ICC matters

[Ivo Skoric]

W Bush really knows how to keep a good company. Dropping 
France, Germany and Russia as allies for Rwanda.
ivo
------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Subject:        	US 'Impunity Campaign' Continues as ICC Opens

Reuters
5 March 2003

US and Rwanda agree on criminal court exemption

Washington, March 5 (Reuters) -- The United States and the Central African state of Rwanda have signed an agreement to exempt each other's citizens from prosecution in the International Criminal Court without the consent of the other.

Today's signing brings to 24 the number of governments that have signed what are known as Article 98 agreements after the relevant part of the treaty setting up the court.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell and Rwandan Foreign Minister Charles Murigande signed the accord at the State Department on Tuesday, the State Department said.

Washington objects to the International Criminal Court on the grounds that it could launch politically motivated prosecutions of US civilian and military leaders.

The United States signed the treaty creating the court under former President Bill Clinton, but it never went to the Senate for ratification and the Bush administration in May decided to renounce any obligation to co-operate. It is seeking Article 98 agreements with as many countries as possible.

The other countries that have signed are Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Djibouti, the Dominican Republic, East Timor, El Salvador, Gambia, Georgia, Honduras, India, Israel, the Marshall Islands, 
Mauritania, Micronesia, Nauru, Nepal, Palau, Romania, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Tuvalu and Uzbekistan.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _

Chicago Sun-Times
March 11, 2003

UN criminal court opens; activists hit U.S. absence

March 11, 2003

By Abdon M. Pallasch
Legal Affairs Reporter

The Hague, Netherlands -- The new International Criminal Court opens here today, with 89 countries 
agreeing to participate and abide by its decisions on "genocide, crimes against humanity, war crime
s and the crime of aggression."

"I think it is an important development of the rule of law," United Nations Secretary-General Kofi 
Annan said.

Conspicuous by its absence will be the Unites States government.

The Bush administration feared regimes unfriendly to the United States would use the court to seek 
criminal charges against U.S. military or former U.S. presidents or other high-ranking officials fo
r policy decisions they made. So it put the brakes on the treaty the Clinton administration had par
ticipated in drafting.

American and European specialists in international law gathered here Monday to honor the 18 judges 
from around the globe who will be sworn in today and to denounce the Bush administration for refusi
ng to participate and for pressuring other countries to sign treaties promising not to turn over U.
S. suspects to the court.

"They want a two-tiered system where a different set of rules applies to the United States because 
they have a superpower status," said Richard Dicker of New York-based Human Rights Watch.

But Dicker predicted the work of the court's judges will win over future U.S. administrations.

In the same stately former Carnegie mansion now known as the UN's "Peace Palace" where the judges m
et Monday, Annan was hosting peace talks between the Greek and Turkish leaders of Cyprus. Annan lik
ewise expressed hope the United States would someday join the court.

"It is a sovereign right of every government to decide whether to sign a treaty or not, and the Uni
ted States has opted not to," Annan said. "I have not given up on those who have not yet ratified t
he treaty."

This city on the Dutch coast near Amsterdam is already home to the United Nations war crimes tribun
al for Yugoslavia, where Slobodan Milosevic has been on trial for alleged war crimes.

The Hague is also home to the UN's International Court of Justice.

The American refusal to participate in the new International Criminal Court is cited by European di
plomats--as often as the threatened war on Iraq--as a main source of the breakdown in trans-Atlanti
c relations.

"This is something nobody in the world understands: Do you [Americans] think that you were chosen b
y God to lead the world?" one European Commission official involved in U.S.-EU relations asked.

"This administration is once again doing harm to the standing and credibility of the United States 
by not participating in this important institution," said DePaul University Law Professor Cherif Ba
ssiouini, who helped draft the plans for the court.

Asked if a U.S. attack on Iraq could be defined as "crime of aggression" by the court, the experts 
responded that "crime of aggression" has not been defined by the court. Pressed further, Antoine Be
rnard of the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights responded, "Certainly some of us
 here would like to make that the definition."

It will be at least a year before the judges iron out their definitions and procedures and begin he
aring cases.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _

http://www.icrc.org/Web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/5KJCY5?OpenDocument&style=custo_final
11-03-2003  Press Release 03/13

ICRC welcomes inaugural session of International Criminal Court

Geneva (ICRC) - Ever since the community of nations recognized that the rights of war victims must 
be better protected under international law, there have been few more significant dates than 11 Mar
ch 2003.

On this day in The Hague, the 18 judges elected by the Assembly of States Parties for terms of up t
o nine years are to be sworn in during the inaugural session of the International Criminal Court (I
CC), an event that should convincingly boost efforts to deprive of the cover of impunity all those 
who commit crimes against humanity, war crimes and acts of genocide. The International Committee of
 the Red Cross (ICRC), an organization that has over the past 140 years consistently been at the fo
refront of the struggle to enforce and broaden protection and assistance for the victims of armed c
onflict, welcomes this event and wishes every success to the ICC and all those who have worked and 
continue to work to uphold increasingly efficient standards of justice.

As the guardian of the Geneva Conventions, the ICRC took an active part in drawing up the ICC's Rom
e Statute, which entered into force on 1 July 2002. The organization's president, Jakob Kellenberge
r, will attend the inaugural session. From an ICRC perspective, the Geneva Conventions and their tw
o Additional Protocols were prime sources of inspiration for the Statute. This fact, along with the
 establishment of the ICC, is incontrovertible proof that international humanitarian law is more th
an ever necessary and relevant. The ICC is the latest and most important development in the field o
f international law. By making individuals criminally responsible for their actions, it should prov
e to be a powerful deterrent. From now on there will be a permanent and independent institution to 
enforce respect for the Geneva Conventions.

The ICC is, however, an international court designed to supplement national courts. Under the princ
iple of complementarity, it may act only when a State is unable or unwilling to exercise its own ju
risdiction. The ICRC, through its Advisory Service on International Humanitarian Law, will continue
 to assist governments with the national implementation of their obligations under humanitarian law
 treaties so that they are better able to prosecute perpetrators in their own domestic courts and u
nder the ICC Statute. To ensure the widest application of the Court's jurisdiction, all States shou
ld ratify the Statute.

Further information:
Kim Gordon-Bates, ICRC Geneva, tel.: ++41 79 217 32 16 

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