“Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the United Nations.

On 18 July last year I had the honour to take part in the ceremony held at the Campidoglio, in Rome, to celebrate the adoption of the Statute of the future International Criminal Court.

I said then that the adoption of the Rome Statute was a gift of hope to future generations and a giant step forward in the march towards universal human rights and the rule of law.

The Statute is now deposited with me, as Secretary-General of the United Nations, and is open for signature until 31 December 2000. Seventy-five States have signed it so far, and this month Senegal became the first to ratify it. That is very encouraging but, as you know, we need 60 ratifications before the Statute can come into force. There are also many practical arrangements and points of detail to be settled before the Court actually begins to function.

With that in mind, the Conference which adopted the Statute also decided to establish a Preparatory Commission. The General Assembly asked me to convene it, and to provide it with secretariat services.

The Secretariat is at your service, to help you carry out the vital task before you.

That task requires you to produce a number of documents which will make  possible to put the Court into operation. In particular, you have to elaborate clear and unambiguous rules on the practice of the Court, and  the elements of the crimes over which it has jurisdiction.

You must also draw up proposals for a provision on aggression -- the  which is most profoundly threatening to international order, and  prevention and deterrence is one of the prime objectives of  Organization.

As you know, some States have expressed reluctance to become parties to Statute. I believe the Commission can help overcome that reluctance "discussing ways to enhance the effectiveness and acceptance of the as the General Assembly said in its resolution. This is crucial, the Court's effectiveness will depend, to a great extent, on the number States that support it.

I would therefore strongly encourage all States, whether or not they voted for adopting the Statute in Rome, to play an active part in this Commission's work.

Meanwhile, I am delighted to see many non-governmental organizations represented here today. The role of such organizations was decisive in the process leading to the adoption of the Rome Statute.

I am sure they will continue to assist you in the work of creating an effective and universal international criminal jurisdiction. This is an issue on which there really is such a thing as world public opinion. The world is eager to see the International Criminal Court established as soon as possible. It expects this Commission to work hard and fast.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

This century has seen a remarkable development of what lawyers call 'substantive law', including the definition of international crimes and principles of international criminal law.

And yet, until now we have had no general, pre-established criminal jurisdiction to enforce that law, and to punish people who commit those crimes. The ad hoc tribunals of Nuremberg and Tokyo, and more recently those for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, were important steps forward. But only a permanent Court with universal jurisdiction can finally lay to rest the charge that the international community is being selective or applying double standards in deciding which crimes to investigate and punish.

I believe the establishment of such a Court will be a fitting way to inaugurate the new millennium.

It puts the world on notice that crimes against humanity, which have disfigured and disgraced this century, will not go unpunished in the next. And it gives concrete expression to Francis Bacon's famous principle that not even the Sovereign can make "dispunishable" those crimes which are "malum in se" - evil in themselves, "as being against the Law of Nature".

Ladies and Gentlemen:

The best chance humankind has ever had to end the "culture of impunity" is within our grasp. We must not let it fall.

I now have great pleasure in asking Mr. Hans Corell, the United Nations' Legal Counsel, to take the chair.”

- Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations

end//

INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT PROMISES UNIVERSAL JUSTICE, SECRETARY-GENERAL TELLS INTERNATIONAL BAR ASSOCIATION

Kofi Annan Says Genocide, 'Now Word of Our Time', Is Heinous Reality Calling for Historic Response

Following is the statement of Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the International Bar Association in New York on 11 June:

I am very pleased to have the opportunity to address your assembly on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the International Bar Association. And allow me to quote President Robinson of Ireland's recent address to the graduating class of Yale Law School: "The world needs lawyers more than the world is willing to admit."

As you reflect on the accomplishments of your institution over the last half-century, so too are we reflecting on ours and how we may refine its purpose and its mission. We are reforming our United Nations, conscious of our heritage, committed to its principles and faithful to its foundation. That foundation is the law.

It is the idea that the behaviour of States and the relations between them shall be governed by one law, equal and applicable to all. It is the commitment to the peaceful, negotiated settlement of disputes. It is the fervent hope that human rights and fundamental freedoms may be extended to all the peoples of the United Nations. That is our inheritance. That is the legacy that we seek to bring to life every day in every corner of the world. It is our solemn duty and our highest calling.

What can we do in our time to answer this calling? How can we improve our service to the globe? Where can we refine, where can we refocus, where can we reinvigorate the United Nations? Those are the questions that lie at the heart of our current reform effort. The answers, I believe, will chart the path of our United Nations for years to come. We are living through a remarkable period in the advancement of international law. Great strides have been made in refining its writ, expanding its reach and enforcing its mandate.

