - 00186 Roma - tel. 06/689791. -Danilo Quinto-