The challenges of the future -- narcotics, disease, crime and international terrorism -- are increasingly recognized as transnational challenges. As that recognition has grown, so too has the realization that international law is a vital tool in the global effort to meet tomorrow's challenges. The response to our common challenges must not only be global, but also unified. Through the United Nations, Member States have coordinated legal measures and established lasting norms for State behaviour and inter-State relations.

The United Nations has ever since its inception been at the forefront of codifying international norms. Indeed, we celebrate this year the fiftieth anniversary of the International Law Commission. The Charter of the United Nations envisioned a profound role in the area of international law, calling upon the General Assembly -- and I quote: "to initiate studies and make recommendations for the purpose of ... encouraging the progressive development of international law and its codification."

Over the last 50 years, the International Law Commission has pursued this mission with great success, setting forth basic rules in most of the key areas of international law. These rules have, in turn, served as the basis for global treaties, governing State activities in fields such as maritime navigation, marine oil extraction and the provision of drinking water. Indeed some of these treaties -- such as those regulating diplomatic matters -- may be said to form the very foundation of the practice of international relations.

Tonight I would like to share with you my ideas on one vital aspect of the United Nations aspirations for international law -- an aspect that I personally have great hopes for: the creation of an International Criminal Court. There can be no global justice unless the worst of crimes -- crimes against humanity -- are subject to the law. In this age more than ever do we recognize that the crime of genocide against one people truly is an assault on us all -- a crime against humanity.

The establishment of an international criminal court will ensure that humanity's response will be swift and will be just. For nearly half a century -- almost as long as the United Nations has been in existence -- the General Assembly has recognized the need to establish such a court to prosecute and punish persons responsible for crimes such as genocide.

Many thought, no doubt, that the horrors of the Second World War -- the camps, the cruelty, the exterminations, the Holocaust -- could never happen again. And yet they have. In Cambodia, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in Rwanda. Our time -- this decade even -- has shown us that man's capacity for evil knows no limits.

Genocide -- the destruction of an entire people on the basis of ethnic or national origins -- is now a word of our time, too, a heinous reality that calls for a historic response.

In the absence of an international criminal court, the Security Council acted to establish two ad hoc international tribunals, for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda. These tribunals have made significant progress and are setting an important precedent. War criminals can and will be brought to justice. They cannot complete their task, however, without the swift and complete arrest of all indicted criminals. I would like to use this occasion, once again, to call on all countries concerned to surrender suspects within their jurisdiction. True justice demands no less.

May I also take this occasion to applaud strongly the frank and candid appeals made by my friend United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on the subject of war crimes during her recent visit to the Balkans. Peace and justice are indivisible. They are indivisible in the former Yugoslavia, in Rwanda -- in all post-conflict situations where the dawn of peace must begin with the light of justice.

The international criminal court is the symbol of our highest hopes for this unity of peace and justice. It is a vital part of an emerging system of international human rights protection. It will ensure that indicted criminals suspected of genocide in any country can be tried and convicted.

Great progress has been made since the 1994 draft statute on an international criminal court prepared by the International Law Commission. The General Assembly has decided to convene a conference of plenipotentiaries in 1998 to adopt a convention on the establishment of an international criminal court.

That conference will coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. I cannot think of a more solemn, more significant occasion for the world to take the final step towards global justice. The creation of an international criminal court will not only complete the vision of the Genocide Convention: it will bring that vision into reality. In the prospect of an international criminal court lies the promise of universal justice. That is the simple and soaring hope of this vision. We are close to its realization. We will do our part to see it through till the end.

We ask you, as lawyers and tribunes of justice to do yours in our struggle to ensure that no ruler, no State, no junta and no army anywhere can abuse human rights with impunity. Only then will the innocents of distant wars and conflicts know that they, too, may sleep under the cover of justice; that they, too, have rights and that those who violate those rights will be punished.

Allow me to conclude by congratulating you, the representatives of the International Bar, on the fiftieth anniversary of your association. May the next 50 years be as fruitful and progressive as the last.

Background Release

The Preparatory Committee on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court will convene for the fourth time at United Nations Headquarters next week to continue its work on the court's draft statute.

The Committee, within the framework of two working groups, will take up the issues of complementarity and the "trigger" mechanism which would initiate court action. It will also consider various procedural matters. The Committee will continue its deliberations until 15 August and reconvene from 1 to 12 December.

The issue of complementarity involves the relationship between the international criminal court and national jurisdictions. The original draft statute, elaborated by the International Law Commission, provided for the proposed International Criminal Court to complement national judicial systems "in cases where such trial procedures may not be available or may be ineffective". Past discussions have included questions involving the court's relation to both the territorial State -- the State in which the crime was committed -- and the custodial State, the State which has the custody of the suspect, and on how to decide the adequacy of the national judicial system involved in each case.

The trigger mechanism issue refers to the question of what, or which actors could initiate or "trigger" court proceedings -- Member States, the United Nations Security Council and/or the Court prosecutor.

Background on International Criminal Court

The idea of a permanent international court to prosecute genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and aggression was first considered at the United Nations in the context of the adoption of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

Further development of the notion was effectively forestalled through differences of opinion for many years. However, in 1992, the General Assembly directed the International Law Commission to elaborate a draft statute for an international criminal court (resolution 47/33). Further public interest was created by the establishment of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia in 1993, and for Rwanda in 1994.

The Commission drafted a 60-article draft statute for the proposed court (document A/49/10), which details the establishment of the court; its relationship to the United Nations; composition and administration; jurisdiction and applicable law; investigation and commencement of prosecution; appeal and review; international cooperation and judicial assistance; and enforcement.

In December 1995, the General Assembly established an ad hoc committee, open to all Member States or members of the specialized agencies, to review the major substantive and administrative issues arising from the Commission's draft statute (resolution 49/53).

The Assembly established the Preparatory Committee the following year and charged it with the task of drafting a text, with a view to preparing a widely acceptable consolidated text of a convention for an international criminal court as a next step towards consideration by a conference of plenipotentiaries (resolution 50/46).

The Assembly also decided that the work of the Preparatory Committee would be based on the International Law Commission's draft statute. The Committee was also asked to take into account the report of the Ad Hoc Committee and the written comments submitted by States to the Secretary- General on the draft statute, as well as contributions from relevant organizations.

The Preparatory Committee has held three sessions at United Nations Headquarters. During the Committee's first session (March-April 1996), discussions focused on which crimes should be included in the draft statute, including on whether or not the crime of aggression would be included within the court's jurisdiction. Deliberations also involved the consideration of provisions relating to serious violations of the laws and customs applicable in armed conflict. There were differing views as to whether that category should include violations committed in non-international armed conflicts.

During the Committee's second session (August 1996), the Preparatory Committee conducted a second reading of various issues raised at the first session and reviewed procedural matters, including the establishment of the court, the court's relationship with the United Nations and the issue of fair trial and rights of the accused. It also reviewed the list of crimes the court would deal with, the relationship between the proposed court and national judicial systems, various trigger mechanisms and the role of the prosecutor. Participants were asked by the Committee Chairman to "forge a bridge" between common law and civil law systems.

The Committee's third session (February 1997) concentrated two working groups on the definition of crimes the proposed court would deal with and on general principles of criminal law and penalties. The Committee recommended that the texts defining genocide and crimes against humanity be included in the draft consolidated text of the proposed court's statute. It also recommended that the texts on war crimes, aggression and terrorism be considered at a future date. (For additional information on these core crimes, see Press Release L/2824 of 21 February 1997.)

The working groups also recommended to the Preparatory Committee the text of a number of articles concerning general principles of criminal law, as a first draft for inclusion in the draft consolidated text of the convention for an international criminal court. That text dealt with the following subject matters: nullum crimen sine lege (no crime without law); non- retroactivity; individual criminal responsibility (personal jurisdiction); irrelevance of official position; individual criminal responsibility and command responsibility; mens rea (mental elements of crime); actus rea (act and/or omission); mistake of fact or of law; age of responsibility; and end of statute of limitations.

At the conclusion of the February session, the Committee recommended that the General Assembly accept Italy as host of a plenipotentiary conference on the creation of the proposed court, to be held in Rome in June 1998.

Officers, Membership

The Chairman of the Preparatory Committee is Adriaan Bos (Netherlands). Its Vice-Chairmen are Cherif Bassiouni (Egypt), Silvia Fernandez de Gurmendi (Argentina) and Marek Madej (Poland). The Rapporteur is Masataka Okano (Japan).

The Preparatory Committee is open to all United Nations Member States, members of the specialized agencies and members of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

* *** *

TO: CICC network
FROM: William R. Pace
T: 1-212-599-1320, F: 1-212-599-1332, email : cicc@igc.org

No Meetings announced or forwarded to us for posting as of 2/21/99

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